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I refer the Member to Public Health Scotland (PHS) weekly statistical report and the details on pages 34 to 39; that show hospitalisations by vaccine status. You can view the report at: Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Statistical Report

The following table displays the numbers of applications submitted and approved in each scheme year during the period the New Entrants Start-Up Grant Scheme was open for applications.

We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue discussions with UK Government and the other devolved administrations and continue to seek to take a four-nations approach to future changes to regulations and the travel regime.

There is no formal right to request an appeal under the Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulation 2015 as these do not apply to the rejection of an application for a contract. If applicants query the reason for the rejection of an application then local staff will consider this informally but numbers of these are not recorded. The number of applications recorded as rejected in each Scheme year for the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme is provided in the following table for information.

There is no formal right to request an appeal under the Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulation 2015 as these do not apply to the rejection of an application for a contract. If applicants query the reason for the rejection of an application then local staff will consider this informally but numbers of these are not recorded. The number of applications recorded as rejected in each Scheme year for the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme is provided in the following table for information.

The National Care Home Contract is negotiated annually between Scotland Excel, COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), Scottish Care and CCPS (Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland). The Scottish Government is not a contractual party to this agreement.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets and/or Spending Reviews.

The Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland introduced a Carbon Metric for waste from 2011, making Scotland the first country to measure the carbon impact of its waste in this way, and delivering on our commitment set out in Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan. The metric measures the whole-life carbon impacts of Scotland’s waste, and is a vital tool in our work to address the climate emergency.

Greenhouse Gas emissions from managing Scotland’s waste have reduced by more than 30% between 2011-2019. As set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan, our aim is to reduce these emissions further to 1.2 megatonnes by 2025, and 0.8 megatonnes by 2030.

As previously set out, we are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025. This work will be critical in determining how the waste and resources sector will contribute towards lower carbon emissions in the period to 2030 and beyond, including the approach to evaluating progress against our goal to reduce emissions.

Scottish businesses are currently able to access an interest free loan for solar PV through the SME Loan scheme, managed by the Energy Saving Trust. Eligible organisations are able to access free advice and an energy audit of their premises through the Energy Efficient Business Support service, which provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with information on energy efficiency and/or renewables installations that are most suited to their premises.

The Scottish Government provides the most generous non-domestic rates relief package for renewable energy producers in the UK, including a number of incentives for energy efficiency and low carbon heating. This includes the non-domestic rates exemption for renewables with a capacity of up to 50kW.

As with all of our non-domestic rates policies, we will keep these under review. Decisions on any non-domestic rates policies will be set out in the Scottish budget alongside other government priorities in light of affordability.

The Scottish Government have been working with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the Border Force to ensure countries that require QR codes would accept ours. Scottish Government officials became aware on 8 September 2021 that French authorities were seeking additional verification to our QR codes only for their domestic certification purposes, and that information was issued the same day. The issue was therefore resolved on 9 September 2021.

French authorities have not experienced any further issues in accessing the QR codes of people living in Scotland.

The application process for the Beef Efficiency Scheme was different to other schemes in as much as it was dependent on the applicant being able to meet the simple criteria for the scheme, and businesses having the ability to update the information submitted online, in order to accept a contract.

As with other CAP Schemes, there is no right of appeal where an application for a contract is found ineligible, however the business would have the opportunity to speak to the team dealing with the scheme directly to clarify the process and reasons for no contract being awarded.