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The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland publishes extensive information about drinking water quality in all regions across Scotland on its website, including but not limited to annual reports, water quality incidents and enforcement notices. This can be found at www.dwqr.scot .

Further to the list of active groups and sub-groups within the Finance and Economy portfolio provided in answer to question S6W-12330, the last meeting dates for these are set out in the following table:

Amended Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) regulations were introduced in November 2021 for use by all Road Authorities to help tackle the main issues that had been raised by the TRO Review Group.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with a range of stakeholders including the local authority sector, Police Scotland, business and active travel representatives to understand any remaining issues being encountered with the various road order processes.

It is important to note that the vast majority of Group A Streptococcal (GAS) infections result in mild illnesses that can be easily treated, and that complications are very rare.

Public Health Scotland (PHS), in line with standard public health procedures, are leading on the response to the earlier than usual rise in GAS cases. An incident management process is in place, and PHS are working closely with the other health agencies of the UK to ensure we have a clear picture of the situation.

PHS have also issued an alert to ensure health services act swiftly to identify and treat suspected cases, and guidance has been provided to nurseries and schools on the need for good hygiene measures, and steps to manage outbreaks to minimise transmission.

PHS are working with the UK Health Security Agency to develop guidance to manage clinical cases of GAS and iGAS to ensure consistency across the 4 nations.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has issued a Medicine Supply Alert Notice providing advice on the supply of Antibiotics for the treatment of GAS. In addition, the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) has issued interim guidance to support antibiotic management of GAS infection in children age 18 and under.

PHS have provided information through the media and online advising parents to seek advice from a health professional if their child is displaying symptoms of scarlet fever.

Further information on Group A Streptococcus and Scarlet Fever, including when to seek medical help, is available on NHS Inform .

As set out in the Bute House Agreement, the Joint Working Group comprises members of the Scottish Government working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA. The Joint Working Group will consider and decide as appropriate whether to seek to engage various organisations or professional bodies as it approaches its work.

The Scottish Government welcomes the commitment to transparency evidenced in Redress Scotland’s Progress Report and accompanying Facts and Figures Report, both of which were published on 5 December 2022.

The Progress Report details the first six months of the body’s existence (December 2021 – June 2022). Further progress has been made in the period since - on governance, staffing and processing capacity as Redress Scotland matures. A further update on activity will be given in Redress Scotland’s first annual report, due next year.

The Facts and Figures Report is the first of a regular series, sharing information about completed redress applications, types of applications, timescales for decision making and levels of redress awards. The reports will give up-to-date data on the work that Redress Scotland delivers. The Scottish Government welcomes Redress Scotland’s continuing plans to consult with the Survivor Forum about the information they publish and how they should develop their work in this area.

The Scottish Government is supportive of the reintroduction of ferry services from Scotland to Europe.

My officials in Transport Scotland have engaged with a number of interested parties proposing such services and we will continue to engage with potential operators and Scotland’s main ports to provide information and advice on what the Scottish Government can offer in support of a viable commercial proposition. The Scottish Government and Transport Scotland have also been engaging with port and haulage stakeholders to explore options to increase trade moved through Scottish ports and we continue to work with Scotland’s main ports to explore the possibility of new ferry services to the Continent.

The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university, have been provided in the following table.

The tables only cover those entering ‘pre-clinical medicine’ and do not include other students entering medical schools on ‘clinical medicine’ or students in continuing years of study.

Data has been provided in two tables due to a change in the subject classification coding used by universities in 2019-20.

In his 2019 letter to the Education and Skills Committee, the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science proposed to undertake the introducing of the ability for the SFC to attend the board meetings of assigned colleges.

Given the recent resumption of work around the Good College Governance Task Group’s recommendations, following a pause due to the pandemic, the Scottish Government has no immediate plans to implement direct observation of college board meetings. However, Scottish Government officials will work with the SFC, Colleges Scotland, regional strategic boards, trade unions, student associations, and the College Development network through the Good Governance Steering Group to implement changes to college governance in the best possible way.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12954 on 20 December 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx' .

The Scottish Government undertakes monitoring and evaluation of all funded programmes once they are live. Monitoring and evaluation is used to assess progress against agreed targets so can only be done once a project has started and there is progress to assess.

For the £1.7 million worth of funded projects, and in line with standard Scottish Government grant-management practice, we hold monthly update conversations and formally assess progress on a quarterly basis based on formal progress reports. Project specific monitoring and evaluation plans are developed based on each individual grant’s objectives to determine indicators that will accurately measure progress.

Our programmes seek to empower communities to identify the priorities to be addressed through climate justice support and to build resilience to the local material and social impacts of climate change that they have identified. Fundamental in achieving that resilience is through our future programmes mainstreaming communities participation in programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This means communities, including the most marginalised within communities, participate in determining and monitoring the metrics and baselines by which a programme is deemed a success.

Our future programmes seek to mainstream communities participation in programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Our upcoming £24m Climate Just Communities programme will ensure that communities, including the most marginalised within communities, participate in determining and monitoring the metrics and baselines by which a programme is deemed a success.