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As part of our recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we are reassessing all our priorities to take a systematic, person-centred approach to planning and delivering health and social care services for the people of Scotland.

As we go through a process of realignment, we are taking time to ensure all our strategies are designed around the people using and delivering health and social care services and working together to improve health outcomes. This is even more pertinent for those living with a rare disease.While we expected to publish our Action Plan in the spring, the Rare Disease Action Plan will now be published once this work is complete to ensure maximum impact for the people who need it. This will result in a stronger, interlinked action plan that has a real impact for people with a rare disease.

We will continue to work with Scotland’s Rare Disease Implementation Board and other key partners to progress work that will improve the lives of people in Scotland living with rare diseases.

As stated in the Business Ventilation Fund Guidance published on 23 November 2021, the deadline for works to be completed was 31 March 2022, as the budget for this fund was only available for financial year 2021-22.

The Scottish Government extended the deadline for submitting claims to 15 April 2022 to allow businesses to get works done and provide the paperwork required for claims to be made.

The Scottish Government will evaluate the impact of the Business Ventilation Fund and consider more widely how organisations can be supported to improve ventilation in their premises.

NHS boards are provided with monthly reports on the activity levels of practices providing NHS activity. We have set out through NHS Boards action plans for those practices with lower levels of activity with the intention of seeing substantial increases from them in the immediate future.

The Master Policy is the compulsory professional indemnity insurance arrangement which covers all Scottish solicitors working in private practice, arranged by the Law Society of Scotland it exists to ensure that where someone establishes a valid claim for negligence against a solicitor, that claim will be paid - even if the solicitor is no longer in practice, no longer solvent or cannot be traced.

Prior to making a claim one must establish that a solicitor acted in a negligent way. Many claims are resolved by negotiation. Where negotiations fail, one may wish to raise court proceedings. In respect of a civil claim for negligence, an individual may choose to take this forward using a success fee agreement provided for by the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018. Success fee agreements provide clarity on the amount a client can be asked to pay their solicitor and place a cap on the level of the success fee that a solicitor can recover from a client’s damages, providing for greater consumer protection.

In addition, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission has an oversight function, to monitor and make recommendations on the effectiveness, including improvement, of the Master Policy professional indemnity arrangements to the Law Society of Scotland. The Scottish Government liaised with the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to consult on amendments to the Master policy in December 2020, which would seek, as far as possible, to ensure that where awards of redress are made under the statutory complaints process, the complainer will receive redress in full.

The Scottish Government has made £100,000 available for 2022-23 for tests-of-change to improve care co-ordination for people living with rare diseases.

Our Bridge to a Scottish Genomics Strategy project focused on expanding our genomics capabilities to support the diagnosis and treatment of rare and inherited disease. This was a key programme for government commitment for 2017-18, and £4.2 million was made available to NHS National Services Division over 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. A further extension of the Bridge was agreed in 202-/22 with a further £2.3 million made available.While the work of the Bridge has concluded, we have announced a significant increase in the genomics budget for 2022-23, rising to £6.2 million. This funding will support the sustainability of the successes from the Bridge as well as expanding our genomics capabilities further into cancer.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has made available over £600,000 since 2019-20 to Public Health Scotland for the development of the Congenital Anomalies and Rare Diseases Registration and Information Service for Scotland (CARDRISS). A further £169,000 will be provided for 2022-23. The registry will become operational in this financial year. Discussions are ongoing with Public Health Scotland in expanding the registry’s functionality to support our wider endeavours for rare disease.

While the above sets out discreet funding to support those with a rare disease, many of our wider health priorities will equally contribute and deliver improved care for those living with a rare disease.

Transport Scotland officials and Scottish Ministers have regular engagement with British Transport Police (BTP). These have included meetings with the new Chief Constable BTP UK and the Chief Superintendent D Division BTP Scotland where topical rail issues, such as the topic of ScotRail services being brought under Scottish Government ownership on 1 April 2022, have been discussed.

I personally met with the Chief Constable of BTP UK, Lucy D’Orsi, on 31 March and we discussed this matter along with several other topics.

In 2020-21, we provided £25 million of funding to councils across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning.

The following table shows the number of devices distributed via that funding, as reported by individual local authorities.

Funding for devices was provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. As such, local authorities undertook their own procurement exercises and devices purchased became assets of, and are managed by, individual local authorities. Decisions on their use are taken locally. We do not hold information on how devices are used and monitored.

Enforcement of legislation around the sale and purchase of NVP's is carried out by Local Authorities as part of the ETSEP (Enhanced Tobacco (and NVP) Sales Enforcement Programme) overseen by The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), and funded by the Scottish Government. These activities in relation to this are reported annually to the Scottish Government with figures provided on a national basis.

The following table shows verified sales of NVPs to under 18s, following test purchase failures during trading standards activity over the past five financial years.

The NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning team have completed a Major Service Review of the current Genomics service. The final report has been shared with NHS Board Chief Executives, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, Trade Union representative, Medical and Laboratory Directors for the boards that host the Genomic Laboratories, the document is now available on the (NSS)NSD website at the following link:https://www.nss.nhs.scot/specialist-healthcare/specialist-services/genetic-and-molecular-pathology-laboratories/

All of the recommendations from the report were put to the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group on the 24 February 2022.

The NSD Transformation Team which will become operational in June 2022 will develop an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations from the Review