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The proposal to establish a specialist sexual offences court as recommended by the Lady Dorrian Review remains under consideration. In delivering against our commitment to give serious consideration to the Review’s recommendations we have consulted with stakeholders and the public on proposals to establish a specialist court and have convened a Working Group which brings together partners from across the justice system to give detailed consideration to proposals for implementing a specialist court.

Both the independent analysis of consultation responses and the Working Group’s findings are expected to be published in the coming weeks and will inform our decision on whether to proceed with proposals to establish a specialist sexual offences court, although I am unable to provide a specific timescale for this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12086 on 22 November 2022. All 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

While the Scottish Government recognises that many people in rural and island communities already experience higher costs of living compared to those living in more central areas, the roll out of the Energy Bills Support Scheme is a matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government recently doubled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million through the Emergency Budget Review, with local referral partners including Home Energy Scotland, the Fuel Bank Foundation, Advice Direct Scotland and Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. We also recently provided £1.2m of additional funding to boost advice services across Scotland.

I would urge consumers who are struggling with their energy bills to contact Energy Advice Scotland on 0808 196 8660 or at energyadvice.scot.

Officials met with the Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) on 16 May 2022 and discussed the excellent services offered by the charity and ongoing work to secure HD specialists for four further health board areas.

Since then we have progressed our work in commissioning Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to support quality assurance of the implementation of the HIS General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. A self-assessment template and guidance is being developed, supporting service-led self-evaluation of neurological services.

We welcome the engagement and expertise of third sector organisations including the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) and the SHA and support their involvement and leadership in the development and implementation of this key activity.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease.

We are also undertaking work to better understand specialist service provision for people in Scotland with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease and the specialist provision provided by SHA and the NHS, with the aim of developing improvement. We have invited representation from NAoS and welcome input from SHA and other condition specific organisations to inform this.

This process will also align with relevant commitments from the Neurological Framework, Transforming Roles agenda and the National Workforce Strategy.

I refer the member to my answer to the question S6W-12400 on 7 December 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 annual Winter Service period began on 1 October 2022 and continues through to 15 May 2023. The publicity launch for Transport Scotland’s Winter Service 2022/2023 took place on 3 November, Winter service launch 22/23 | Transport Scotland .

For the 2022-23 winter service Transport Scotland has 240 vehicles available for spreading salt and ploughing snow, typically one spreader for every 16 km of trunk road. Salt barns are full and more salt is currently in stock than was used across both Scotland’s trunk and local roads during the whole of last winter.

Enhanced patrol provision will be in place across the network and route specific snow plans have been updated. To prevent snow or ice forming, gritters also provide precautionary salt treatments to roads, depending on the forecast weather conditions.

Financial spend on delivery of winter service by Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies for 2022/23 is forecast to be £29,194,484.

The 2022-23 budget allocation for emergency road repairs (Category 1 defects) is currently £1.8M, however, this may be subject to change depending on the severity of repairs experienced throughout the period.

Energy suppliers and advice services operating in Scotland have advised us in the course of our regular engagement that electric prepayment meters have a minimum top up amount of £5. The maximum credit a traditional (non-smart) prepayment meter can hold is £255, which is also the maximum value that can be placed on a top-up key.

Gas prepayment meters have a minimum top up amount of £1 and gas meters can generally hold up to £999 credit. Unless the top-up key is already full at the moment when a customer tries to redeem the voucher, there should be no reason that they are unable to top up.

I would urge any affected consumers to contact their supplier or otherwise call Energy Advice Scotland on 0808 196 8660 or at energyadvice.scot for assistance in resolving the problem.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12496 on 5 December 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 approved funding of £10.16m for the project to repair the funicular and to undertake associated capital works on Cairngorm Mountain when it approved the business case submitted by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) in 2020.

Following cost increases to the project, HIE re-considered the business case and concluded that reinstatement of the funicular was still the recommended option. Following review of the available options, the Scottish Government confirmed its continued support for the project and agreed to provide additional funding of £7m.

As part of the original business case, the Scottish Government agreed to provide funding towards the operating costs for Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL). The funding required from the Scottish Government depends on the CMSL’s income in a given year and is expected to reduce once the funicular is operational.

The Scottish Government expects all public sector bodies to undertake appropriate due diligence on companies in receipt of public money. Ultimately, it is for councils to make decisions on how best to deliver services to their communities.