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Duties relating to secure transport lie principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information is not held centrally on the use of handcuffs and restraint being applied to care-experienced children whilst being securely transported.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey to provide secure transport for children convicted on indictment and given a custodial sentence. for providing this transportation.

GEOAmey must provide the Scottish Government with details of when restraint is used. No incidents of restraint have been recorded during the current contract.

GEOAmey must ensure that the child or young person being transported, staff and the general public are protected by robust arrangements throughout each journey, including the prevention of escape. Multi-purpose vehicles are used to transport children and young people, rather than prison vans used to transport adult prisoners. Because of this, handcuffs are used for each journey.

Details of each journey, any risks to be taken into consideration by GEOAmey and any subsequent incidents are held on the Scottish Government’s Parole Case Management System.

The Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network published in January provides the guiding vision on how Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network will continue to grow across Scotland in a fair and inclusive way.

The Scottish Government’s £60m Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, that aims to leverage at least half of this funding from private sector sources over the next 4 years, will target investment in growing the public charging network across all of Scotland in areas where commercial investment on its own is unviable. This year, Scottish Government funding has already been provided or is being made available to all of Scotland’s local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and expansion plans including the Ayrshire Councils as well as Dumfries and Galloway.

The Scottish Government hold data on the number of journeys where children and young people are securely transported for the duration of a custodial sentence. Handcuffs are used in all journeys due to the type of vehicle used. The total number of journeys in the current contract period is:

Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard has provided full refund guarantees for the two new Islay vessels and these have been lodged with CMAL’s nominated bank. The refund guarantees cover the full amount payable prior to the delivery of each vessel at which point CMAL pay the final 20% and take possession of the vessel. The Contract has defined delivery dates set for both vessels in November 2024 and February 2025.

The Women’s Health Plan is a three year strategy, published in August 2021, which underpins actions to improve women’s health inequalities. The Plan includes the long term ambition to adopt a life course approach across all services to improve women’s health holistically.

Through the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland we aim to improve outcomes for people living with respiratory conditions in Scotland. The Plan sets out our priorities and commitments for driving improvement in the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support of people living with respiratory conditions including asthma.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08462 on 23 May 2022. 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 .

The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures impacting on all sectors.

The National Care Home Contract determines the rates paid for residential care by Local Authorities. This is negotiated annually by COSLA, Scottish Care and Scotland Excel, the Scottish Government is not a contractual party to this agreement. However we are aware that the cost of living crisis was discussed and an agreement was reached to recognise some of the pressures.

To support care homes to recruit and retain staff we have funded an increase in the minimum hourly rate for those providing direct Adult Social Care rose to £10.50 p/h. This represents an increase 12.9% for these workers in the course of a year.

Additionally by the end of this Parliament we will have budgeted over £800m of increased annual support for social care compared to current spending. We continue to provide NHS Boards and Integration Authorities with the funding they require to meet the cost of responding to the pandemic, which comes on top of the £1.7bn already provided to Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships in 2020-21.

In keeping with its original purpose, the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is supporting grassroots community-based initiatives across Scotland which promote good mental health and wellbeing. Managed locally by Third Sector Interface (TSI) bodies, the Fund is aimed at tackling priority issues such as suicide prevention, social isolation and loneliness, prevention and early intervention and addressing the mental health inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic. This includes a particular focus on the needs of ‘at risk’ target groups including women, people from a minority ethnic background, people facing socio-economic disadvantage and older people, amongst others.

Nearly 2000 awards have been given to community projects through Year 1 of the Fund. Early data shows that projects are being funded across the whole of Scotland, supporting a wide range of community activities involving sport, nature, outdoor initiatives, the arts, community cafes and choirs, with a large proportion of these focused on prevention, social isolation and loneliness. Projects being funded include activities which are open to all; whilst many others are focused on the needs of the ‘at risk’ target groups outlined above. Key themes have emerged among projects, such as building community and interpersonal links, often by facilitating discussion or activities and providing space and support.

Officials are currently compiling a monitoring report on year 1 of the Fund, which will be published in June. The report, based on monitoring data provided by each TSI, will give a detailed breakdown of the type of projects funded, key themes and groups targeted by projects, organisation types, and a wide range of illustrative examples of projects funded across Scotland.

Some examples include:

? Avenue Confidential, in Aberdeenshire, who provide Family Wellbeing Groups for parents affected by relationship challenges. These cover topics such as: self-care; healthy communication; blended families; children’s wellbeing; and recognising the impact of trauma in oneself and others.

? The Cactus Book Club, in Aberdeenshire, who are launching a book club for 16-26 year olds who are isolated due to their health. This group is often overlooked and it is a difficult age to be isolated. The club will address loneliness and anxiety about the future and will offer members the chance to feel included.

? The Third Level Foundation, in Aberdeen City, who are running weekly workshops for family members affected by someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. The workshops will cover a range of topics to improve mental health and wellbeing for all.

? The Bridge, in Aberdeen City, who have increased their capacity to run ‘Link Friends’ which arranges for volunteers to visit and arrange phone calls to older people facing isolation. Funding enables increased staff time and facilitates more volunteer work.

The Firth of Clyde cod spawning closure took place from 14 February to 30 April. During my appearance at the RAINE Committee on 9 March I committed Marine Scotland officials to meet with stakeholders after the closure both to hear their thoughts on how it has worked from their perspective and for Marine Scotland to report on activities observed from their part and this meeting will take place in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the impact of policy decisions on the economy and the environment and in the spirit of co-management will work alongside all relevant stakeholders for a more sustainable West of Scotland cod stock.

Decisions to discharge patients are not made by Ministers, they are made by health and social care professionals, alongside the patient and their family, or their legal representative where applicable.

As was the case before the pandemic, where someone is most appropriately cared for after discharge is based on a multi-disciplinary assessment of the individual’s needs and wishes. There are a range of factors that clinicians will consider as part of this assessment, including clinical readiness for discharge and the best setting for meeting the individual’s needs.

If an attorney is unhappy with the decision to discharge a patient they can raise a complaint against the person or organisation who has taken the decision, or apply for directions from the sheriff under section 3(3) of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.

Public Health Scotland undertook an analysis of discharges to care homes and found that care home size is very strongly related to outbreaks. That is, the risk of a care home outbreak increased progressively as the size of care home increased. Furthermore, there was no clear statistical evidence that hospital discharges were associated with care home outbreaks. The analysis was published on 21 April 2021 and can be found here: Discharges from NHSScotland hospitals to care homes - Between 1 March and 31 May 2020 (revised) - Discharges from NHSScotland hospitals to care homes - Publications - Public Health Scotland