Projects receiving funding through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme will be considered for additional grant in relation to unforeseeable and unavoidable cost over-runs which may be identified following tender approval as outlined in our Affordable Housing Supply Programme Process and Procedures guidance – Annex E: Cost over-runs. More Homes Division within the Scottish Government is responsible for assessing and processing such claims and the grant applicant should contact their local area team to discuss projects they wish to be considered.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise investment in frontline services, providing an increase of over £730 million to NHS Boards in 2023-24 – investing over £352 million in NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

Under the SNP, staffing in NHS Dumfries & Galloway has increased by 19.7% since 2006.

We will continue to work with all Health Boards, including NHS Dumfries & Galloway, to address financial and workforce pressures across the system.

Our Sustainability and Value programme has been established to deliver essential reform and sustainable services that are fit for the future, whilst prioritising patient safety.

We continue to engage with retailers of all sizes regarding Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, and have set up a new operational group with retailers to resolve any outstanding issues to allow the scheme to launch successfully on 1 March 2024.

This obligation is not new and has been in place since 2020. We have, however, published regulations that will remove the obligation to take back containers bought online from the vast majority of retailers. Only the very largest supermarkets are being asked to provide this service, which will benefit those who are physically less able to access a return point. While we recognise this creates a challenge for large retailers, we consider it to be fair, proportionate, and important as it will mean that everyone has access to Scotland’s deposit return scheme.

Retailers still have the flexibility to provide their own takeback service or have a third party deliver it for their customers, and we have been clear that we will continue to work with them to explore the possibility of a centralised takeback service.

The UK government, who are developing their own plans for Deposit Return Scheme, have also made it clear that online takeback will be required from the start of the scheme, particularly for large retailers.

We are working closely with the Board and a Task Force has been set up to help the Board address local access issues. Unregistered patients will continue to be able to access emergency and urgent care via the Public Dental Service.

Scottish Government has also put in place a set of recruitment and retention incentives which pay £25,000 over a two year period to newly qualified dentists and those returning to the workforce after a five-year period, who wish to provide NHS dental care in Dumfries and Galloway. Grant funding of up to £100,000 is available to dentists that wish to establish a new, or expand or purchase an existing, NHS dental practice within the Board area.

We are also working apace on payments reform which will comprise a new, modernised system that will provide NHS dental teams with greater clinical discretion, and transparency for NHS patients. We are confident that this will help to sustain and increase NHS dental access as we move forward.

The Scottish Government chair and provide secretariat support to the Eskdalemuir Working Group (EWG). This group was originally formed in 2012 and commissioned seismic study work that was co-funded by the Scottish Government, UK Government and Ministry of Defence to a total sum of £257,744.11 (exclusive of VAT). The Scottish Government’s share of this work was £50,137.00 (exclusive of VAT).

Following re-formation of the group in 2018, the Scottish and UK Governments and Ministry of Defence have been working constructively together through the Eskdalemuir Working Group. Scottish Government has commissioned a series of technical studies over the course of 2020 to 2022, on behalf of the working group, in order to provide updated wind turbine data that can be used in the noise budget allocation calculation.

This work was conducted over a series of five phases, with the total sum of work to date coming to £462,851.60 (exclusive of VAT). Of this amount, Scottish Government have paid £171,184.94 (exclusive of VAT). The results of these studies are publicly available and are hosted on the Scottish Renewables website.

The Eskdalemuir Working Group has recently gone through a second re-formation, with membership being refined to ensure resource pressures are minimised and constructive discussion on this issue can take place.

The Scottish Government remains committed to finding an enduring solution that ensures safeguarding of the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array and maximisation of onshore wind deployment in the surrounding area and therefore allocates appropriate resource to the Eskdalemuir Working Group to ensure effective engagement can continue.

Transport Scotland is aware of concerns expressed by the local community in relation to signage on the A7 towards Langholm. Transport Scotland has reviewed the signing and is content that current signage is in accordance with national guidance document ‘Local Transport Note 1/94 Design and Use of Directional Traffic Signs’. In relation to the A7 trunk road, Langholm currently features on all route confirmatory signs northbound and southbound within Scotland, and on advance direction signage southbound in Hawick. Transport Scotland has engaged with officials at Department for Transport, National Highways and Cumbria County Council to discuss continuity of signing to Langholm on both sides of the border.

Destinations signed on Scotland’s roads, including the strategic trunk road network managed by Transport Scotland, are determined in accordance with national guidance in ‘Local Transport Note 1/94 Design and Use of Directional Traffic Signs’. The guidance presents a list of 43 ‘Primary Destinations’ in Scotland which are prioritised for inclusion on trunk road directional signing. Factors influencing what is appropriate as a Primary Destination may include population, the levels of traffic attracted to the destination, the strategic position of the destination relative to key junctions and route-finding, and the geographical density of destinations within the local area. The guidance emphasises the need for continuity, and provides recommended limits on the number of destinations included on each sign, to ensure clarity.

Ear syringing is no longer the recommended procedure for clinicians due to concerns about uncontrolled water pressure. Instead NICE recommends that patients should be asked to self-administer with ear drops first and follow up care should be irrigation or suction.

Formerly most ear wax management procedures were carried out in GP practices. The new GP contract, introduced in 2018, committed Health Boards to set up Community Treatment and Care (CTAC) services to shift workload away from GP practices to NHS Board employed staff so that GP practices could focus on what only they can do. CTAC has been defined in GP contract regulations as including phlebotomy, chronic disease monitoring, the collection of biometric information, attending to minor injuries, changing dressings, suture removal and ear syringing. The Scottish Government has confirmed to Health Boards that CTAC services should cover ear wax management generally.

The process of transfer was underway when many practices stopped administering syringing, irrigation or suction as treatments in March 2020 amid concerns that they might be Aerosol Generating Procedures that could spread COVID-19. Despite this, and other constraints, implementation of the new GP contract continued throughout the pandemic. There are now 3,220 whole time equivalent healthcare professionals in multi-disciplinary teams supporting practices with CTAC and pharmacotherapy services as well as delivering the childhood and seasonal vaccination programmes but we are aware that gaps in delivery remain.

Scottish Government officials are now working with Health Boards to collect and review the data on the workforce and financial resources required to fully deliver these services to inform consideration of the potential for additional investment in 2023-24. We will then look to ensure that all Health Boards have appropriate communications regarding local pathways for ear wax management and other transferred services.

Residents in Dumfries and Galloway should continue to contact their Health Board for up-to-date information on dental practices that are registering new NHS patients. NHS Dumfries and Galloway can be contacted by email at: dg.pcd@nhs.scot.

I appreciate, given distances, this might not be appropriate but, residents in Dumfries and Galloway may wish to register with a dental practice in a different Health Board area and if this might be appropriate should contact the relevant Health Board to obtain information on those practices accepting new patients.

Any patient who requires treatment for an urgent dental situation before they are able to register with a dental practice, can find advice on how to access dental services on the NHS Inform website at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/nhs-services/dental/dental-emergencies .

Social Security Scotland offers a range of secure communication channels for clients. These do not include email, as unencrypted email is not secure and could place clients’ sensitive personal information at risk or expose the agency’s network and data to malware.

Emails from MSPs/MPs present less risk as it is easier to verify the sender’s identity, so Social Security Scotland does accept constituency casework via email. However, because such emails are unencrypted, client data may still be vulnerable, and Social Security Scotland accordingly recommends that MSPs/MPs use the Social Security Scotland Parliamentarian Enquiry Line as their primary channel for assisting constituents.