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Information on the number of NHS patients waiting for treatment is published quarterly by Public Health Scotland and can be found at

This data shows the number of patients on waiting lists and how many have been waiting over 12 weeks. This is shown by NHS Board and can be filtered to show numbers by specialities.

Amending Regulations were made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 today.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 to remove the Republic of Ireland and the area of Bedford Borough Council from the list of areas to which the common travel area restrictions apply.

These regulations also add Manchester and Salford to the list of areas to which common travel area restrictions apply.

The Regulations have been published at .

Luss Bay has a designated Bathing Water and is given special protection to ensure it is safe for people to swim in during the bathing season, which normally runs from 1 June to 15 September. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has determined the current bathing water quality classification at Luss Bay as 'sufficient" and reports that there has not been any significant deterioration in annual trends at this location. The storm rainfall event last summer on 5 August 2020, did result in a poor water quality, but this was predicted by SEPA, and an appropriate poor water quality warning to the public was in place via SEPA’s real time electronic signage.

The public sewerage network in Luss, including Luss Bay, is a relatively small catchment and there are no combined sewer overflows from Scottish Water’s network in this vicinity to Loch Lomond. The Luss public sewerage network drains to Scottish Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW). During the bathing season, to protect bathing water quality, Luss WwTW uses ultraviolet treatment to disinfect the sewage effluent. Scottish Water works with SEPA very closely and through regular monitoring has not found issues with respect to its discharge in the area. The final effluent discharge from the WwTW is sampled on a regular basis and Scottish Water is not aware of breaches of its license parameters.

Overall, SEPA classifies the environmental water quality of Loch Lomond as good for the north area and moderate for the south due to impacts from agriculture. Through River Basin Management Planning, carried out by SEPA on behalf of the Scottish Government, measures are planned to address the impacts from agriculture to ensure Loch Lomond can recover to good water quality status. SEPA and Scottish Water have also worked together to inspect the sewer network along the beach area at Luss Bay and no issues have been discovered.

Of course, the Scottish Government will continue to work together with stakeholders to ensure bathing waters reach the best possible status.

We do not support the UK Government’s refusal to participate in Erasmus+. Although we are working on a new programme, this will not be able to replicate in full the benefits of Erasmus+.

In-line with our manifesto commitments, we remain committed to both Erasmus+ and to international exchange. In the interim to securing our place back in Erasmus+ we have begun to consider options regarding a Scottish mobility programme. We are currently undertaking the necessary analysis that will inform our decisions relating to such a scheme.

Our view is that people across Scotland, in all education pathways, should have access to the benefits that international exchange provides. We will announce further steps in due course.

Data relating to homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation is collected on a local authority basis. Since the South Scotland region does not align with local authority boundaries it is not possible to provide the number of children in temporary accommodation for this region.

The Scottish Government does however routinely publish the number of children in temporary accommodation by local authority. The most recent figures for children in temporary accommodation as at 30 th September were published in the ‘Homelessness In Scotland: update to 30 th September 2020’ publication on 23 rd March 2021. The publication is available here:

General Practice in Scotland is funded through a "Global Sum" which is divided between all practices on the basis of their share of the estimated workload (the Scottish Workload Formula). All patients, whether resident in Scotland or living across the border, count towards practices' share of the Global Sum.

Although the funding formula is different in England, the model is the same.

The Energy Investment Fund, and its predecessor Renewable Energy Investment Fund, has made investments of £90.4 million to date.

The Advisory Sub-group for Education and Children’s issues have carefully considered their advice on nursery graduations this week. They confirmed that groups of parents and carers should not attend end-of-year events in Early Learning settings or schools in this academic year.

The COVID-19 safety guidance seeks to minimise the number of contacts that children and staff have, to keep them safe and to reduce the risk that children and staff need to self-isolate in the event of someone in the setting testing positive.

Our guidance is also in place to keep children in learning, and essential childcare settings open to support families now and over the summer. This has been a difficult decision that carefully weighed up the risks against the benefits.

I understand that families are disappointed that they cannot be present to mark these transitions from ELC to primary school. I am grateful to settings that have found safe ways to allow children to celebrate with their friends and key workers and found creative ways to share this with parents and carers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00457 on 14 June 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government provides a range of grants and loans to help deliver energy efficiency improvements and support investment by owner occupiers, private and social landlords. Last year we introduced a new loan scheme for private landlords to support achievement of minimum energy efficiency standards. We review the guidance for all of our schemes each year and currently have no plans to change the grants available to private landlords owning multiple properties.