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We recognise the importance of increasing knowledge to ensure that adequate treatment and care is provided for people with neurological conditions.

Over 5 years of implementing the Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action 2020-25 we will allocate £4.5 million in total to improve the care of people with neurological conditions. To date, £2.2 million funding has been awarded to 37 innovative projects across the statutory and third sectors, which seek to improve neurological care and support services. A significant number of these have involved providing support and training to healthcare professionals.

Activity delivered directly by Scottish Government includes a jointly-organised Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP) webinar with Healthcare Improvement Scotland in August 2021 on how the principles of good ACP can be adapted for neurological conditions. The webinar was attended by over 250 individuals, the majority clinical staff, including nurses, allied healthcare professionals and healthcare support workers.

We established a Redesign Project Group in January 2021, as a subgroup of the Scottish Government’s National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions. The group developed and published guidance for healthcare professionals working in neurology on the appropriate use of video, telephone and face to face outpatient appointments. This was accompanied by a webinar for healthcare professionals.

Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard has provided full refund guarantees for the two new Islay vessels and these have been lodged with CMAL’s nominated bank. The refund guarantees cover the full amount payable prior to the delivery of each vessel at which point CMAL pay the final 20% and take possession of the vessel. The Contract has defined delivery dates set for both vessels in November 2024 and February 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with respiratory conditions, including asthma, receives the best possible care and treatment to enable them to live longer, healthier, and independent lives.

In March last year we published the first Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland, that sets out our priorities and commitments for driving improvement in prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support for people living with respiratory conditions such as asthma. One of the priorities for year one of the Plan is improving access to meaningful respiratory data. This will enable us to understand where people’s needs are not being met and inform service improvements, allowing us to better explore any areas of concern.

Asthma + Lung UK were involved in the development of the Plan and are members of our national advisory committee, the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee, that has been established to oversee the Plan implementation. We are working closely with them and other key stakeholders, including clinicians and our newly formed Lived Experience Network, to develop an implementation programme.

Women’s health is a key priority for this government. Our Women’s Health Plan, published in August 2021, underpins actions to address health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, to improve access to health care for women across their life course and to reduce inequalities in health outcomes for girls and women.

The Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network published in January provides the guiding vision on how Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network will continue to grow across Scotland in a fair and inclusive way.

The Scottish Government’s £60m Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, that aims to leverage at least half of this funding from private sector sources over the next 4 years, will target investment in growing the public charging network across all of Scotland in areas where commercial investment on its own is unviable. This year, Scottish Government funding has already been provided or is being made available to all of Scotland’s local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and expansion plans including the Ayrshire Councils as well as Dumfries and Galloway.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08462 on 23 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 Heat in Buildings Strategy (7 October 2021), committed to introducing primary legislation in the current session of the Scottish Parliament that would set a regulatory framework for heat and energy efficiency, as a key action to meeting Scotland’s statutory climate change targets.

This strategy proposes to introduce minimum energy efficiency standards for private rented, owner-occupied and social housing. Regulations are proposed to be introduced that will require all properties to meet a minimum standard equivalent to EPC C by 2033.

Subject to consultation, the Scottish Government is proposing that compliance with the standard may be required at a variety of trigger points, including following the completion of a sale and after the change of a tenancy (for private rented sector properties), where installation of energy efficiency measures is technically-feasible and cost-effective.

The Scottish Government will consult publicly on these proposals within the coming year.

Buildings which are the subject of a conversion, as defined under building regulations, are already required to meet current building standards, to the extent this is reasonably practicable.

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is responsible for the recording of data relating to children and young people in the Children’s Hearings System. Official Statistics, published annually, are available on the SCRA website https://www.scra.gov.uk/ , and include the number of children referred to SCRA each year, and the number of children on a compulsory supervision order.

This information regarding nursing roles is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government hold data on the number of journeys where children and young people are securely transported for the duration of a custodial sentence. Handcuffs are used in all journeys due to the type of vehicle used. The total number of journeys in the current contract period is:

Duties relating to secure transport lie principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information is not held centrally on the use of handcuffs and restraint being applied to care-experienced children whilst being securely transported.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey to provide secure transport for children convicted on indictment and given a custodial sentence. for providing this transportation.

GEOAmey must provide the Scottish Government with details of when restraint is used. No incidents of restraint have been recorded during the current contract.

GEOAmey must ensure that the child or young person being transported, staff and the general public are protected by robust arrangements throughout each journey, including the prevention of escape. Multi-purpose vehicles are used to transport children and young people, rather than prison vans used to transport adult prisoners. Because of this, handcuffs are used for each journey.

Details of each journey, any risks to be taken into consideration by GEOAmey and any subsequent incidents are held on the Scottish Government’s Parole Case Management System.