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Contract negotiations with Dr Veronikis are a matter for NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and, are subject to commercial confidentiality. NSS met with Dr Veronikis most recently on 21 June and the Government hopes that negotiations will be positively concluded imminently.

Scotland’s Zero Emissions Mobility Industry Advisory Group have today published their report on the growth of this important sector for Scotland.

Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (ZEM IAG) was established in 2019 to bring together industry stakeholders to advise on shaping a collective approach to the development of the zero emission mobility sector.

The purpose of the group was to explore and advise on the strategic interventions, collaborations and investments required to substantially grow Scotland’s automotive sector, with emphasis on sustainable, zero (CO2) emission technologies and business models.

The IAG set a vision in 2019 for Scotland to become:

• a global player in supply chains for zero emission mobility for heavier and niche vehicles
• an international centre of expertise in energy-transport system integration
• a global destination for innovation in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

The report is informed by research carried out by Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise on key strengths and opportunities in zero emission mobility in Scotland as well as supporting studies by consultants KPMG commissioned for the group.

The report sets out the group’s vision for a decarbonised sector under 8 key themes:

• Innovation ecosystem development
• Skills
• Inward investment and capital investment
• Trade and export
• Public procurement for innovation
• Supply chain opportunities
• Collaboration
• Infrastructure

The report also recommends some key actions required to progress towards this vision.

One of these recommendations is that an innovation fund should be considered to provide support for innovators to scale up their manufacturing capability in Scotland and bring the development and testing of new technologies to Scotland, with a particular focus on batteries, fuel cells and zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

Today the Scottish Government is launching the Zero Emission Mobility Fund. This will provide £28 million across the next four years to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of heavy duty zero emission vehicles.

The Zero Emission Mobility Innovation Fund, administered through Scottish Enterprise, links to other national funding programmes for manufacturing and supports Scotland’s Mission Zero for transport.

The new Fund has been developed in consultation with industry leaders through Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group. This new funding approach responds to their call for innovative funding models to drive net zero transformation across Scotland’s heavy duty vehicle supply chains.

Since the launch of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme around 390,000 National Entitlement Cards (NEC) have been issued to young people across Scotland. The scheme aims to embed sustainable travel behaviours, open social, education, employment and leisure opportunities and reduce household outgoings to aid young people and their families, particularly those living in poverty.

71% (approx. 277,000) of cards have been used at least once to access free bus travel. In comparison to 56% of older and disabled cardholders over the same period, more young cardholders are choosing to use free bus when they travel.
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62% (approx. 170,000) NECs have been used more than 10 times, and 16% (approx. 61,000) of NECs have been used to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions within at least one week.

149 NECs have been used by young people to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions every week since the scheme launched.

The figures have been produced using the data on number of journeys per National Entitlement Card and come from the secure ITSO messages (alerts from ticket machines when National Entitlement Cards are scanned) that come into Transport Scotland’s reimbursement system, which are used to pay operators.

Scottish Government Strategies are published and can be found at Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Information about strategies produced by local authorities is not held by Scottish Government.

Over the last six months, a Short Life Working Group has been helping the Scottish Government to develop draft principles to underpin a framework (originally defined as a Model) for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution, and encourages better access to support for those involved in prostitution. This work is being supported by research being progressed on International Comparisons and Lived Experience. Over the summer period we will undertake further targeted stakeholder engagement on the draft, before looking to publish.

Since the integration of health and social care, Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for the planning and delivery of adaptations using budget created by delegation. They are also responsible for reviewing and developing services to improve outcomes for people who require adaptations.

We also provide an additional £11m (2022-23) to registered social landlords to provide adaptations for their tenants.

However, we know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally. As set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy, we are taking forward a review of the current housing adaptations system to consider how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations. As part of this we intend to engage with COSLA to ensure we continue to spread good practice on waiting times, across the local authorities.

The vast majority of funding from the Scottish Government is provided by means of a block grant to local authorities. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them.

The 2022-23 Local Government Finance Settlement of almost £12.7 billion provides local government with a cash increase of over £1 billion or 9.2 per cent which is the equivalent of a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent.

It is for each individual local authority to decide how best to allocate this money, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including towards home adaptations for disabled people.

We are working alongside local authorities and partners to help displaced people from Ukraine integrate into communities and support them to settle here. Local authority caseworkers are in place to enable access to services including healthcare, education, employment and benefits advice.

Our New Scots strategy provides a clear framework for integration and it assists partners to make the best use of resources and expertise by promoting partnership approaches, joined-up working and early intervention.

We have also provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service, funding to JustRight Scotland to enable them to provide free and confidential legal advice to Ukrainians seeking safety in Scotland and providing a funding uplift for Edinburgh Third Sector Interface organisations; EVOC and Volunteer Edinburgh, to ensure the continued provision of volunteers to give a warm Scots welcome to tired and often traumatised people as soon as they arrive in Scotland.

Under this government (since 2007), the number of Psychiatric Consultants across all Specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 21.6% to 548.8 whole time equivalent posts as of March 2022.

In 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Scottish Government has invested in increasing the number of trainee places on Core and Specialist Psychiatry training programmes. The number of posts advertised for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry specialist training increased from 6 in 2020 to 10 in 2022.

The Scottish Government are working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Royal College of Psychiatry to better understand the challenges associated with recruitment and retention in Psychiatry and encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist. This work includes the ‘Choose Psychiatry’ campaign, undergraduate taster sessions, and improved psychiatric placements at Foundation level.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training

Recruitment information regarding this trainee group has been recorded since 2013. The following figures refer to successfully recruited candidates and represent the cohort trained each year.

Recruitment to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Specialist Training - Year 4)

The Scottish Government has prepared a draft Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

To ensure that the draft Code is fair and workable for all users we will seek views from consumer facing bodies and land owning land maintenance companies before we progress to publication.

Plans for engaging are underway.