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Work on the Easy Read version of the third paper in the Building a New Scotland series is nearing completion and we expect the document will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government informed all relevant applicants on 19 December 2022 that the intention is to communicate next steps in relation to the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning third sector fund by the end of March 2023.

In partnership with the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomics Medicine (SSNGM), we have been developing our Strategic Intent for Genomics Medicine which will be published in the coming weeks.

While early in its’ development, we will also publish our first Genomics Strategy for Scotland and associated implementation plan in the course of 2023.

In December 2021 the Animal Disease Policy Group (ADPG), which includes a range of avian influenza experts and representatives from UK administrations, agreed to collect and store samples from non-avian wildlife through the existing Diseases of Wildlife Surveillance (DoWS) scheme for retrospective testing. This would allow a better understanding of the epidemiological situation regarding influenza viruses in non-avian wildlife species while limiting the pressure on veterinary resource or the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) Weybridge allowing the prioritisation of testing of wild birds and poultry. ADPG took the decision in July 2022 to commence the retrospective testing of stored samples of mammal carcasses at the NRL. The samples had been collected as part of routine wildlife surveillance in 2021 and 2022. In February 2023 it was reported to Scottish Government that four seals from Scotland have returned positive findings of HPAI H5N1 from this retrospective testing programme.

Despite these findings, the risk of the H5N1 strain to non-avian species, including humans, remains low. The positive identification of HPAI in mammals remains an unusual event and available genomic surveillance data, reported by APHA in the UK, indicates that there is no widespread mammalian adaption of the virus.

Scottish Government continues to monitor the UK and international situation regarding HPAI in avian and non-avian wildlife. Since the beginning of 2023, APHA have moved to a system of real-time testing through the GB wildlife surveillance scheme of mammalian samples collected including seals.

The average repairs and maintenance expenditure per council house by local authority from 1998-99 to 2021-22 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64022.

It should be noted that the vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on maintenance of council housing, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government accepts the Supreme Court’s judgment as to whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate for an independence referendum without a Section 30 order.

There is however a democratic mandate for an independence referendum, and we stand ready to engage with the UK Government to give the Scottish people the right to choose their constitutional future in line with the result of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election which resulted in a clear majority in the Parliament in favour for a referendum.

Given the legislative and other arrangements that would be necessary, the Scottish Government is not planning for a referendum in October of this year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15269 on 8 March 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website .

Work to develop the prospectus is drawing on a range of officials across the organisation who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government. The exact number of officials contributing as part of their wider responsibilities is not known as the Scottish Government has no need to record this information.

The Constitutional Futures Division coordinates work on the Building a New Scotland series. As of 22 February 2023, it comprises 24 civil servants, including one Deputy Director. This equates to 23.3 FTE .

The global pandemic was the biggest shock our NHS has faced in its 74 year existence. Our NHS Recovery Plan published on 25 August 2021 invests £1 billion of targeted funding over five years to increase NHS capacity, deliver reform, and ensure everyone has the treatment they need at the right time, in the right place, and as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government values the commitment that foster carers make to providing safe and loving homes for children and young people who are not able to stay with their own families. As part of Keeping The Promise, we are taking action to support children and young people to maintain the connections and friendships that are most important to them.

Whilst the Scottish Government has not published specific guidance on maintaining contact with former foster carers, the principle of helping children and young people maintain positive relationships is at the heart of the Staying Together and Connected guidance published in July 2021. This guidance has been supported by a National Implementation Group whose work is due to conclude in Spring. Part of the Group’s work has been to consider what more we can do to better understand, map and support the key relationships that are important to children and young people.

The Why Not? Trust has developed a Directory called Why Not? Reconnect which provides adults, who experienced foster care in their childhood, the opportunity to reconnect with those foster families who cared for them. The Directory is funded through the Promise Partnership Fund, a Scottish Government Fund aimed at delivering work to Keep The Promise.