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The Scottish Government continues to be committed to improving the lives of autistic people in Scotland. We work closely with autism organisations in the third sector and the public sector and actively seek the views of people with lived experience on autism services. This is reflected in our “Towards Transformation” plan and in specific pieces of nationally funded work, such as the National Post Diagnostic Support pilot for Autistic People.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is also the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will engage with the third sector regarding local autism services.

Autistic children and young people are supported through local Getting it Right Pathways and processes to have needs identified early and individualised plans in place. Support should be in place before, during or after diagnosis according to need and not diagnosis. All health boards have an autism or neurodevelopmental pathway, with a local plan for ‘post diagnostic support and information’.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board has recently agreed the final version of the National Neurodevelopmental Principles and Standards of Care. The Principles and Standards of Care is for those children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles and support needs, including those with autism, and require more support than is currently available. The National Neurodevelopmental Principles and Standards will be published shortly.

The Additional Support for Learning Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those with autism. We provide free professional learning opportunities for practitioners, including the Autism Toolbox and Inclusive Practice online professional learning modules.

In addition, we published our Autism Action Plan in December 2020, setting out the actions we will take to improve the support to children and young people with autism in Scotland’s schools. We have made significant progress in implementing these actions and will formally report our progress in December 2021. Our work on supporting young people with Autism in mainstream schools is also supported by our guidance on the presumption of mainstream education.

Following the publication of the review of the Cervical screening standards in March 2019 NHS Boards should ensure that individuals referred to the colposcopy service with an abnormal screening test are seen within the nationally agreed time frames:

• no later than 2 weeks for urgent referrals (glandular, suspicion of invasion)
• no later than 4 weeks for high grade referrals, and
• no later than 8 weeks for low grade referrals that do not require urgent assessment.

On the 30 March 2020 the Cervical Screening Programme was temporarily paused to due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with services resuming on 29 June 2020. However, the need for additional infection control measures, including physical distancing and the use of PPE, continue to pose challenges but the Scottish Government are working with Health Boards to monitor and address these. During the screening programme restart, the Scottish Government provided £1 million to support capacity in sample-taking and colposcopy.

Further information regarding the standards for this procedure and the wider Cervical screening standard can be found in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland publication linked below.

https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/standards_and_guidelines/stnds/cervical_screening_standards.aspx .

The yards which CalMac Ferries Ltd use to undertake dry dock maintenance work for the vessels in the fleet is an operational matter for them to determine.

CalMac Ferries Ltd procure their contracts in a fair and open competition manner, allowing an award to the bidder that offers the best value for money. CalMac Ferries Ltd publish details pertaining to the contracts on the Public Contracts Scotland website.

CalMac Ferries Ltd awarded contracts to Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd, Dales Marine Services and Ardmaleish Boatbuilding Co Ltd.

Contract details are available by following the links: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC401718 and https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC401701 .

We responded to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on 11 March 2021 outlining the scope and advising there is nothing ‘off limits’ to the appointed consultants when addressing the issues within the scope of the review. This reflects the desire that the review should be independent, and recommendations not influenced by any pre-conceived views.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01514 on 6 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

Under current legislation, a public sector operator could bid to run rail services in Scotland in any future franchise competition.

The Scottish Government has, on a number of occasions, requested the further devolution of rail powers, which has been denied. This includes through our engagement with the UK Rail Review. Further devolution would enable us to consider the widest range of options possible for delivering rail services.

We were not consulted on the detailed proposals within the Williams-Shapps Plan prior to its publication, and we are currently seeking clarity from the UK Government in a range of areas.

Provision of services by a Scottish Government owned company, called ScotRail Trains Ltd, in line with our Operator of Last Resort duty will ensure the continuity of rail services in Scotland and also provide stability to staff, suppliers and passengers over this period.

Abellio ScotRail staff with their terms and conditions will transfer to the new entity.

Transport Scotland officials have remained in close contact with operators throughout the pandemic. A meeting to specifically discuss the issue was held on 30 March 2021 with Pentland Ferries, 22 April with John O’Groats Ferries and 17 February with Serco NorthLink Ferries. Officials will remain closely engaged with operators as the work progresses.

Employee matters including the promotion of third-party financial products including salary advances for its staff remain the operational responsibility of Abellio ScotRail and therefore does not require permission as such from Transport Scotland.