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In October 2021, I was delighted to launch the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults, supported by a £15 million investment for 2021-22. This funding has now been successfully distributed to a wide range of grassroots, community based projects across Scotland. A further £15 million was announced this month for a second year of the Fund in 2022-23.

£15 million in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 is a significant investment in grassroots, community mental health and wellbeing support. To date, almost 2000 awards have been made to projects, focused on a range of at risk groups including older people and those facing social isolation, people with long-term health conditions and people facing socio-economic disadvantage. This is making a real difference to mental health and wellbeing in many communities.

To aid with pandemic recovery and respond to the high demand for community projects in 2021-22, an additional £6 million was provided in February, bringing total funding for 2021-22 to £21 million. We will continue to build on the success of this work in Year 2, and ensure that the sizeable additional £15 million investment makes a valuable impact on mental health and wellbeing within communities across Scotland.

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) have recently stated that their clinical physiology degree programme will not continue beyond the current cohort which commenced in September 2021 and as such Scottish Government are actively working with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to review the ongoing provision and access to a clinical physiology degree for Scottish Students.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Principals' salaries are for individual colleges to determine.

Whilst Public Sector Pay Policy does not apply directly to colleges, the SFC’s Financial Memorandum states that colleges must have regard to it.

We expect colleges and their boards to be mindful of Public Sector Pay Policy and demonstrate restraint when determining senior staff salaries.

Pay arrangements for senior staff must ensure value for money, affordability and sustainability in the longer term.

Scottish Government maintains good relations with the angling community through its interaction with Angling Scotland. This helps in ensuring that any issues and opportunities for recreational sea angling in Scotland are brought to our attention and can be appropriately considered alongside other priorities.

Between 2016 and 2021 the Scottish Government supported the UK-wide Sea Angling Diary, which saw anglers as ‘volunteer diarists’ contributing data on recreational catches. Scottish Government, taking into account limited feedback from stakeholders, considered that the Scottish data collection was not providing good value for taxpayers’ money due to the limitations of the output, and will no longer contribute to the UK survey.

Instead, it will review its approach to sea angling data collection and examine other means by which they can be obtained in the future. Data specifically tailored towards the Scottish situation can then be made available to inform measures to promote sea angling, whilst monitoring any impacts on commercial fish stocks.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08555 on 26 May 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 provided support for the acquisition of zero emission buses, and the associated charging infrastructure, through the Scottish Ultra Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS) and its successor, the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB). SULEBS provided 75% of the cost of infrastructure, and ScotZEB Phase 1 offered up to 75% of the cost of battery-electric infrastructure or 85% of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

In total to date, through SULEBS and ScotZEB, the Scottish Government has awarded £30.4 million to bus operators to upgrade depots with the necessary infrastructure for zero emission buses.

The following table represents a breakdown of the current ScotRail rolling stock by class of train, year built and approximate age. There is no single lifespan for a train: any decision to replace a train fleet is based on multiple evaluation criteria. While there are no expiry dates attached to the current train fleet, the Rail Passenger Services Decarbonisation Action Plan commits to all diesel trains (both multiple unit types and High Speed Trains (HSTs)) being replaced by 2035.

Whilst Scottish Ministers set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, responsibility for service delivery rests locally with Health Boards. Scottish Ministers expect satisfactory specialist and condition-specific support and care to be delivered for the benefit of all patients.

The requisite education and training to support people with neurological conditions, including MS, is provided to NHS Western Isles specialist nursing staff, in collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Neurology Service.

The Board's Lead Nurse for Specialist Nursing provides leadership and management to its neurology service, to ensure that clinical standards are met and the caseload is effectively managed.

To support the delivery of the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to support quality assurance of the implementation of the HIS General Standards for neurological care. Condition-specific third sector organisations will be an integral part of this evaluation and will help us understand how these standards are being implemented for people across Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that some people have found the application process for their National Entitlement Card complex. We therefore continue to work closely with the Improvement Service, which is ultimately responsible for the National Entitlement Card, to make further improvements to this process. Once these improvements have been implemented, we aim promote the scheme with a national marketing campaign.

In the meantime, we have undertaken extensive communications activities to increase awareness of the scheme; including sharing our robust communications toolkit with over 300 organisations who directly engage with young people and their families, and launching freebus.scot - providing simplified information regarding the application process and additional resources to promote the scheme.

My officials in Transport Scotland have been working with bus operators to monitor the impact on service levels and changes in vacancy levels. Officials are also in regular contact with the Department for Transport, DVLA and DVSA regarding issues about delays to licence applications and driver testing, which have affected recruitment and training of potential drivers.

In addition, Transport Scotland officials have convened a short-life group with operator reps, Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), COSLA, Skills Development Scotland, DWP and Scottish Government employment and skills officials to seek and facilitate solutions to workforce issues through the Labour and Skills Shortages Action Plan, as well as connecting Local Employability Partnerships with bus operators (through the Confederation of Passenger Transport) who are aware of opportunities in their areas.