The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained directly from Health Boards.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews performance data from the Scottish Ambulance Service which includes data on response times across the country.

This information is normally reviewed weekly, however, given the current pressures being experienced we are receiving twice daily sit reps from the Service on performance.

Like all areas of Scotland, and indeed throughout the UK, we are aware that some patients are experiencing delays in response times from the ambulance service. This is why we have already taken significant action both prior to and since the pandemic to input measures to ensure our Ambulance service has the full resources and range of support in place to deliver services.

We announced an additional package of support for the Service, backed by an additional £20 million of investment, which will help increase capacity and improve response times and staff wellbeing, including assistance from over 100 military personnel.

We have also previously taken action to help with the situation, including an additional investment of £20m as part of the £1bn NHS Recovery Plan. This investment comes from continued involvement with the SAS Demand and Capacity programme which this Government has been involved in since its inception in 2019. It will deliver almost 300 additional Ambulance Service staff by April 2022.

This breaks down as 69 staff in the North of Scotland, 139 in West of Scotland and 88 in the East of Scotland. The additional staff are a mixture of paramedics, newly qualified paramedics (NQPs) and technicians. Extra ambulances and vehicles will also be introduced over the coming months, including two in Edinburgh.

Information on the number of homeless people who have received a GP appointment is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as GP practices are responsible for their own patient appointment and consultation arrangements.

Regarding payments made under the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS), I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-01770 on 24 August 2016 and S5W-32423 on 30 October 2020 . 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 .

Regarding compensation payments made outwith the CNORIS scheme, the information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The Scottish Government contract with the whistleblowing charity Protect, who provided the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice Line, ended on 31 October 2020. The final report is available to view on: https://www.gov.scot/collections/nhs-confidential-advice-and-information-line/

The Whistleblowing Standards and Independent National Whistleblowing Officer (INWO) for NHS Scotland launched on 1 April 2021. The INWO offers a mechanism for external review of how a Health Board, primary care or independent provider handles a whistleblowing case. Included in this service is a confidential advice and information line which has been in operation since 1 November 2020. This provides support and advice to staff and managers on the application of the Whistleblowing Standards and mechanisms in place to support whistleblowing and whistleblowers. As the INWO operates independently, the Scottish Government do not hold information on the number of cases reported through this service.

Our overriding commitment, agreed with social security clients and stakeholders, is to ensure the safe and secure transfer of clients to Adult Disability Payment. Significant changes are however being made to improve clients’ experience of accessing disability assistance, such as replacing assessments with person centred consultations. The reliability criteria, which requires a client to be able to carry out activities, safely, repeatedly, in an acceptable manner and in a reasonable time, will be more fully defined in legislation. This will ensure that decisions take full account of clients’ experiences relating to the daily living and mobility activities.

An independent review of Adult Disability Payment will commence in summer 2023. The review will enable all of the criteria to be considered and will ensure that those in receipt of Adult Disability Payment will be able to provide their valuable feedback and experiences of the process up to that point.

England introduced a ban on combustible materials used in the construction of external walls for all new residential buildings over 18m in December 2018. The 11m threshold introduced from 1 October 2019 is contained in regulatory guidance, with the alternative route of a large scale fire test being retained on the advice of the fire safety review panel. Since that time a number of stakeholders have made clear their views that the Scottish regulations should align with those in the rest of the UK, and we have therefore sought to include this as an option within the consultation.

The 2018 Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review Panel set up following the Grenfell Tower fire did not support an outright ban on combustible cladding. A further review was intended to address concerns raised by some stakeholders since the fire safety standards were changed on 1 October 2019. The current consultation is being undertaken to consider a ban on the highest risk cladding materials through building regulations, and to review the role of the large scale fire test, BS 8414.

The fire safety review panel considered a broad range of evidence on fire safety of cladding systems. Some of the evidence supported the retention of the large scale fire test, BS8414, as a means to demonstrate the safety of cladding systems with some combustible elements. Whilst other evidence supported a ban on combustible materials. A fourth option allows respondents to set out alternative views.

Councillors' pay increased by 4.2% on 1 April 2021, taking the annual salary of ordinary councillors from £17,854 to £18,604. This reflects the arrangement introduced in 2017 which now ensures councillors’ pay is increased annually in line with the percentage increase in the median annual earnings of public sector workers in Scotland.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans in the near future to carry out its own review of councillor remuneration. However, we are aware that COSLA's Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group is considering this issue, and we are open to discussing and exploring the findings of their work with them, once it becomes available, and how we might support them to address this issue.