The annual local government settlement will continue to be distributed in full using the needs based formula, which is discussed and agreed each year with COSLA on behalf of all their local authority members. The Scottish Government is always open to any suggestions on how to make the formula fairer, however any such requests must, in the first instance, come from COSLA.

The Scottish Government is providing almost £3 billion in this financial year to help families and households face the increased cost of living. We continue to do everything we can within our limited powers to support those worst affected by the Cost Crisis.

This includes tripling the Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30 million this year, which supports anyone who is at risk of self-disconnection or self-rationing their energy use, regardless of which home they live in or fuel type they use. The Fuel Insecurity Fund continues to be a vital lifeline for many struggling households.

The Scottish Government is also taking action to support longer term ambitions for heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households. This will continue to be delivered through a package of support via long-standing programmes that have already supported over 150,000 households in or at risk of fuel poverty.

With subsidised support under the Energy Price Guarantee ending in July, the UK Government now has the means and opportunity to provide targeted support for those that need it the most. As the UK government holds the necessary levers, the Scottish Government has consistently called for the provision of meaningful, targeted support to those who need it most – which is why we support the call for the introduction of a social tariff to help the most vulnerable in our society.

The Scottish Government has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Danish Government to promote collaboration on zero emissions heat, heat networks and energy efficiency, plus onshore and offshore wind energy and hydrogen economy.

In September 2023, I led a trade delegation of Scottish companies to Denmark to promote the Scottish renewables sector, exchange best practice, and develop key stakeholder relationships.

During meetings with the Danish Energy Agency and the Danish Parliament’s Climate, Energy and Supply Committee the onus on developers to provide meaningful community support, engagement, and benefit was discussed. In meetings with industry, this was further raised, with me impressing the importance of developers needing to develop proposals that deliver lasting tangible benefit to local communities when proposing new projects.

I was interested to hear about the work taking place in Denmark on cooperative and community ownership. Scottish Government officials are working with Danish Government officials to share lessons and better understand the Danish model, to inform Scottish Government thinking.

Our recently published Cash-First Plan recognises the role of the community food sector, including pantries, in helping people to access cash and wider support in a crisis to reduce the need for emergency food parcels.

That is why we are providing The Scottish Pantry Network with £16,000 in 2023-24 to support the development and evaluation of cash-first models to tackle food insecurity within the context of pantry-type organisations. This funding will support them to work with their membership of around 20 pantry initiatives to increase access to cash-first support alongside access to dignified food services, and to develop learning and resources that can be shared with pantries beyond their network.

Pantries and the wider community food sector can also contribute to Scotland being a Good Food Nation by promoting healthier diets, increasing access to local and sustainably sourced foods and supporting our climate ambitions.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to provide financial support for homes to use Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil for heat. However, we already offer a comprehensive support package for domestic heat and energy efficiency measures through our Home Energy Scotland service.

As we deliver our Heat in Buildings programme our delivery programmes and support mechanisms will support the phase out of fossil fuel heating systems towards zero emissions heating systems in existing buildings, in tandem with achieving a good standard of energy efficiency across all buildings, in line with our strategic priorities.

In line with the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change, we agree that bioenergy – such as biomass, bio-heating oil and bio-propane - should only be used in those applications where its carbon reduction impact is maximised, where alternative options are not available, and where it comes from sustainable sources. We recognise that, for a small number of homes, bioenergy might offer the only feasible way to reduce emissions from heating to displacing fossil fuels, especially where electric heating or heat pumps are unsuitable. We will therefore consider how such homes may be dealt with under any future regulatory system.

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering Anne’s Law within the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill (NCS) to further support the rights of people living in adult care homes to connect with their loved ones.

At Stage 1 of the NCS Bill, evidence was heard from seven committees and many individuals and representatives on a wide range of topics. The extension to Stage 1 has allowed the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government the necessary time to consider all of the evidence to best inform the development of the NCS Bill including Anne’s Law. During this time we have continued to work with care home providers, relatives and other stakeholders to develop the detail of Anne’s Law and prepare for its implementation.

Meantime, the Scottish Government has already utilised existing powers to adopt the core foundations of Anne’s Law through the development of two new Heath and Social Care Standards introduced in April 2022.

