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The need for Low Emission Zones (LEZs) is for individual local authorities to consider based on specific air quality parameters within their respective areas. To date no LEZ proposals have been submitted for Ministerial approval by Highland Council.

Any local authority considering the introduction of a LEZ would undertake an assessment in accordance with the National Low Emission Framework (NLEF).

Highland Council carried out an NLEF assessment in 2020 and concluded that existing measures contained within their Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP), along with other local measures, would be sufficient to improve air quality within Inverness.

Decisions regarding prosecutions remain a matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The 2011 census had a response rate of approximately 94%. Of the 6% of non-responding households, approximately 1,800 cases were put forward for non-compliance action which resulted in 900 completed questionnaires being returned. Following Crown Office advice, five cases were subsequently reported to the Procurator Fiscal and two cases resulted in prosecution.

The Scottish Government continue to task Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) to search the second hand tonnage market for appropriate vessels to support and enhance connections on Scotland’s ferries network.

CMAL have investigated some 70 vessels since 1 December 2021 of which only 1 has been deemed suitable for purchase. The vessel (MV Loch Frisa) was bought, upgraded and entered service on the Craignure-Oban service in June 2022.

As the Census Coverage Survey (CCS) is ongoing, the predicted costs are based on the budget assigned to the CCS. Across the lifecycle of the Census Programme it was estimated that a budget of £3.1m would be required to deliver the CCS.

The CCS, alongside high quality administrative data and innovative statistical methods, will build on the census returns to deliver high quality Census Outputs. National Records of Scotland is continuing to take the action necessary to deliver the CCS phase of Scotland's Census Programme.

In financial year 2021-22, £12m was allocated to support the wellbeing of people working in health and social care of which £11,515,152 was spent.

The increasing options for flexible working available through less than full-time training (LTFT), has had a positive impact on the demographics of the medical profession.

Women’s participation in medicine is currently at a good level. There are proportionately more women than men graduating from Scottish medical schools. The requirement for Scottish trainee doctors (junior doctors) to provide gender details is not mandatory, but of the 4,744 of 6,167 current trainees in medical programmes who have disclosed this information, 2,787 are women against a figure of 1,957 for men. Across the UK, women make up just under 48% of all doctors. However, the number of licenced women doctors has been increasing at a higher rate than doctors who are men, year-on-year.

There are currently 53 trainees in cardiology programmes, of the 37 who have provided information on gender, 11 are women, against a figure of 26 for men. Historically, cardiology has been dominated by doctors who are men, an issue that is not specific to Scotland. In recognition of the gender disparity, the Cardiology Specialty Training Board is taking steps to address the issue. This includes a review of their membership and that of the Speciality Training Committee memberships across the regions, in terms of both gender and ethnicity.

The Scottish Ambulance Service advise that the average call length to arrange transport for scheduled care in June 2022 was 261 seconds. This is the length of time between the call being answered by the call handler and the call ending.

The cost of the call is not held centrally, and varies between the large numbers of telephony services and the tariffs they offer.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) receives monthly data from most NHS Boards on the number of patients covered by the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard seen within each specialty, including audiology. Due to the aggregate nature of this data collection, the requested detail on average length of wait and age are not available.

However, the following table shows the total number of patients seen and the number that waited over 18 weeks to be seen for audiology services across NHS Scotland, from January 2014 to December 2021 – the latest complete calendar year. This includes all patients reported as seen on the 18-week Referral to Treatment (RTT) pathway for audiology.

Total patients seen and number of patients that waited over 18 weeks, January 2014 – December 2021, NHS Scotland, Audiology

There are no plans to review home educated pupils' entitlement to free school meals at present. Free school meals are not normally provided for children and young people whose parents have chosen to home educate them, as the local authority is not responsible for providing their education. Free school meals would only be provided to children and young people who are not receiving their education at a local authority run school if they had entered into an agreement to do so through their local authority. The Scottish Government is not normally made aware of these arrangements.

Local authorities have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances if they do not meet the regular eligibility criteria. We would urge any families who are home educating their children and experiencing financial hardship to contact their local authority to enquire about what alternative forms of assistance might be available to them.

Families can also access Money Talk Team, a free service provided by Citizen’s Advice on behalf of the Scottish Government that helps to ensure that families are receiving all available benefits and are not paying more than is required for services. More information about this service can be found online at https://moneytalkteam.org.uk/ or by calling their free phone helpline on 0800 085 7145.

There are no current SIGN guidelines for myeloma.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network’s (SIGN) list of current guidelines, guidelines under development and archived guidelines that have been, or are being developed or updated by SIGN is available at www.sign.ac.uk.

Where there is no SIGN guideline in place, NHS Boards and Integration Authorities may choose to consider other relevant guidelines such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines in the planning and delivery of services.