The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to warm, safe, good quality housing and is taking this forward through a range of measures.

The tolerable standard is the minimum standard for all living accommodation in buildings in Scotland. The latest figures for compliance with the tolerable standard (Scottish House Condition Survey 2015) shows 2% (or 42,000) of all dwellings falling below the tolerable standard, an improvement of nearly 2 percentage points since 2012.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) applies to all socially rented homes in Scotland. Driven by this standard social landlords have invested over £3bn since 2007 to ensure tenants live in warmer, safer, and drier homes. The most recent figures from the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) show that 92.8% of social housing met the SHQS in March 2016.

In the private rented sector, the repairing standard has been strengthened to improve the safety of tenants, and the powers available to local authorities to enforce housing standards on behalf of tenants have been enhanced. Since the repairing standard was introduced in 2007, there have been rising expectations of what is needed to ensure homes are safe and we are currently consulting on proposals to extend the standard across a range of elements, including the storage of food, safe kitchens and the provision of fridges and freezers.

Scotland has strong rights for homeless households with children, who may be placed in temporary accommodation while they wait for appropriate, sustainable permanent accommodation. Statutory guidance on the Best Interests of Children Facing Homelessness makes clear to local authorities the importance of ensuring that temporary accommodation for households with children is suitable for their needs. We want time in temporary accommodation to be as short as possible and are increasing housing supply to help with this with a target of 50,000 affordable new homes during this parliament.

On 5 October 2016 we published our Fairer Scotland Action Plan which sets out the actions we will take to tackle poverty and inequality in Scotland. We are investing in a range of different support measures including the Scottish Welfare Fund, which provides a safety net for vulnerable people on low incomes through the provision of Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants. We are continuing to invest in advice services projects which will help maximise household incomes, and we are also taking action in a range of areas, including investing in affordable housing, increasing childcare, demonstrating our commitment to a real Living Wage, and mitigating against the worst of UK Government welfare changes.

Scottish Ministers have appointed Jane Grant, Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, as Chair of the Implementation Board. The Board met for the first time on 9th June 2017 and will be taking forward the implementation of all of the recommendations through a programme of multidisciplinary subgroups.

The Scottish Government maintains that the introduction of mandatory fortification of bread or flour with folic acid is a worthwhile step that would be beneficial to public health.

As part of their remit, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is currently considering the scientific and regulatory aspects of mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid. FSS will provide further advice to Ministers on this important issue later this year.

Scottish local authorities are the statutory regulatory bodies for licensing the breeding and sale of pet animals and keep records for their individual areas. The Scottish Government has no plan to duplicate that process by requiring a centralised database of those involved in these activities.

The Scottish Government has already held a number of meetings with stakeholders regarding the ongoing review of pet welfare. Representatives from the Pet Industry Federation, Pets at Home, The Kennel Club, The Scottish Kennel Club, General Council of the Cat Fancy, the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association and the Reptile and Exotic Pet Trade Association participated in meetings on 23 November 2015 and 3 June 2006, and have corresponded further with officials. Also participating at these meetings were representatives from animal welfare organisations, veterinarians and local authority regulators.

Proposals to update the regulations on the licensing of dog, cat and rabbit breeding and dealing will be issued for full public consultation in due course; and each of the named organisations will be able to offer additional evidence for consideration.

The Pet Animals Act 1951 regulates the sale of puppies and kittens from pet shops. The potential benefit to animal welfare of prohibiting such sales is being considered as part of an ongoing review of pet welfare.

In the joint memorandum with the British Medical Association Scottish General Practitioner Committee (BMA SGPC) the Scottish Government undertook to extend the current pay stability agreement for GPs to April 2018, [http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/11/7258].

The Scottish Government and the SGPC agree, in principle, that we need better information and evidence to inform both accurate recompense of expenses and options for the long term overall development of GP pay in Scotland. To this end, we have commissioned a review of general practice funding, pay and expenses to provide a proper, robust evidence base for improved decision making. This review builds on and incorporates the findings of the Review of the Scottish Allocation Formula, and will inform options from 2018.

Tackling health inequalities and the 'inverse care law' is one of our primary care outcomes, as published in a joint memorandum with the British Medical Association Scottish General Practitioner Committee (BMA SGPC) [http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/11/7258]. One way of delivering on this outcome as part of contractual change would be to adjust the Scottish Allocation Formula (SAF), which weights general practice funding by various factors that affect workload, including deprivation, rurality and age. The Scottish Government is clear that we need to look beyond the GP contract to other interventions and ways of supporting general practice in areas of high deprivation. Changes outwith the contract such as multidisciplinary working and the manifesto commitment to introduce 250 Links workers will be vital for supporting patients in deprived areas.

The Scottish Government and the SGPC agree, in principle, that we need better information and evidence to inform both accurate recompense of expenses and options for the long term overall development of GP pay in Scotland. To this end, we have commissioned a review of general practice funding, pay and expenses to provide a proper, robust evidence base for improved decision making. This is taking place in 2017, and inform options from 2018.

The specific details of the Primary Care Fund are being determined at present, but it will include measures to build the primary care workforce, address GP workload, improve infrastructure and transform primary care. This will include investment in areas of high deprivation.

Tackling health inequalities is a key outcome of the Scottish Government’s transformation of Primary Care and the Scottish Government continues to support various initiatives to support general practice in areas of high deprivation. These include:

•Funding the Links Worker programme in Dundee and Glasgow. Over the next five years, we will increase the number of community Links Workers in disadvantaged areas to 250.

•Funding Govan SHIP through the Primary Care Transformation Fund. The aim of this project is to achieve service transformation through new and innovative models of integrated care in the four Deep End practices in Govan Health Centre.

•Funding the Deep End Pioneer Scheme through the Recruitment and Retention Fund which is recruiting young GPs to Deep End practices, release the time of experienced GPs for service development, and develop educational and training materials for GPs working in deprived areas.