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The update on the funding for Autism Network Scotland is that I met with Richard Ibbotson on 18 March 2021, to set out the reasons for the withdrawal of funding and to allow him an opportunity to convey his views directly to me. I explained the decision and that I had considered this carefully but concluded that my decision remained.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving the lives of autistic people in Scotland.

In the 2021-22 Budget, we announced an additional £125 million of funding to help people impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic access employment opportunities.

This includes:

• £70 million for the Young Person’s Guarantee – continuing to provide work, education or training for every 16 to 24-year-old across Scotland
• £35 million for skills and retraining, including for the National Transition Training Fund, which supports people who are unemployed or at risk of redundancy due to COVID-19
• £20 million for No One Left Behind – helping people who are long-term unemployed move towards and into work

This additional £125 million in our latest budget is just one strand of the Scottish Government’s proposed investment of over £1 billion for jobs and skills, including further funding for Skills Development Scotland and Fair Start Scotland. It will allow us to extend the reach of these key initiatives and help meet demand, building on our substantial existing investment in education, employability and skills and supporting a strong economic recovery for Scotland.

We are also focussed on delivering the maximum support for the businesses and the economy as possible and the Find Business Support website contains information on the range of business support available. £460 million was allocated to the Economy, Fair Work & Culture portfolio for strategic framework business support in Stage 2 of the 2021-22 Budget (Scotland) Bill.

The current regulations limit the entry of other people into homes for the purpose of the upkeep, maintenance or functioning of the house to where the work is essential for that purpose in level 4. These restrictions have been put in place to limit the transmission of the virus.

The Scottish Government has reviewed the Strategic Framework. As part of this, we have indicated the steps required for the easing of restrictions. As set out in the First Minister’s statement on 16 March, we expect the restrictions on working in other people’s homes to be relaxed on 26 April. The updated Strategic Framework sets out the conditions on easing, including meeting the WHO’s six conditions and all JCVI Priority Groups 1-9 having been offered the vaccine.

Emissions from energy from waste plants are strictly controlled under the Pollution Prevention and Control regulatory regime. Correctly operated, modern energy from waste facilities should have minimal impact on overall local air quality.

A multi layered and highly precautionary approach is taken to the permitting and operation of Incineration sites, and these facilities receive a continued high level of scrutiny from SEPA throughout their lifetime.

The Pollution Prevention and Control permitting process goes into significant detail on the design and performance of the proposed EfW plant, with modelling studies for air emission and human health reviewed in detail by dedicated specialists within SEPA. The relevant standards were reviewed and considerably tightened last year in alignment with the EU BREF process and these very tight standards must be complied with by December 2023.

Incineration sites are required to have a Continuous Emissions Monitoring system (CEMS) in place, which uses a dedicated separate computer system and has a standby system in place. Manual monitoring of emissions also takes place four times within the first year of Operation (subsequently twice per year) alongside multiple tests during commissioning. SEPA also undertakes its own manual samples of air emissions once per year. Soil samples are also taken at regular intervals on or near to the site to monitor long term effects and in some cases ambient air quality near to the site is also sampled. The results of all of these tests are publicly available through SEPA’s Public Register. No site is permitted to operate above the consented limits with inbuilt safeguards called interlocks forcing the site to shut down `if limits are breached.

All local authorities are required to regularly review air quality in their areas and to submit an annual report to the Scottish Government summarising their air quality work from the previous year. This report should include identification of and assessment plans for any new potential emissions sources.

GP practices can identify high-risk people with asthma by searching their records for patients codified as having asthma alongside other factors such as inhaled steroids, courses of oral steroids prescribed, hospital admissions, or smoking status.

The Centre for Workplace Transformation is being developed in a way that is wholly consistent with the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework and commitments to inclusive growth and fair work. Embedding equality – including gender equality – will be at the core of the Centre’s activity.

The Scottish Government recognises that the pandemic could exacerbate existing labour market inequalities for protected groups including women. The Centre will help strengthen the range of activity already being undertaken through the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan to improve the experiences of women within the labour market.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that their staff have access to appropriate equipment in order to carry out their work. The Scottish Government has focused on supporting digital inclusion amongst learners and to date, over 67,000 devices and almost 14,000 connectivity solutions have been distributed.

The Scottish Government recognises the role played by the Commissioner and their role as the guardian of children’s rights in Scotland. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body sets the terms of the Commissioner’s appointment, including the allocation of resources. The Commissioner is required to report to Parliament each year on the exercise of his functions.

With regard to the creation of a Commissioner for Older People, the Scottish Government’s position has not changed and is set out in response to S5W-32242 on 22 Oc tober 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Our commitment to becoming a net-zero society by 2045 is unwavering. Scottish Ministers are fully committed to ending the practice of sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill by 2025, in line with recommendations previously made by the Committee on Climate Change.

However, we still need capacity to dispose of residual waste while we make the transition to a circular economy in Scotland. We are working with local authorities to ensure that incineration capacity is matched to future demand, including expected progress on reducing waste and increasing recycling.

In Scotland, it is illegal to incinerate materials that have been separately collected and are capable of being recycled, and waste incineration is strictly regulated in line with EU standards under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations.

A recent report from Zero Waste Scotland report showed that the greenhouse gas emissions from Energy from Waste are, on average, lower than for landfill. Nevertheless, we will continue to work with EfW operators and developers to consider opportunities to further improve the efficiency of plants, and consider how waste infrastructure can be ‘future-proofed’ for Carbon Capture and Storage technology in line with recent Committee on Climate Change recommendations.

As detailed in the Scottish Government’s response to questions S5W-34614 and S5W-34612 on 1 February 2021 we have provided funding for around 18,000 new and enhanced opportunities to support young people in 2020-21.

We have previously stated, in response to question S5W-33395 on 2 December 2020 that given the uncertainty around the labour market, with the extension of the furlough scheme and the impact of Brexit, we are not setting targets for the Young Person's Guarantee.

The Guarantee is not a standalone programme. We are providing £70 million in 2021/22 to create more opportunities for young people, building on our significant existing investment in Education, Employability and Skills infrastructure. We are in the process of developing a measurement and evaluation framework to understand how the Guarantee is delivering a range of different opportunities to support young people, as set out in response to question S5W-34872 on 1 February 2021 .

As part of this process, we recently published the first Local Authority Labour Market Dashboard and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) published the first monthly Participation Snapshot for 16 and 17 year olds. The Snapshot provides more timely data on the participation rate of young people across Scotland and will provide information on the activities young people are participating in.

This information along with the annual Participation Measure produced by SDS and planned evaluative activity will help us to monitor the number of opportunities as well measure and target opportunities and support for young people.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx