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Weekly management information published as part of the Coronavirus (Covid-19): Trends in Daily Data publication ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-trends-in-daily-data/ ) shows that delays first exceeded pre-pandemic levels (1,640 delays in January 2020) on 19 January 2020, with 1,664 delays recorded. Delays remained above 1,640 for the next two weeks before reducing again to pre-pandemic levels between 9 February and 23 March.

The whole health and social care system is under severe pressure and staff continue to work tirelessly to provide safe care. However, we continue to see extreme pressures across the whole health and social care system, with more people coming through hospitals who need high levels of care and support to go home, alongside high levels of unmet need in the community.

To address this significant additional funding has been allocated to support social care, including £62m to enhance care at home capacity; £48m to increase the hourly rate of pay; £40m to provide interim care arrangements; and £20m to enhance multi-disciplinary teams. Funding is also being used to rapidly scale up Hospital at Home services, which aim to reduce acute admissions and support timely discharge.

As with all our major trunk road projects, Transport Scotland carried out a rigorous assessment process to establish the preferred line for the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme. This three-stage assessment process is based on the standards and good practice set by the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), and covers environmental, engineering, traffic and economic considerations. Value for Money Reviews were carried out during each stage of the DMRB assessment process and I can confirm that all route options considered for the scheme were subject to this process. This has helped to ensure that scheme objectives are achieved while optimising value for money in terms of the potential costs, benefits, and risks. Further details on each stage in the assessment process is available from the project pages on the Transport Scotland website at https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects/a82-tarbet-to-inverarnan/project-details/ .

The Scottish Government remains committed to an infrastructure solution to address the A83 Rest and Be Thankful landslip risks.

Work continues on the design of the long term options along with data gathering. The Government recently awarded a £1.8 million ground investigation works contract to best inform the design process and are working towards announcing a preferred route for a long term solution in 2023.

At the same time work is also progressing on the medium term resilient route and with formal proposals scheduled for late 2022.

In terms of short term measures since August 2020, Engineers have installed various landslide mitigation measures including drainage improvements, debris fences, a catch pit and material barriers. The mitigation has been augmented by the construction of a 175m long, 6m high debris bund, which further protects the Old Military Road. As a result of the major landslides in August and September 2020, and to mitigate a similar event from recurring, a further catch pit is being formed to be completed in summer 2022.

The catch pits and fences are designed to ‘capture’ debris material from a landslip and prevent it from reaching the road. To reduce disruption while keeping all road users and roadworkers safe, temporary traffic light system has replaced the convoy operations on the A83 and now remain in operation. A convoy system is only used, where ground readings or heavy rain forecasts would determine such requirement.

The protection afforded by these measures has meant that the A83 and the Old Military Road local diversion have been able to remain in operation for all but eight occasions during 2021 and 2022 to date, meaning traffic did not have to use the longer diversion via Inveraray and Crianlarich.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08101 on 11 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

Decisions about the rates for reimbursement of travel costs for family members who wish to visit The State Hospital are for The State Hospitals Board for Scotland. The current policy was implemented in 2021 and is due to be reviewed in 2024, however it can be refreshed prior to that.

The ‘Supporting Visitor Travel Policy and Protocol’ includes policy on the partial reimbursement of overnight visit costs.

As postgraduate medical students do not form part of the controlled medical school intake the Scottish Government is unable to respond.

Universities are independent, autonomous institutions responsible for their own selection procedures and offers, with intake numbers and the breakdown of these a decision for each individual medical schools.

Student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 4536 students. This will be the 10 th successive increase in recommended student numbers, with the intake doubling over the last decade. We anticipate most of these students will be eligible for the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary.

Every year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust nursing student intake planning process to determine the target number of pre-registration students to which Scottish universities should recruit to in the following academic year to meet estimated future nursing workforce demands.

The Programme for Government (PfG) 2021 commits to expanding medical school places by at least 100 per annum over this lifetime of this Parliament and doubling the number of widening access places. The medical undergraduate intake for 2022-23 has been set at 1317, of which it is anticipated that 1,239 students will be Scots/UK/ROI or Gibraltar and 78 will be international including EU. This intake represents an increase of 200 places above the 2021/22 intake target of 1,117 thereby delivering the first two tranches of the PfG commitment.

The Scottish Government is committed to growing the number of Scottish domiciled students studying medicine at Scottish universities as a policy priority through widening access and other targeted interventions. Places reserved for widening access students are being increased by 30 (bringing the total to 90) and pre-medical entry places are being increased by 20 (bringing the total to 70 places) in 2022-23.

Intake targets for 2023-24 and 2024-25 have not yet been set but will be considered in light of the PfG commitment.

Attrition rates vary each year across all degree programmes, it is therefore not possible to predict attrition rates for future cohorts. However, we have observed that course completion rates for pre-registration nursing programmes have been steadily improving year-on-year, and we anticipate that this trend will continue.

Prestwick Airport Station is owned by Prestwick Airport therefore it is not operated by ScotRail albeit passenger services do call there. Therefore, while Ministers and aviation officials routinely engage with representatives of Glasgow Prestwick Airport, discussions did not centre on ScotRail coming into public sector control at any point, including the period December 2019 and March 2022.

During this timeframe there was, however, appropriate consideration by Transport Scotland and ScotRail in the context of the transition from Abellio ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Ltd.