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There are numerous initiatives currently in operation across the country that enable children to walk, wheel and cycle to and from school, through our Active Travel Delivery Partners (ATDPs).

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel event in April of this year had 360 schools across Scotland take part. The Sustrans' Ibike project sees dedicated officers provide a programme of classroom-based and outdoor learning, aligned to the Curriculumn for Excellence, tailored to the schools needs and reflecting the local area.

Cycling Scotland's Bikeability Scotland Cycling Training Scheme is available to all schools in all 32 Scottish local authorities. This training provides lifelong learning skills from how to balance on a bike to tackling roundabouts and junctions, where awareness of other road users and road position is crucial.

Living Streets coordinates the "WOW" project which encourages school children to walk once a week to school and provides schools, with both online and physical resources to encourage more walking, through an inter school competition. Over 130 schools took part in the WOW event at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

However, it is the responsibility of the local roads authority to ensure that all road users are able to travel safely to their destination. To help deliver this, the Scottish Government is investing record levels of funding for active travel, and as part of our £150 million investment this year, £35 million goes directly to local authorities for Cycling, Walking and Safer Routes projects. Local authorities are also able to bid for further funding through our ATDPs, mainly Sustrans, for infrastructure projects, such as segregated walking, wheeling and cycling paths, including routes to schools .

The University of Strathclyde has been commissioned to undertake critical evaluation of early adopter sites to inform wider roll-out, ensuring learnings from the first three Services are embedded, working towards equitable access across NHS Scotland, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan.

In the meantime, officials are working with Boards to open additional early adopter sites.

Recruitment will be undertaken by the host Board, and will be dependent on their locally agreed pathway and resourcing requirements.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting and growing our nursing and midwifery workforce. That is why student nurses and midwives entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 8.7% in 2022-23, to a total recommended target intake of 4837 nursing and midwifery students.

Universities are continuing their recruitment for programmes commencing in the 2022-23 academic year. Final data on the number of placed applicants on nursing and midwifery programmes commencing in the 2022-23 academic year will not be available until January 2023.

Three Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) – formerly known as Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) – have been opened in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. An interim report on the rollout of RCDC's is expected shortly and are actively considering further rollout of Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services.

All Boards have recruited both medical and non-medical staff to manage the new referral pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms, including navigators who support patients from the point of referral.

Recruitment for clinical services is the responsibility of individual Boards and it is therefore for them to provide specific details.

Childcare providers in the private, third and childminding sectors who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC) receive a sustainable rate from their local authority for the delivery of these hours.

There is no standard payment and local authorities set sustainable rates for providers in their area in-line with the joint Scottish Government and COSLA guidance .

The Scottish Government is committed to collecting data annually on the sustainable rates set by each local authority. This includes information on any variations in the rates paid to children in different age groups.

We published data on sustainable rates for 2021-22 in ‘ Overview of local authority funding and support for early learning and childcare providers’. Data on sustainable rates for 2022-23 will be published in the Autumn.

NHS Boards received notification on the 11 August of their share of the £50 million investment which has been allocated in its entirety to support NHS Health Boards to improve A&E waits through a new National Collaborative for Urgent and Unscheduled Care.

Each board’s share of the £50 million fund is listed below:

Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) – formerly known as Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) – are fast-track diagnostic pathways taking patients from referral to diagnosis, not treatment.

Scotland’s first three RCDS are early adopters to help inform wider roll-out of an optimal model for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer.

All three Services are using a nationally agreed minimum data-set, capturing consistent data from age, gender, symptoms at presentation etc. A sub-section of this data will be published by the three Boards in 2022.

Meanwhile, work is underway with Public Health Scotland to scope and progress national data collection as more sites are expected to be established.

Following the clearing announcement on the 22 August 2022, the ScotWindleasing round has identified 20 offshore wind projects with a potential overall capacity of 27.6GW. Based on the Supply Chain Development Statements (SCDS) submitted with the leasing applications, developers have committed to invest around £1.4bn per project.

Before construction, these projects will go through project development and consenting processes, respond to geographical and technological requirements, and find a route to market. For this reason, it is not possible to have a clear indication at this time of what will be constructed and the combined generating capacity.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (SMP-OWE) assessed a potential generation figure of 10GW and therefore does not comment on additional generation or impacts. The SMP-OWEis subject to an Iterative Plan Review (IPR) process, which allows Scottish Government to review the conclusions of the Plan against new available information. Through the IPR process we will consider the impacts of the new potential generation figure of 27.6GW.

No local authority has submitted a request seeking an extension to the deadline of 1 October for establishing short-term let licensing schemes in their area. Officials remain in regular dialogue with local authorities in the lead up to schemes opening.

Individual Placement and Support assists people requiring more intensive support to enter and sustain employment. The Independent review has considered the current delivery landscape and outcomes achieved by this specialist employment support programme, and made recommendations to build on best practice as well as identifying areas for further improvement. The Scottish Government intends to publish the report of the Independent review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) before the end of 2022.