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There are no plans to undertake an immediate metastatic breast cancer audit. Our focus currently remains on maximizing available clinical capacity to see patients. Our £114.5m National Cancer Plan has a range of measures aimed at benefitting all cancer patients, including implementation of a single point of contact resource that will support patients throughout their pathway, and after discharge, including those with secondary breast cancer. We are however giving further clinical consideration to possible audit work in this area while recognising the ongoing severe pressures in our NHS.

There were no crimes of female genital mutilation recorded by Police Scotland in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government has provided £45M to all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities and continues to offer support to enable the further increase in the number of electric vehicle chargers.

Investment in public charging infrastructure has enabled the development of the ChargePlace Scotland network (CPS), now one of the largest in the UK. Investment has also included schemes to support installation of business and domestic electric vehicle chargepoints, and associated infrastructure to support the decarbonisation of light and heavy vehicles in the public sector, and the decarbonisation of buses used for public transport.

Table 1 shows the investment within the last five financial years that each local authority has received to deliver public electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including a cumulative total. The majority of funding has been awarded through our Local Authority Install Programme, with a number of local authorities also being supported through challenge fund awards, including those under the Switched on Towns and Cities and Low Carbon Travel and Transport programmes.

Table 1

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has directly funded or provided the following training specifically aimed at supporting disabled people in using public transport:

• The rail First Time Traveller Programme – supports people with autism in experiencing rail travel for the first time in order to raise awareness of what to expect and to build confidence.
• Railway Awareness Open Days at major stations – ScotRail, working alongside third sector organisations, invite disabled people to come and familiarise themselves with stations and train travel as well as answering any questions they may have.
• Travel training programmes – one in Clackmannanshire and Stirling where trained support workers help young people as well as individuals with dementia and autism access and navigate public transport increasing their confidence to travel independently; and the other in East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Greater Glasgow which did the same for people with learning difficulties or autism.
• Working with Disability Equality Scotland, Transport Scotland has undertaken a series of webinars and polls with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations exploring a range of issues important to disabled people, including how confidence in returning to public transport post-pandemic could be strengthened

In addition, the Scottish Government has funded or provided training for public transport operators and their staff in order to raise awareness of the needs of disabled passengers. For example, sensory packs and staff awareness training were rolled out across the Calmac ferry fleet on behalf of the National Autistic Society, and training has been funded for staff at Scottish airports on a range of topics from British Sign Language to autism awareness.

The Scottish Government meets with COSLA and local authorities on a regular basis to cover a range of issues, including current and future budget pressures. Negotiations on the annual local government finance settlement are conducted between the Scottish Government and COSLA, on behalf of all 32 local authorities.

Statistics on uncollected council tax are published at Statistics on council tax collection rates are available at Statistics on council tax collection rates are available at Council Tax Collection Statistics, 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

We continue to closely monitor all emerging evidence on new treatments related to the long-term effects of COVID-19 (long Covid) and their clinical effectiveness.

The current Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) clinical guideline , developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), provides evidence based information for clinicians on the identification and management of people affected by long-term effects of COVID-19.

The clinical guideline which is being actively reviewed and updated in line with the evidence base on the treatment of long COVID as it continues to develop.

Following concerns raised about prescribing practice in 2016, a range of independent reviews were conducted and regular discussion was had with the board of NHS Tayside. In July 2021, following matters raised by a patient group in the media, SG officials reached out to NHS Tayside leaders who committed to investigating the matters raised.

Test and Protect continues to inform schools of a positive Covid-19 PCR test for one of their pupils where it is deemed necessary after being risk assessed by public health officials. As set out in Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on reducing the risks in schools , parents, carers and young people are also strongly advised when they receive a positive test to inform the school or early years setting.

The provisions of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 enable the Scottish Ministers to make a formal proposal to establish a new National Park. We are aware that there are several areas which may be interested in obtaining National Park status. There is therefore a need to have an initial non-statutory evaluation process to determine what area or areas should be subject to a formal proposal. This evaluation process will be fair and transparent and stakeholders will be closely involved in developing it.

Further, section 3 of the Act allows the Scottish Ministers to require NatureScot, or another public body with relevant expertise, to report to Ministers on a proposal for a National Park. The reporter appointed under section 3, as part of preparing the report, must consult with every local authority and community council whose area (or part of whose area) is within the area to which the proposal relates, persons the reporter considers are representative of the interests of local residents and businesses, any other persons as the reporter thinks fit.

The use of facial recognition technology is an operational decision for Police Scotland, operating within the boundaries of current legislation. The Scottish Government understands from the service that there are no plans to use the technology during COP26, either in a live or retrospective capacity.

The use of facial technology by security teams within the COP26 Blue Zone is a matter for them given the designated status of the area for the duration of the conference.