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Shortages of medicines are an ongoing part of the day to day management of the NHS. The pricing and supply of medicines are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government have regular engagement with the UK Government regarding the management medicine shortages as part of the UK Medicine Shortage Response Group.

Medicine shortages can occur for a range of reasons including supplier difficulty in sourcing core ingredients, removal of drugs from pharmaceutical provider lists and international supply issues. Most shortages are short in nature. Shortages are ameliorated by prescribing alternative medicines or therapeutics until a shortage is over. Information on current and ongoing supply issues relating to individual drugs or devices is shared by NHS Scotland via Medicine Supply Alert Notices (MSAN) with the relevant networks within the service to help prescribers and dispensers meet patients’ on-going medical needs. MSANs are published at . The NHS Scotland Prescribing Advisers’ Network provides support to prescribers on the use of alternative products.

Vaccination data in Scotland are collated by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and published daily. Data on vaccination take-up may be cross referenced by Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Priority Group, NHS Board, Local Authority, age group, and sex. These data are accessible on the vaccinations tab of the PHS COVID-19 Daily Dashboard:

The vaccination data published are subject to continual review, development and quality assurance.

During the pre-election period Scottish Ministers only met with SQA when both attended the the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG): . I continue to attend these meetings alongside SQA Chief Executive Fiona Robertson.

I attended a meeting which Fiona Robertson also attended on 24 May. We had a brief phone call on 3 June. We will have a formal introductory meeting on 24 June.

Officials meet regularly with SQA on a range of matters relating to the delivery of SQA’s functions.

Despite the Scottish Government being ready to launch, the UK Government has yet to agree to a joint bidding process for implementation of the green port model in Scotland. However, in the draft applicant prospectus published on the Scottish Government website on 18 March 2021 we made it clear that we would welcome bids from applicants or multi-applicant partnerships. This would include joint bids from trust ports.

The Scottish Government is expecting a report on progressive stroke services by the end of December 2021. This Report will help to support and drive improvement in stroke services across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible to enable them to live longer, healthier independent lives. That’s why the Programme for Government 2019-20 commits to ensuring that improvements are made to stroke pathways and services, including prevention, treatment and care. Work is ongoing to deliver against those commitments.

The Scottish Government has worked with the UK Government on implementation of free ports in Scotland over the past year. This dialogue culminated in development of a new green port model designed specifically to complement the Scottish policy context.

We have been ready to launch an applicant prospectus for green ports since March of this year. However, the UK Government has delayed in committing to a jointly run bidding process. The Scottish Government has pressed regularly for a decision from the UK Government on this matter. Delay in launching a bidding process for Scotland is having a detrimental impact on Scottish stakeholders.

Every effort is being made to investigate possible solutions and trial the most promising of these in the run up to this coming winter. Transport Scotland’s Operating Company, BEAR Scotland, will be undertaking laboratory tests ahead of winter 2021 and on-site trials during winter 2021 of potential solutions. Options currently under consideration to prevent or reduce ice formation include coatings and de-icing compounds applied to the stay cables and towers and cleaning of the stay cables to remove deposited air borne particulates from the external surface of the stay cables. Should a viable solution be found, it will be subject to Peer review and Value for Money assessment before full-scale deployment.

The Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) are required, by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, to produce a transport strategy for their area. The Act sets out what the strategy should cover, including the future needs of the region and what can be achieved taking account of funding and practicability. The Act also requires regional transport strategies to have regard to the National Transport Strategy produced by the Scottish Ministers.

Scotland’s second National Transport Strategy was published in February 2020 and sets out an ambitious vision for or Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years. The Strategy sets out the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy to inform future investment decisions and ensure transport options that focus on reducing inequalities and the need to travel unsustainably are prioritised. The Strategy also embeds the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy into decision making, by promoting walking, wheeling, cycling, public transport and shared options in preference to single occupancy private car use. We are aware that the RTPs are at varying stages of development in producing new strategies for their region. The regional transport strategies are approved by the Scottish Ministers before they can come into effect.

Regional Transport Partnerships work with Local Authorities and others stakeholders across their areas to input into infrastructure investment plans, for example through Growth Deals. They are also engaged in the Scottish Government’s second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) through Regional Transport Working Groups. They have provided valuable input and evidence to the Review which will to help inform strategic transport investment in Scotland for the next 20 years.

As the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland has said, it is normal to look at historical school data as part of the quality assurance process in awarding national qualifications. This is designed to help support the best outcomes for our young people.

I am clear that if a learner has demonstrated they deserve a particular grade, and this grade is robust against the national standard, that is the grade they will receive.

To provide additional assurances on this, Education Scotland has liaised with all 32 local authorities who have all confirmed that historical data has not been used to unilaterally change any assessment judgements by teachers or schools.

Once the provisional grades have been submitted to the Scottish Qualifications Authority they will not be changed because of any school’s past performance.

The following data is based on an HGV being defined as a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes:

For A77 trunk road (from south of M77 Junction 8 to junction with A75 at Stranraer)