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Concerns about the impact of fireworks on animals has been a strong theme to emerge from both the 2019 and 2021 public consultations on fireworks, and I am grateful to the Dogs Trust, and other animal charities, for their continued engagement throughout our journey with fireworks.

All of the measures within the Bill, including the licensing system, have been developed following a significant programme of consultation, engagement and evidence gathering. This includes the work of the independent advisory Firework Review Group, who considered all of the evidence available and took an options appraisal approach to make a series of recommendations for change to the Scottish Government. The licensing system implements the Group’s recommendation that mandatory conditions should be introduced at the point of sale of fireworks to ensure that the purchase and use of fireworks is a well thought out and planned transaction.

The licensing system has been carefully developed to ensure that robust checks and balances are in place before a member of the public can purchase and use fireworks. This includes a mandatory requirement to successfully complete a training course, which will inform applicants of how to use fireworks in a safe and lawful manner, as well as understanding the impact that fireworks can have on others, including animals.

It is considered that the licensing system strikes the balance between introducing proportionate measures without placing overly restrictive barriers on the legitimate use of fireworks by members of the public, and there are no current plans to require licence holders to record on the relevant local authority website any display that they intend to hold.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has robust procedures in place to ensure complaints are fully investigated and any complaint is considered confidential while being progressed. I am not aware of the details of any complaints made against the SFRS Chief Officer, but I was given initial notice of the situation on 18 February 2022.

The investigation of any complaints against the Chief Officer of SFRS is entirely a matter for the SFRS Board. The Scottish Government has no role in the process and therefore no approval would be required by Scottish Ministers.

The responsibility for the organisation and funding of secure transport lies principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information on the use of restraint applied to care-experienced children whilst being securely transported is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey for escorting children serving a custodial sentence within secure care, who are Scottish Ministers’ responsibility. As part of that contract GEOAmey must provide the Scottish Government with details of when restraint is used. No incidents of restraint have been recorded during the current contract.

As part of the £145,000 funding we announced earlier in March, we are in the process of commissioning research into support services in Scotland. The analysis and research will help us to understand what support is needed to help the people affected by historical adoption practices.

We have also introduced a working group to assist with the implementation of peer support groups where we are working with partners to scope and develop the support service.

CalMac Ferries ltd is not listed as a Relevant Authority in the Islands (Scotland) Act, and is therefore not subject to duties under the Act.

At the present time 25 of these diesel trains operate between Scotland’s key cities and their replacement is planned with electric or bi-mode intercity trains at the earliest possible time, which is expected to be when Network Rail has completed the electrification of all or most of the routes they serve.

The current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract is due to expire in September 2024. Development and planning work is currently underway by officials to consider potential options for future contracts and to create an engagement plan for key stakeholders and local communities.

This work would usually be at a more refined stage but has been impacted largely due to staff resources being redeployed over the past two years to manage the challenges presented by the Covid -19 pandemic. We will be announcing further detail in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the registered nurse role across community, social care and primary care settings. We have introduced in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland a funded scheme to enable former nurses and midwives to complete a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved Return to Practice (RtP) programme and to re-enter the professional register across all fields of practice.

We have also invested over £45m since 2021 to train and introduce into the workforce an additional 375 nurses within the district nursing service. This investment supports the shift in balance of care into community settings by delivering more care in homes and reducing rates of admission to the acute hospital service.

The Scottish Government launched a national marketing campaign in November 2021 to attract more people with the right skills and values to the social care sector including nurses for social care settings. This campaign concluded in February 2022. In addition, the Scottish Government is working with the Department for Work and Pensions to host a series of sector-specific job fairs across Scotland during April and May to support recruitment efforts to all role types, including nurses, within the sector.

We have been working with NHS Boards to increase the use of international recruitment to alleviate pressures and fill key roles by supporting a number of measures. We have already provided £1m across NHS Scotland to build capacity within recruitment teams and a further £1m to fund International Recruitment Lead Posts. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take forward this recruitment.

On 11 March 2022, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the Strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The Strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the Strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.