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The Scottish Government, along with the other UK nations, takes advice on whether or not to introduce any new screening programmes from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group.  

The UK NSC conducts an Annual Call for Topics, which allows members of the public and stakeholders to submit new potential screening programmes for the Committee to consider and assess against internationally recognised criteria. In the 2021/22 Call, Metachromatic leukodystrophy was submitted and accepted for review.  

It is not yet possible to say when this review will be complete, but we continue to monitor the situation closely. Should the UK NSC recommend screening following this review, the National Screening Oversight (NSO) and Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) will then consider the best course of implementation for Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) along with partners in the UK Clinical Research Recovery, Resilience and Growth programme considers it important that clinical trial populations reflect the populations that could benefit from the treatments as closely as possible. For this reason, a theme of this programme is the widening of opportunities for people to participate in clinical research. CSO is working with partners on the UK-wide Be Part of Research initiative and invests in the Scottish Health Research Register and Biobank (SHARE) with this aim. CSO is also funding a research project looking at ways to support ethnic diversity in clinical trials populations.  

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Information about Scottish Government funding since 2000 is not available from a single source or held in a single location. Records retention policy may also affect availability of records over this timescale.

The Scottish Government currently provides funding to the Scottish Refugee Council to support Refugee Festival Scotland.

The small grants will enable wide-scale public engagement across Scotland for the refreshed New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. Arrangements for the distribution of the small grants are being developed by the strategy’s key partners, the Scottish Government, COSLA and Scottish Refugee Council. Further information will be available in due course.

Crown Estate Scotland anticipate announcing the offer of Exclusivity Agreements to successful applicants for Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas decarbonisation (INTOG) offshore wind projects in Spring 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14876 on 28 February 2023. 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

To support delivery of the National Infrastructure Mission we established the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland to provide long term strategic advice on national infrastructure priorities. Our infrastructure plans build on these recommendations and work is ongoing to develop our infrastructure improvement programme, through developing a new method of appraisal and prioritisation to ensure our infrastructure commitments match long-term goals and in preparing a cross-sector infrastructure needs assessment. This will ensure we are making the best capital investment decisions possible across the public sector to deliver on our ambitious programme for Scotland.

The Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-25 sets out a hierarchy for infrastructure investment which aids decision making and planning on investment choices by encouraging maintenance and enhancement of existing assets over new assets, where appropriate. This Infrastructure Investment Plan sets maintenance and enhancement as a Scottish Government infrastructure priority and all public bodies, including Local Authorities can draw on this when making investment decisions. The Scottish Futures Trust and Scottish Government have jointly developed an Asset Strategy Guidance note to support the application of the infrastructure hierarchy (link Here ) and have developed a Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard to support the whole public sector in making good investment decisions. More information on the Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard can be found here: Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard and on the Infrastructure Investment Plan, here: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland .

The Scottish Government does not have access to this information at this time. As set out in the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will produce and maintain a list of registered producers prior to the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Applications for additional providers to join the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment (AVE) Scheme opened on 16 January 2023 and closed on the 24 February 2023.

We will make a further announcement about the outcome of this current accreditation process in due course.

There will be further opportunities for alternative suppliers to join the Scheme at regular intervals, and we will work with any potential applicant to help them understand our requirements, as well as how to obtain accreditation.

In line with the action from the Drug Death Taskforce 'Changing Lives' report that the Scottish Government should work with NHS naloxone leads and pharmaceutical companies to ensure sufficient supplies are available to meet demand we are working closely with these bodies, as well as others involved in the supply and distribution of Naloxone, to ensure sufficient supplies are available and to monitor demand and any increases.