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We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular engagement.

NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 September 2022, showed an increase of 17% in CAMHS community staffing in NHS Lanarkshire compared to March 2021. This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.

Civil solicitors have always covered a wide geographical area. The location of firms does not appear to support the assertion that advice is not available. Unlike in other jurisdictions, the Scottish Government has maintained wide access to legal aid for civil law issues. In addition to the availability of legal aid for private legal firms, we also fund a number of law centres who provide advice and representation on issues not normally dealt with by commercial firms, as well as localised advice providers who are supported by grant funding from the legal aid fund. We also fund public legal services through the Civil Legal Assistance Office. All of these services can and do operate across a wide geographic area.

The average length of time between date of death and FAI completion date in days is 1,067.

This figure is based on COPFS figures rather than the published FAI Statistics (the difference being that COPFS records the FAI as concluded when evidence is concluded, not when the Determination is issued) and accordingly it relates to 42 cases and not the 44 on the FAI statistics. Of those 42, the shortest length was 322 days and the longest 3,440 days. 32 out of the 42 (76%) of the FAIs related to deaths which occurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As stated above, once a First Notice has been lodged with the Sheriff Clerk, the Crown has limited control over the timescale for commencing and concluding an FAI.

Whilst it is accepted that the average timescale has increased, this can be explained by COPFS progressing its oldest cases and ensuring that the FAI process is commenced. It should also be recognised that FAIs have been progressed and concluded in 2021-22 and the preceding year notwithstanding the considerable effect on COPFS and court business placed by the COVID pandemic, including courts being closed for a number of months and thereafter a phased reintroduction of court business. Court users quickly and successfully adapted to new ways of working including the use of WebEx to conduct FAIs online to ensure cases were progressed.

As the First Minister indicated in Parliament on 27 October, she was aware of the report and stated “that those reports are deeply concerning, and I want to be very clear that we take them extremely seriously. Any foreign country that operates in Scotland must abide by Scottish law. The Scottish Government fully supports individuals’ rights to freedom of expression, which is an extremely important principle".

The First Minister went on to say: "Obviously, those matters require to be fully and properly investigated. It would not be appropriate for me to go into too much detail, but I know, as a result of a conversation that I had yesterday with the Chief Constable, that the police are aware of those reports. Of course, the police are operationally independent, and it is up to them to determine what investigations would be appropriate. However, they are aware of those reports, and I repeat that those reports require to be treated extremely seriously.”

With funding from the Scottish Government, in December 2021, SEPA contracted an environmental consultant to manage the construction of a leachate management system at the former landfill site at Tarbolton Moss, to prevent the ongoing discharges of landfill leachate to neighbouring watercourses and make it possible for leachate disposal to the public sewerage system. The design phase is now complete. As the answer to S6W-11600 on the 4 November 2022 updates, we are working with public partners to begin work to implement leachate management as soon as possible. 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 .

SEPA continues to monitor ongoing environmental risks at the site and completed its latest survey in August 2022. This found no significant increasing trends associated with the migration of landfill gas or impact to groundwater from leachate.

SEPA publishes monitoring updates and the latest update (August 2022) will be available shortly here: Tarbolton Moss Landfill | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

To date, there has been no constructive engagement from the UK Government on a Veterinary Agreement based on regulatory alignment. It is Scottish Government policy to continue to align with EU standards. If the UK Government were to engage and agree to this, it would make a UK-EU veterinary agreement straightforward and eliminate many trade barriers. Unfortunately the UK Government’s refusal to engage prevents this from happening. We continue to urge the UK Government to explore the possibility of such an agreement at the earliest opportunity.

Audit Scotland’s 2017 progress report made seven recommendations for the Scottish Government. Since then, two of the recommendations have been completed in full, four have been partially completed and one has not been completed.

The SDS Implementation Plan 2019-2021 built on the learning from the Audit Scotland report and incorporated the inputs of third sector organisations, COSLA and people with lived experience. The implementation of this plan was disrupted by the emergence of COVID19, and efforts to respond to this included publishing SDS pandemic guidance in July 2020.

The Scottish Government will issue a significant update of the SDS Statutory Guidance later this month, and is currently working with COSLA and a national group of stakeholders to develop an SDS improvement plan to drive improvements in SDS implementation covering the years leading up to the establishment of the National Care Service. This will take into account the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report of 2017 as well as from reports published since then, including the Feeley report of 2021.

It is an engineering decision on areas of risk when completing a Single Building Assessment. The Assessment is a whole building approach, and fire engineers highlight areas of risk to ensure safety for homeowners.

Grant payments are generally issued within 5 working days of the returned signed letter being received. This applies to initial and other grant payments in this programme.