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Decisions to prioritise one population group over another for vaccination are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and senior Clinicians.

As with previous campaigns, vaccinations will be offered first to frontline health and social care workers and those most vulnerable to the effects of the virus. Information on the Winter Vaccines programme including eligible groups can he found here .

Full information on the considerations made by the JCVI with regards to which groups have been offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine can be found here .

The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport met with Solar Energy Scotland (SES) in February, with the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth meeting with them in May and myself in September. In addition to ministerial meetings, officials in energy and planning meet with SES and other industry participants regularly. During these ministerial and official meetings a number of points relating to solar have been discussed, including permitted development rights.

Overall reliability across the ChargePlace Scotland network is typically very good with the entire network up and running around 95% of the time each month . Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention or a visit by an engineer. Typically around 90% of faults are resolved within 48 hrs with the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk often remedying faults remotely.

ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) has a robust fault management process in place underpinned by KPIs as set out in the CPS contract. The CPS website provides information on fault management and relevant KPIs.

The Scottish Government does not have ready access to information regarding average and longest time in between a fault being identified and being made operational again. However, a new Network Performance page has recently been published on the ChargePlace Scotland website , which will routinely be updated with detailed information on fault tickets and the performance of the network.

Based on charge points available or in use on the ChargePlace Scotland live map there are 137 charge points that are currently operational along the A9.

Official completion data for the 2022 nursing and midwifery graduate cohort is not available. As a result, the Scottish Government is unable to provide a retention rate for newly qualified nurses and midwives in 2022.

The responsibility for applying fees for use of the public ChargePlace Scotland network lies with the owners of charge points, which includes public, private and third sector organisations. The Scottish Government’s draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network makes it clear that a shift towards a public charging network largely financed and operated by the commercial sector is necessary. As noted in the joint report published by Transport Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021, the existence of free provision or below market rates does not incentivise commercial investment in the charging network, and it is important that tariffs reflect true operation, maintenance and asset replacement costs. The Scottish Government is taking steps to support the development of the public charging network in line with our draft Vision, including through our EV Infrastructure Fund.

Decisions on how the £5 million of loss and damage funding will be allocated are yet to be taken. Decisions will be made on the recommendation of needs assessments and undertaken in consultation with stakeholders and communities. These funds are in addition to the £2 million we announced last year, of which £1.7 million is already on the ground. Funds to date have been allocated through participatory mechanisms with those communities most impacted as well as to funding research on needs assessments and case studies.

As Transport for Edinburgh owns and operates the tram system, any decisions on concessionary travel on Edinburgh trams are for the City of Edinburgh Council to make. We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes.

Ministers were advised by CMAL that there was not sufficient confidence that the vessel would meet the relevant regulatory requirements for operating in UK waters as set out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and by the relevant class society. There were also a number of other uncertainties around the modifications that would be required to meet the requirements for operating on Calmac routes.

The Bill does not propose that 75,000 local authority employees would transfer. As the policy memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill makes clear the under the National Care Service, services will continue to be planned, designed and delivered locally because the care boards will plan and commission services for their local area. For social care services currently provided in-house by local authorities, that may continue under a commissioning arrangement with the care board, or the care board may take over direct delivery, with staff transferring to the care board. These will be decisions to be taken locally as the care boards are established. Once the structure and governance of care boards and their localities have been decided, decisions about the employment of staff will be made.

Thorough consideration will be given to all options regarding pensions and stakeholders will be consulted before any decisions are taken.