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Our internationally recognised Equally Safe strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG) emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes and victim blaming culture which enable such violence to take place. That is why through our Delivering Equally Safe Fund we support a range of projects which promote culture and behaviour change. This includes over £800,000 split between; White Ribbon Scotland to engage men as allies and change-makers; Zero Tolerance to develop professional skills in policy, practice and wider public campaigning; and Engender to explore primary prevention policy approaches.

As set out in the Programme for Government we will consult on draft laws to give effect to recommendations for criminal law reform contained in Baroness Kennedy’s Report, Misogyny, A Human Rights Issue , with a view to introducing legislation later in this Parliament. This sends a strong message that these behaviours are not, and will not be, accepted.

Education plays a key role in challenging attitudes, including victim blaming. That is why we fund and support education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing gender-based violence such as the Equally Safe at School project, Mentors in Violence peer education programme and the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group.

We also support campaigns and work by partners, such as Police Scotland’s “Don’t be that Guy” campaign as positive contributions which encourage men to take responsibility and challenges the notion that it is the responsibility of women and girls to protect themselves from male violence.

This Scottish Government has consistently championed our Veterans being the first Devolved Administration in the UK to create a Veterans Ministerial portfolio and the first nation in the UK to establish a Veterans Commissioner.

In August, we published our refreshed Veterans Strategy Action Plan in which we reaffirmed our longstanding commitment to our veterans, taking stock of the extensive services and support that the Scottish Government and our partners provide. This was informed by a light-touch consultation with key stakeholders to review our original action plan, first published in 2020, to establish the extent to which our existing commitments remained valid and where there were opportunities to add more detail to these commitments or add new ones. We identified a number of new commitments and updated several existing ones which will help us to better deliver and expand our support to our veterans and their families.

Furthermore, on 8 November I provided the Scottish Government’s annual update to Parliament on its support for the veterans and Armed Forces community. This was accompanied by a published written report which details fully the achievements we have made this year in delivering the commitments we have made to veterans and their families.

The Scottish Veterans Commissioner (SVC) also published her annual assessment of the Scottish Government’s progress against the recommendations made by the Commissioners since 2015. The SVC published this year’s progress report on 16 November which demonstrated good progress against recommendations made since 2015.

47,156 dwellings had an unoccupied exemption based on a snapshot as at September 2022. Further breakdowns are not held centrally.

Scotland needs a system that supports our higher education sector to deliver the best learning, research and experience for those who choose to study in Scotland. The reinstatement of the Graduate Route was welcome but the scope must also be widened to include HND qualifications from Scottish institutions as was under the previous post-study work scheme and Fresh Talent. it remains clear that UK immigration system still does not address Scotland’s economic, demographic and social needs. We will continue to push UK Ministers to engage meaningfully on these issues.

As Scotland’s Redress Scheme will run for at least 5 years from December 2021, fluctuations in the inflation rates over this period are to be expected. To mandate routine or regular changes to account for these fluctuations would have added another level of complexity which may have detracted from the core aim of providing acknowledgement and tangible recognition of harm caused to those who experienced abuse in care.

No amount of money can make up for the harm done, and survivors have told us that, in some cases, the receipt of a payment, rather than the level of that payment, has been the recognition they have been seeking. The redress payment reflects only one part of that tangible recognition, which also includes the provision of support to access a personal apology, which again can be more meaningful to some survivors than the payment.

There is no fixed budget or limit to the number of redress payments which will be paid by the Scottish Government. We are committed to making financial redress to all survivors of abuse in care who receive an offer of payment from the independent decision making body, Redress Scotland, based upon the published assessment framework and associated payment levels .

Payments made through the scheme are not index linked. Section 39 of the Revised Financial Memorandum outlines that there is provision, but not a requirement, for Scottish Ministers to increase redress payment amounts to account for inflation, as set out in Section 41 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021, through the introduction of regulations.

At this time, the longer term economic forecasts mean there are no current plans to introduce regulations of this nature, and monitoring of the situation will continue.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to the efficacy of Historic Environment Scotland’s HistoricScot Youth Forum are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

Scottish Government has provided over £150 million to date in additional support to maintain the capacity and capability of the independent sector.

We have also introduced new incentives for recruitment and retention of dentists in certain remote and rural areas. This will mean that dentists, including orthodontists, who join the NHS Board list in Scotland for the first time can receive up to £25,000 over a two-year period.

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited has advised us that it has reached agreement to second some of its staff to work for BAE Systems on fabrication work for the Type 26 Frigate programme. The precise details are subject to ongoing commercial discussions between the two companies.

Four bids were submitted for Creative Scotland’s recent tender for a partner organisation to deliver ‘Youth-led Arts Funding For Young People’. The successful organisation will be announced early in the new year.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 requires licensing authorities to maintain and publish a public register of short-term let licences on their website, or other website established for that purpose. The register is required to include a note of the kind and terms of each licence granted by the licensing authority, as well as other information set out in paragraph 13 of Schedule 2 of the Licensing Order.

Licensing authorities are also required to share content of their public register with the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis for statistical analysis purposes. We expect to receive the first quarterly return for processing and analysis early in the new year. This initial return will include data relating to the number of short-term let licence applications received by 31 December 2022, and the status of those applications.