The Scottish Government and BMA agree that a new GP contract should free up GP time to focus on those elements of medical care that really require GP involvement – including complex care for people with mental health problems and co-morbidities including mental ill health.

We are working with a range of partners to make sure people reach the most appropriate professional to meet their health care – and wider support – needs. For people in debt crisis with mental health problems, the most appropriate support may come from practice based mental health professionals, Occupational Therapists or support workers like Links Workers. The Scottish Government is committed to recruiting at least 250 Community Links Workers to work in GP surgeries and direct people to local services and support.

A meeting took place on place on 8 December 2016 between Ms Watt, Minister for Mental Health and voluntary sector representatives to discuss the inclusion of the Debt and Mental Health Evidence Form in the prescribed list of forms in the GP contract. It was agreed that a charity representative would open dialogue with credit agencies towards enabling completion of forms by health professionals rather than restricting to GPs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06018 on 19 January 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The information sought is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06018 on 19 January 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The information sought is not held centrally by the Scottish Government; it is a matter for individual Health boards.

Transport Scotland is continuing with work to identify required improvements to the A720, including giving consideration to how any potential increase in capacity would impact on the operation of the route. This work is currently underway.

I refer the member to the answer provided for S5W-05240 on 13 December 2016 for further information. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally; it is a matter for Health boards.

As set out in Section seven of the Health and Medicines Act 1988, Health boards are permitted to generate income provided it does not significantly interfere with the provision of NHS services. This includes income generated through advertising. The Scottish Government believes the Act to be appropriate, and expects advertising to be discreet and respectful towards patients. Guidance on the issue is set out in NHS MEL (2000) 13, and associated documents, available at: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/details.asp?PublicationID=167.

The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of information on how many people have been referred to residential rehabilitation projects for alcohol and drug addiction since 1999. Services are made locally, and it would be for individual Health Boards or Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to provide a complete breakdown of this information.

The specific information requested is not held centrally by ISD Scotland. Information is however published monthly on the number of operations cancelled each month. Latest published figures for November 2017 indicated that NHSScotland scheduled 31,730 operations in the month of November of which 665 were cancelled due to capacity or non-clinical reason this gave a rate of 2.1% same as October 2016 and slightly higher than the 1.8% in November 2015.

The Scottish Government continues to work to support health boards to manage their capacity planning to keep cancelled operations to a minimum. Decisions to cancel a patient's operation is never taken lightly, any postponed operations will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. The Scottish Government has also already announced a £200 million investment to create six new elective treatment centres which will carry out procedures like hip, knee and cataracts operations. These centres will allow people to be treated more quickly for planned surgery to help the NHS meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population and reduce the number of operations cancelled.