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The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to an infrastructure solution to address the landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful. I share the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route, which is why we are progressing measures for the short, medium and long term in tandem.

On 2 June 2023 the preferred route for the permanent, long-term solution at the Rest and Be Thankful was announced consisting of an online option with a 1.4 kilometre long debris flow shelter. Accompanying this announcement, the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges Stage 2 Assessment Report was published and includes the current estimated cost of the preferred option which is approximately £405 million - £470 million (at 2023 prices).

We recognise the vital work that services like Fife Rape and Sexual Assault Centre do day in, day out to support women and girls. We also understand the difficult circumstances that the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis continues to put on front line services.

The 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding provided frontline services for women and girls affected by gender-based violence with an additional £5 million to deal with additional pressures that occurred during the pandemic. Rape Crisis Scotland was awarded £2,250,000 over two years, for network members. We are working with Rape Crisis Scotland to ensure that there is an extension to their 100 days funding beyond September 2023 until the end of this financial year. We are also supporting them beyond this bridge funding to diversify their funding base.

The CashBack for Communities fund is a unique programme that reinvests money recovered from the proceeds of crime to support young people across Scotland.

The 29 organisations that successfully applied for Phase 6 funding were notified about the award in March 2023. Four community groups that previously received indirect funding in Phase 5 were successful in applying for direct funding in Phase 6.

Other previously funded community and youth groups have been informed about the availability of continued funding through Phase 6. This information was circulated in March 2023 by the partners that previously supported groups in Phase 5.

Details of all the Phase 6 CashBack partners were announced on 13 March 2023 and are available on the CashBack for Communities website:

https://cashbackforcommunities.org/

Final discussions and amendments of the new cancer strategy have been taking place with officials. We intend to publish the Strategy in mid to late June.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of reports received by Police Scotland of scammers calling at people’s homes or targeting people online.

(a)Some information on door-to-door scammers is available from a 2018-19 study into police recorded fraud in Scotland, the findings of which were presented within the Recorded crime in Scotland 2018-19 National Statistics .

This study suggested that ‘fraudulent selling’ accounts for approximately 12% of fraud crimes, equivalent to 1,160 crimes. This typically relates to where a victim has paid for a service or product (either in person or through the internet) that the perpetrator has no intention of providing. This could include through online transactions, or payments to bogus workmen. Further analysis of this group suggests that an estimated 270 crimes of recorded fraud (or 3% of all fraud) involved a perpetrator knocking on the victim’s door, taking money and not providing a service.

(b) In general, the data received from Police Scotland for producing the National Statistics on Recorded Crime, is a simple count of the number of crimes and offences which the police have recorded and cleared up. As such we are unable to separately identify back to 1999 which recorded crimes of fraud were committed online.

However we recently introduced a new chapter within the National Statistics, which estimates the volume of recorded cyber-crime in Scotland based on a sample of police records. Under this approach, the number of recorded frauds which involved the use of cyber technology in any way are shown below.

Police recorded fraud in Scotland that was estimated to be cyber-enabled.

The role of the Scottish Government, since the three approved schemes began operating in July 2012, is to monitor each scheme for compliance with the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 . This includes being satisfied that SDS and the other tenancy deposit schemes have clear and substantial processes in place that meet the requirements laid out in the regulations.

As part of this monitoring, the three schemes quarterly performance reports were analysed and measured against the key performance indicators to ensure these were adhered to. These include response times to customer enquiries and complaints, return of undisputed deposits and dispute resolution. The latest quarterly performance reports indicate all KPIs have been met.

The table below shows a percentage average, of instances in which performance is achieved, for each financial year for KPI 5 - Return of deposit following notification of dispute resolution decision.

As highlighted in answer to question S6W-15794 on 22 March 2023 Scottish Government officials have had regular engagement on progress throughout the implementation of the Safe Deposits Scotland (SDS) system upgrade and will continue to do so. Officials have discussed the concerns raised by Mr Greene as part of this engagement.

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

Scottish Government officials will next meet with SafeDeposits Scotland on Thursday 14 September for their 6 monthly review meeting. There are currently no plans for myself to meet with SafeDeposits Scotland.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board concluded as planned in March 2023, having overseen the development of a range of high quality statutory services and increase in third sector provision across Scotland.

Implementation continues with an interim Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Advisory Group supporting further development of services in a sustainable manner, working alongside the Perinatal Mental Health Network Scotland.

New oversight arrangements are under development and will be announced in due course. We will ensure that the voices and experiences of women, infants and their families remain at the heart of this work.

Curriculum for Excellence is a flexible curriculum with defined experiences and outcomes that allow for teaching and learning of a very wide range of topics. This ensures that schools are able to deliver a curriculum that is best suited to their learners in their circumstances and local context.

Learning for Sustainability, which is an entitlement for all learners, provides the general curricular theme on sustainable development education, social justice, climate change, global citizenship, children’s rights, equality and outdoor learning.

There are experiences and outcomes across the curriculum that cover learning on material extraction and end product use such us: Sciences SCN 4-04b: “Through investigation I can explain the formation and use of fossil fuels and contribute to discussions on the responsible use and conservation of finite resources”; Social Studies SOC 4-08a: “I can discuss the sustainability of key natural resources and analyse the possible implications for human activity”; and Technology TCH 2-06a “I can analyse how lifestyles can impact on the environment and Earth’s resources and can make suggestions about how to live in a more sustainable way”.