The new Standards establish that people living in care homes can expect to see someone who is important to them, even during an infectious outbreak and be able to name a person or persons who can directly participate in meeting their care needs. The Care Inspectorate now refer to these Standards when registering, inspecting and supporting care homes.

Furthermore, Public Health Scotland’s COVID guidance supports visiting during an infectious outbreak situation. Three named visitors can visit a resident, one per day, in the event of an outbreak, and essential visiting for end-of-life care and distress should always be supported, regardless of the circumstances.

Taken together, these measures have resulted in over 99% of care homes in Scotland reporting that they are supporting indoor visiting (in week ending 17 July 2023, COVID-19 in Adult Care Homes in Scotland , Public Health Scotland). The Scottish Government will continue to work with all parties to ensure that people living in care homes are supported to connect with their loved ones.

The present state of the pandemic has been transformed by science, moving away from population level restrictions to strong programmes of vaccination and therapeutics.

As part of our enhanced surveillance systems, we continue to monitor, assess and be ready to respond to COVID-19 and other health threats. Any response including change to guidance on use of face coverings or face masks will be driven by the data and evidence gathered as well as expert advice as illustrated in the answer to question S6W-18103 on 31 May 2023 from Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour.

A risk-based approach to face coverings and face masks is in place across all settings with respect for those who may be unable to or wish to wear a face covering.

There are currently no general Covid-19 restrictions in place but the advice remains the same – please take up the offer of vaccination when invited, and try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection. If you have symptoms but do need to go out, wear a well-fitting face covering if possible.

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

I have portfolio responsibility for hospital arranged post mortem examinations. These are undertaken for deaths in hospitals to establish the medical cause of death and require consent from the individual or the family.

Separately, post mortems can be carried out under the direction of the Lord Advocate as part of an investigation into a death. These are a matter for the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Government does not comment on or get involved in these.

Chemicals regulation in the UK engages a complex mix of devolved and reserved competence. Scottish Government works with the Welsh and UK Governments (the “appropriate authorities”) under the UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH) Regulation to ensure the risks posed by chemicals and chemicals in products, including period products, are adequately controlled for people and the environment across Great Britain.

During preparation of the 2022/23 UK REACH work programme officials considered a number of potential chemical risks for further investigation and, where necessary, control under UK REACH. One such case was hazardous substances in period products (See Rationale for prioritising substances in the UK REACH work programme, 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ). Based on evidence presented by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the appropriate authorities concluded that no further investigation was necessary because existing evidence suggests such chemicals are either not measurable, or the levels present are too low to present a risk to human health. As with all previously considered cases that were not taken forward, this conclusion will be kept under review.

The conclusion was based on the findings of a study into feminine hygiene products by the French Chemicals Agency (see ANSES OPINION on the safety of feminine hygiene products & Feminine hygiene products: composition and toxic shock syndrome, our recommendations | Anses - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail ) which did not find any risk associated with the presence of the substances tested for, and a related study by the Swedish Chemicals Agency (see kemi.se/download/18.6df1d3df171c243fb2331064/1589120703821/report-8-18-survey-of-hazardous-chemical-substances-in-feminine-hygiene-products.pdf & New report: No reason for concern about chemicals in menstrual products - Kemikalieinspektionen ) that concluded that the risk to human health of the 61 substances that were identified was low (although investigated, no per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, were found). The French study recommended that manufacturers improve the quality of these products in order to eliminate or minimise the presence of chemicals.

With regard to PFAS, in April 2023 the HSE published a Risk Management Options Analysis ( UK REACH: Regulatory management option analysis (RMOA) (hse.gov.uk) ) recommending several actions to better protect people and the environment from this group of chemicals. Scottish Government strongly supports regulatory action on PFAS as a priority and we expect these recommendations to be taken forward without delay under the UK REACH Regulation.

We are making good progress on this commitment and since 2017 headcount has increased by 291 with a record 5,209 GPs now working in Scotland.

We have increased medical undergraduate intake by 448 places, and created an additional 135 GP training places since 2016. 100% of training places advertised so far this year have filled successfully with a further round of recruitment in February 2024.

We have also established a GP Retention Working Group that will report to me by the end of October with its findings and recommendations.