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The Scottish Government has no functions concerning the legal protections in place to protect disabled people from disability discrimination during the employment-seeking process. These functions are reserved to the UK Parliament, as set out in Section 5 of the Scotland Act 1998. More information is available on the Scottish Parliaments website( https://www.parliament.scot/about/how-parliament-works/devolved-and-reserved-powers )

We are currently in the process of evaluating minimum unit pricing (MUP) as a whole over its first five years of operation. Public Health Scotland will be producing a final report on MUP in 2023, which will inform our evaluation report which will be laid in Parliament and published in 2023.

Work on reviewing the level of MUP has started as part of our overall evaluation, as the impact of MUP is connected to the unit price. We are evaluating the impact of MUP at the current price of 50 pence per unit and will assess what level MUP should be set at going forward, if MUP is to continue. It is important that we have a robust evidence base to support any decision on a change in the level of MUP.

Part of this work includes a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which will look at the likely costs, benefits and risk of any proposed legislation. This will include how any changes to MUP will interact with any potential changes to excise duty.

From January 2022 to September 2022 the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has committed grant support for the retrofit of 330 social housing properties across Scotland. The fund offers grant support of up to 50% of the total eligible costs of the project. Projects in the South Scotland region have been awarded an average grant of £5,668 per property.

The requested information on how many nurses have (a) joined and (b) left the NHS in each year since 2007 is not centrally available.

Information on how many Nursing & Midwifery staff have (a) joined and (b) left the NHS since 2012 can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

SQA delivered a priority appeals process for learners requiring the outcome of an appeal for immediate progression to university, college, training or employment this year. These appeals were completed on 5 September and students informed of the outcomes.

Further industrial action has been averted following SQA’s unions accepting a pay offer on 23 September, and SQA is currently reviewing the remaining appeals with the aim of completing these by the end of October.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10987 on 27 September 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

NatureScot have made staff available to assist the Seabird Centre with the analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images, which were gathered by the Centre in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. The images have been used to assess the bird populations. NatureScot, alongside the Seabird Centre and the University, are considering options to repeat this survey next year.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of fixed penalties issued for the offence of flytipping, nor information on how many of these have been paid.

This detailed information can be obtained by contacting individual issuing authorities. Authorised officers from Local Authorities, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Police Scotland and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park can issue penalties for the offence of flytipping.

The Scottish Government recently consulted on proposals for our new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, including measures to strengthen enforcement measures.

We will publish the final National Litter and Flytipping Strategy later this year, which will set out effective system-wide action to prevent and address littering.

Enforcement is one of the Strategy’s key themes.

The Scottish Government recently consulted on proposals for our new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, including measures to strengthen enforcement measures.

We will publish the final National Litter and Flytipping Strategy later this year, which will set out effective system-wide action to prevent and address flytipping.

Enforcement is one of the Strategy’s key themes.