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Scotland’s Population 2020: the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends’ will be published at 9:30 a.m. on 31 August 2021. The Report contains information about births, deaths and marriages during the year, together with other demographic information. A copy of the report is available from the Registrar General’s website at www.nrscotland.gov.uk .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02400 on 31 August 2021 . 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 .

The Scottish Government works closely with Scottish public sector bodies in improving their cyber resilience capabilities. As a consequence of this work, in December 2017, we introduced a reporting system for public sector bodies to notify the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre of serious cyber incidents with the purpose of providing as much support to those affected as quickly as possible. During the last 3 years we have been notified of 27 separate attacks, some of which have been in the public sector or educational institutions.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with COSLA, including on Covid recovery, and the well-established mechanisms in place provide an opportunity for future discussions on this matter should COSLA seek to raise this with the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd have investigated the options for utilising zero emission electric propulsion systems and found that the current commercially available technology is best suited to the smaller vessels. The Small Vessels Replacement Programme will see up to 7 of the existing ‘Loch’ Class ferries replaced as part of Phase 1 with low or zero emission vessels. These will join the 3 diesel electric hybrid ferries already in service and help the Scottish Government achieve its target of 30% of the ferries it owns being low or zero emission by 2032.

https://www.cmassets.co.uk/project/svrp/

Going forward the Islands Connectivity Plan will investigate further the available and emerging opportunities and technologies available to the maritime sector and set out pathways towards the decarbonisation of ferry services. in support of the Scottish Government’s climate change commitments.

The review of governance arrangements within the tripartite remains on track and will deliver a final report to Scottish Government around the end of the year.

Ministers and Transport Scotland will then take time to fully consider the review findings and further engagement with relevant stakeholders including local communities and trade unions.

The Scottish Land Fund (SLF) has had a budget of £10 million per annum over the last five financial years - being a total of £50m.

The programme is managed so as to achieve an annual outturn figure that is as near as possible to budget in each financial year. Actual spend in any given financial year depends on the date that assets are acquired (as opposed to when funding is approved). The length of time from approval of award to completion of sale and drawdown of funds varies. This means that, at the time an award is made, it is not possible to know with certainty when drawdown will happen, making it very challenging to exactly match actual spend to the annual budget.

The Fund has a two-stage application process. It offers grants of between £2000 and £30,000 at Stage 1 to help with project development, and between £10,000 and £1 million for acquisition at Stage 2. It is demand-led.

To be successful, applicants need to be suitably constituted, geographically-based voluntary/community organisations who can demonstrate that their project will be well managed and financially sustainable. They must show that their proposals:

• are supported by the local community
• represent value for money and
• will achieve more sustainable economic, social and/or environmental development through the ownership of land and/or buildings

Applicants are supported throughout the application process by experienced Scottish Land Fund advisers. The Fund is managed by the National Lottery Community Fund. An independent Committee oversees the SLF and scrutinises applications for funding for acquisition.

Figures for funds unspent in the Scottish Land Fund at the end of each of the last five financial years are as follows:

2016-17 £4,813,355*

2017-18 £0*

2018-19 £1,127,500

2019-20 £12,189

2020-21 £254,336

*Awards made in 2016-17 included a grant of £4.4 million to the North West Mull Community Group for the acquisition of the island of Ulva. This grant was paid out when the transaction settled in June 2017, bringing the outturn for 2017-18 for the Scottish Land Fund to £11,701,431.

The NHS Scotland COVID Status app is being developed for release to the public by the end of September with vaccination information initially. We are developing our app to meet the EU requirements so we expect this to be compatible with the IATA Travel Pass. We are engaging with international stakeholders and UK Government to ensure the app is compatible with the other countries requirements of entry.

We are making PDF downloads of vaccination status and 2D barcodes (known as QR codes) available for international travel from early September to facilitate international travel.

Currently there is no plan for a public inquiry into the prescribing of diethylstilbestrol (DES). A public inquiry to investigate any current safety concerns regarding DES would be a matter for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as the UK independent medicines regulator.

In the period when the hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES) was prescribed to pregnant women no central information system for drugs prescribed to individuals existed. Consequently, information on the precise number of women exposed to and who went on to develop cancer is unknown.