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As outlined in the National Transition Training Fund Year 1 report published in February 2022, 60 individuals were supported through the Energy Efficiency Transition Support and Heat Pump Training Fund in the 2021-22 academic year.

In Year 2, the project aims to support 455 individuals. The Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) commenced the project in December 2021 offering colleges the opportunity to participate in the project. Delivery of courses began in January 2022 and will run until the end of the current academic year. We will report on final outcomes upon completion of the Fund in August 2022.

Another training opportunity related to heat pumps is the Sustainable Energy Supply Chain Programme at Energy Saving Trust, which manages and administers the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) fund on behalf of the Scottish Government. This fund provides grants to assist Scottish SMEs installing heat pumps in achieving MCS certification for the first time. This funding is for installers who are not currently MCS certified for heat pumps and who want to become MCS certified for any heat pump technology (air, water, or ground source). The fund pays for 75% of the initial fees required, up to a maximum of £1,000, for both the certification and consumer codes of conduct which installers are required to join in order to become MCS certified. The fund started in September 2021 and will continue to run until March 2023 or until funds fully invested.

We have kept the wholesale sector closely involved in discussions relating to the development and implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), in particular through engagement with the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA).

As table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for DRS makes clear, the SWA was consulted as part of the policy-development process that led to the amended BRIA.

We currently have three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (EDCD) live in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. The Centre in NHS Dumfries and Galloway has been operational since 17 th May, NHS Fife since 6 th June, and NHS Ayrshire and Arran since 21 st June 2021.

The University of Strathclyde has been contracted to undertake independent evaluation of the ECDCs, to help inform wider roll-out across Scotland. The full evaluation will cover a two-year period (this is in line with wider UK nations’ evaluation of similar rapid diagnostic centre models), and will report in September 2023. Additionally, an interim report will be provided in September 2022.

Since the Drug Deaths Taskforce was established in July 2019, there have been 20 meetings of the core Taskforce, with the next meeting taking place on 13 April. There have also been a significant number of working groups, sub-group and deep dive sessions.

The remit of the Taskforce is to provide evidence based advice, and a link to the remit and the terms of reference can be located here - Taskforce Mission and Terms of Reference | Drug Deaths Taskforce

The key outcomes of the Taskforce meetings are the recommendations which they make to Government and other partners. The recommendations the Taskforce has made to date can be found here - DDTF - Recommendations | Drug Deaths Taskforce . The Taskforce will be producing their final recommendations by July 2022.

An update on the progress towards each recommendation was recently provided to the joint committee of the Criminal Justice, Health Social Care and Sport and Social Justice and Social Security Committees on 2 February 2022, this evidence can be found here - CJS6225 | Scottish Parliament Website . Further updates will be made to Parliament in due course.

The Scottish Government supports the Real Living Wage. As statutory sick pay is reserved to Westminster the Scottish Government continues to engage with the UK Government to improve on the existing arrangements.

The income eligibility threshold for the Self-Isolation Grant are inclusive of our commitment to the Real Living Wage and are one of the most generous of the four home nation schemes. This ensures those low income workers and their families are supported when being asked to isolation as a result of COVID-19.

Those workers who are not eligible for the Self-Isolation Support Grant may be eligible for an emergency grant from their local authority. Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grants are available to all people regardless of their current benefit eligibility. They are specifically designed to provide a safety net when an emergency situation occurs and there is no other way to cover costs.

In addition, support can be provided via the Local Self-Isolation Support Service which is a proactive outbound call service operated by local authorities. The service calls people who are self-isolating, and who are happy to pass on their details. This service helps with support to access food, medication, and other essentials, whilst also signposting to further advice services. Help can be provided by contacting The National Assistance Helpline on 0800 111 4000 which anyone can contact, and operates between 09.00 to 17.00 every weekday.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06524 on 25 February 2022. 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
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The Scottish Government keeps all its policies and programmes under review to support delivery of the outcomes in the National Performance Framework.

The Self-Isolation Support Grant is focussed on supporting those low income workers who are most likely to face hardship. Since it was launched, it has been extended to better reach those it is intended to support. This includes parents or carers of children who are required to self-isolate and people with caring responsibilities for someone over 16 who needs to isolate.

Most people qualify for the Grant because they earn less than 25% above the Universal Credit assessment or earn less than the Real Living Wage. We have protected those on lower incomes by continuing to include the £20 Universal Credit uplift within the calculation of low income despite the payments being removed by the UK Government.

Those workers who are not eligible for the Self-Isolation Support Grant may be eligible for an emergency grant from their local authority. Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grants are available to all people regardless of their current benefit eligibility. They are specifically designed to provide a safety net when an emergency situation occurs and there is no other way to cover costs.

In addition, support can be provided via the Local Self-Isolation Support Service which is a proactive outbound call service operated by local authorities. The service calls people who are self-isolating, and who are happy to pass on their details. This service helps with support to access food, medication, and other essentials, whilst also signposting to further advice services. Help can be provided by contacting The National Assistance Helpline on 0800 111 4000 which anyone can contact, and operates between 09.00 to 17.00 every weekday.

Applications for development and capital funding are open. More information can be found on the Local Energy Scotland website here www.localenergyscot.org . Loan and grant capital funding is currently available to communities developing renewable energy, heat decarbonisation, and local energy system projects through the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES).

Funding is dependent on project needs and type. The CARES team work with projects from inception to completion and continue to offer a flexible package of support to a wide range of renewable energy projects and will also soon offer support through a framework of specialised technical consultants to make it quicker and easier for communities to explore options. More information on this will be published shortly on the Local Energy Scotland website.

From April 2022 CARES will also give greater focus to the decarbonisation of heat in buildings in line with the ambitions set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy.

We estimate that 4,100 businesses will qualify as producers for the purposes of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

We have extensively consulted the drinks producer sector during the development and implementation of our DRS. Our Implementation Advisory Group included a range of representatives of the sector, and drinks producers, like any stakeholder, were consulted through the two consultations on DRS that ran from June-September 2018 and September-December 2019.