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There are regular meetings between Scottish Government officials and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) representatives, covering a wide range of subjects. The last such meeting took place on 10 January 2023 when the MHRA Cross-UK Partnership group met. The purpose of the MHRA Cross-UK Partnership group is to ensure that officials from the devolved administrations are kept updated on key MHRA issues that may affect or involve them. At the last meeting, the MHRA Corporate Plan, its Post Implementation Review of the Human Medicines Regulations, and safety issues were discussed.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is a member of the Sodium Valproate Implementation Working Group, which is supporting the safe introduction of new measures to further strengthen the safe prescribing of sodium valproate in clinical practice. The group last met on 6 January 2023.

A meeting took place on 9 December 2022 with the Chief Medical Officers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officers and the MHRA Chief Executive was invited as a guest. Dame June Raine attended briefly on 9 December and provided an informal update on sodium valproate.

The Scottish Government does not hold the data requested.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for issuing Victim Notification Scheme packs. They have advised that the number of packs issued to eligible victims for 2021-2022 and from April 2022 to 16 Jan 2023 – the information held to date - is as follows:

• 2021-2022 - Total 1674
• 2022 to 16 January 2023 – Total 1788

Eligible victims can register for the scheme at any time. The Scottish Prison Service has advised that the numbers of victims who have opted to register for the scheme in the financial year 2021-22 and from 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022 – the information held to date - are as follows:

• 2021-2022 – Total 400
• 1 April 2022 until 31 December 2022 – Total 356

I visited Inverclyde Royal Hospital on 4 July 2022. All Ministerial engagements, including visits, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .

Local authorities are required, under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, to keep houses they let fit for human habitation and ensure that any repairs are carried out when they are needed.

Whilst it is for local authorities to determine how they use funds available to them, including to maintain housing stock, the Scottish Government has increased local government funding by more than £1 billion in 2022-23 and the 2023-24 Local Government settlement of over £13.2 billion represents an increase of £570.8 million or 4.5% since the Budget Act, which is a real terms increase of £160.6 million or 1.3%.

We work closely with social landlords in our shared ambition to provide quality, affordable social homes and continue to have constructive engagement with them on a range of matters.

The Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2022 make it clear that the Board should reach its decision having taken into account all the matters before it including, where applicable, failure to disclose the location of a victims remains. The decision to refuse parole is at the discretion of the Parole Board.

The Scottish Government has discussed the use of the term Minor Attracted Person with Police Scotland following recent media coverage. Police Scotland has confirmed that it does not use the term and it is not used by its partners. The Scottish Government does not use this term and it is not used by Scottish public bodies.

Police Scotland has issued a statement which confirms that it does not use this term and explains the context to it being referred to in a June 2022 Police Scotland performance report.

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the financial value of the dark web in Scotland. Regulation of the Internet is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government maintains a close working relationship with Police Scotland, The National Crime Agency and other UK Government Departments and Agencies with respect to cyber security, cyber enabled and cyber dependent crime to ensure an effective response to the threat from cyber criminals to Scottish people and businesses.

Many people who report that they have never worked are suffering from long-term sickness or disability, or are looking after family. Just because someone does not have a job does not mean they are not making a valuable contribution to our economy and society.

The Scottish Government’s devolved employment support service, Fair Start Scotland, helps people with disabilities, long term health conditions and other barriers to progress into sustainable employment.

Through our Fair Work policy we are supporting the development of a labour market that is open, inclusive and offers good quality and rewarding jobs for everyone.

We are committed to developing life-long skills training opportunities, which support people to enter the workforce and enjoy valuable and rewarding careers.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on workforce as part of the Workforce Information quarterly publications.

As published in the latest release, Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland – workforce information: September 2022 , Social Security Scotland had a headcount of 81 temporary workers who were directly employed in September 2022.

In September 2022, Social Security Scotland had a total of 313 contingent workers, of which 208 were Temporary Agency Workers and 105 were other contingent workers.

A range of charges could be relevant, depending on the facts and circumstances of individual cases. For example, 3D-printing of guns and other offensive weapons would potentially be charged and prosecuted under s3(1)(a) and s5(2A)(a) of the Firearms Act 1968 or s141(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. However, neither the COPFS dataset nor the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings dataset holds information at the requested level (i.e. 3-D printing).