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The following table shows the number of valid card holders in the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of close of business 1 August 2022 in the Perth and Kinross and Fife local authorities. This information is based on live data as of 1 August 2022 and will exclude those who have turned 22 or exited the scheme since its launch.

This information was supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care attends regular meetings with his counterparts in the UK and other Devolved Administrations to ensure that the Scottish Government is represented in relation to public health incidents which require a coordinated 4 Nations response.

Additionally, Public Health Scotland (PHS) are leading on the response in Scotland and are working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Public Health Wales and Northern Ireland HSC Health Protection Agency to ensure a coordinated response to monkeypox in the UK. Where appropriate, Scottish Government officials are also represented on 4 nations groups established to support these coordination efforts.

In 2021 Play Scotland published its progress review of Scotland’s Play Strategy which identified eight broad recommendations for next steps on play in Scotland, including that government and others should “maintain a focus on playful learning and play in schools”. Play Scotland’s progress review is available at: https://www.playscotland.org/resources/progress-review-of-scotlands-play-strategy-2021/.

In 2020 the Scottish Government and Education Scotland published ‘Realising the Ambition: Being Me – Practice Guidance for Early Years in Scotland’. This national guidance for staff working with children and families from pre-birth until the end of Primary 1 and beyond, draws on research, evidence and theory and includes guidance on play pedagogy across the early level of Curriculum for Excellence. On 27 July 2022, Education Scotland launched an updated and strengthened version of the Early Level Play Pedagogy Toolkit, available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/early-level-play-pedagogy-toolkit/.

Individual school inspection reports consider play pedagogy alongside the variety of early level pedagogical approaches adopted by schools. They report on outcomes for learners and make reference to the quality of children’s experiences.

The costs of temporary accommodation in hotels for displaced people from Ukraine are split into a number of components. There is a fixed rate per room, this does not vary based on occupancy. However, the cost of food and beverage will vary based on the number of guests in each room. Laundry and other incidentals can be charged per person or per occupancy, dependent on the hotel operator.

The Scottish Government is aware that food producers and retailers, as well as many other businesses, are struggling under the current trading conditions that are arising from the effects of Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine and the increasing costs of doing business more generally. That is why we are working closely with industry to mitigate these challenges.

We are taking a range of actions, within a limited budget and the restrictions of devolution, to help those facing the combined impact of higher energy bills and interest rate rises. This includes almost £3 billion in this financial year that will help households facing the increased cost of living, providing services and financial support not available elsewhere in the UK. This is helping to reduce everyday costs, increase incomes and is expected to indirectly support communities and local businesses.

In conversations with business the specific support they need most falls within the reserved responsibilities of the UK Government. Among those measures businesses are seeking help to address are energy price caps, VAT reduction on business energy bills, expansion of shortage occupation lists, support in handling business debt and pausing the National Insurance increase. I have written to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to urge the UK Government to take action on these matters.

We continue to urge UK Ministers to use all the powers and fiscal headroom at their disposal to address the cost of living and business crisis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10083 on16 August 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is modifying homelessness legislation in September 2022 to suspend the power of Scottish local authorities to refer a person who is homeless or threatened with homelessness to another local authority in Scotland on the grounds of their local connection. This will not affect processes in place related to social housing. This change was recommended by the independent Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group in 2018 and will give people in housing crisis more choice about where they live and access to the support they need.

Homelessness stakeholders support the principle of the suspension of local connection referrals. Some concerns have been raised by those local authorities with the highest volume of homelessness presentations. As the timing of the change was the primary concern, the Scottish Government delayed amending the legislation on three occasions, most recently in March 2022 due to the potential impact on homelessness services of the Ukrainian resettlement scheme.

The Scottish Government has put in place a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to measure any impact on local authorities’ homelessness and support services. The Ministerial Statement on Local Connection, published in March 2021, allows for appropriate action to be taken should the capacity of a local authority to meet its homelessness and housing duties be adversely affected by the legislative change.

The Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers and Scottish Women’s Aid have raised concerns about people who have restrictions on their movement, for example, people subject to multi-agency public protection agency (MAPPA) arrangements and convicted perpetrators of domestic abuse. The change to local connection legislation will not override existing protocols to manage these matters.

Any other concerns will be addressed as they arise through regular engagement with stakeholders. Appropriate mitigations and support will be put in place where there is evidence that this is needed.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to invest in NHS dentistry in rural areas, which is why we have updated the Recruitment and Retention Allowance to reflect the particular challenges in attracting dentists to work in more remote areas.

Dentists, who meet all the requirements and are providing GDS in a Classification 1 area, will receive:

• £25,000 paid over two years, at £12,500 per annum, for dentists in sub-part A of the first part of a dental list;
• £12,500 paid over one year for dentists undertaking VT.

Dentists, who meet all the requirements and are providing GDS in a Classification 2 area, will receive:

• £15,000 paid over two years, at £7,500 per annum, for dentists in sub-part A of the first part of a dental list;
• £7,500 paid over one year for dentists undertaking VT.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with COSLA to appropriately direct the deployment of Scotland’s National Matching Services.

The teams are currently active in supporting Edinburgh, West Lothian and more recently Renfrewshire.

Matching activity has increased with a team deployed on board the M/S Victoria I passenger ship in Leith, with further plans in place to deploy support in Aberdeen later this week.

Teams will continue to work in partnership with our local authority partners to consider how best we can respond to areas where there is a need for increased matching activity; including where there is a need to prioritise matching activity in hotels where temporary accommodation arrangements are coming to an end.

The percentage of the population registered with a NHS dentist in Scotland is broken down by NHS Board rather than council area and is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). As of September 2021, the percentage of patients who are not registered with a NHS dentist is as follows:-

Ayrshire and Arran

• 15.3% of children
• 1% of adults

Borders

• 14.6% of children
• 15.7% of adults

Dumfries and Galloway

• 13.7% of children
• 8.5% of adults

Lanarkshire

• 13.2% of children
• 0% of adults

Lothian

• 16.1% of children
• 7.9% of adults