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Novavax Nuvaxovid is currently available in all Health Boards as an alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and is only to be used in exceptional circumstances. This means that when mRNA vaccines are not considered clinically suitable, the Novavax vaccine may be used for booster vaccination of adults over 18 years. Not clinically suitable means that you can only have Novavax if you have a specific history of allergies to the mRNA vaccines or its ingredients, or your condition makes it unsuitable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11865 on 17 November 2022. Our New Build Heat Standard will apply to all new buildings seeking building warrant approval from 1 April 2024, as well as conversions of existing buildings – however, only where certain criteria are met. Installing new zero direct emissions heating systems will reduce the exposure of consumers to the costs associated with volatile fossil fuel prices.

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 .

The Scottish Government does not hold Cytosponge diagnostic service data broken down by individual Health Board, however the following press release provides detail on the national total delivered by NHS Scotland as at 15 November 2022: https://www.gov.scot/news/innovative-health-technology-helping-patients/ .

In accordance with the requirements of the Railways Act 1993 and the Scottish Ministers’ Franchising Policy Statement, consideration is being given to the successor arrangement for the continued provision of Caledonian Sleeper services.

The most robust method for reporting ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operational performance across the current contract to-date is by presenting the average daily number of non-operational charge point units. The following table provides a monthly breakdown of this information across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network under the current contract. The transitional period immediately after the migration to the current operator focused on network stabilisation, including resolving technical issues across the network, hence the disparity in operational performance in the months of August and September.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention by an engineer.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area. However, CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will be continuously updated with detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, such as uptime by Local Authority area.

Decisions on non-domestic rates beyond 2022-23, including any reliefs, will be considered in the context of the Scottish Budget and in line with the Framework for Tax, prevailing economic conditions and other government priorities.

The Scottish Government has taken forward a range of measures to support the efficient delivery of Scotland’s Redress Scheme, which is survivor led with feedback encouraged and acted upon.

The scheme was established to provide acknowledgement and tangible recognition of the harm that has been caused to those who experienced abuse in care, with the commitment that it would be less adversarial and swifter than civil court action. The redress payment reflects part of that tangible recognition and is not considered compensation in the same way as a sum awarded by a court.

In direct response to feedback about timescales the number of case workers has increased from 12 in December 2021 to 23 in November 2022, and as a result we will see swifter allocation of completed applications to case workers from January.

The operating model was changed in April 2022 to ensure all applications received are initially triaged by the case work team and applicants are then advised what further information is required to progress their application. With applicants consent, case workers make referrals to the Redress Support Service to progress applications where additional information is required. This can include support from organisations specialised in record searches. To date, 834 referrals have been made to this service.

A group has been established which is considering ways in which we might be able to improve the process of applicants accessing care records as it is recognised that some applicants are having challenges in this area.

The Survivor Forum, which was established in March, has reported on its first survey and feedback on the scheme has been provided to both the Scottish Government and Redress Scotland, the independent decision making body. The forum will also increase its activity and engagement with applicants in early 2023, providing further opportunities to provide feedback on what is working well and what could be done better or differently.

Scottish Child Payment offers financial support to families with children, and is paid as a top-up of certain qualifying reserved benefits, such as Universal Credit. Applicants must also demonstrate child responsibility to meet the qualifying criteria in full.

The regulations for Scottish Child Payment specifically define kinship care as a way of meeting child responsibility and so low-income families that are also kinship carers may be eligible for Scottish Child Payment if they meet all the eligibility criteria. We recently amended the definition of kinship care to ensure more low income kinship carers are eligible now we have rolled out Scottish Child Payment to children under 16. These regulations can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2022/336/contents/made ..

Low income families that are also foster carers are not eligible for Scottish Child Payment. This is because children in foster care are considered looked after by the local authority and, as such, foster carers do not satisfy the legal responsibilities or rights that entitle them to child responsibility benefits. Foster carers receive allowances from local authorities to cover the needs of children living with them.

The Scottish Government will not be represented at the World Cup in Qatar .

NHS National Services Scotland is currently conducting a procurement process to robustly assess digital products available to support the assessment and screening of people with long COVID, and determine which one is best placed to meet the needs highlighted by NHS Boards.

This national procurement process is expected to identify a preferred supplier shortly, after which licences for the selected product would be procured.