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In January 2021, the First Minister announced an additional investment of £250 million to tackle drug deaths, £100 million of which was allocated to develop residential rehabilitation services and associated aftercare over the next five years. Alongside this, the Scottish Government provided Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) with a £13.5 million uplift per year, over the next five years, £5 million of which has been allocated to support additional residential rehabilitation capacity across Scotland. However, this uplift did not start until the 2021-2022 financial year.

The distribution from the ADP uplift within the Highlands and Islands region in 2021-22, from the £5 million allocated for residential rehabilitation, is as follows:

Argyll and Bute: £95,095

Highland: £234,516

Shetland: £24,422

Orkney: £25,066

Western Isles: £33,425.

This brings the total amount of funding allocated so far to ADPs within the Highlands and Islands region to £412,524.

Police Recorded Crime statistics can only identify the likely presence of a knife for crimes of ‘possessing an article with a blade or point in a public setting’. Tables of the requested data have been placed within the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63223).

There are two measures of possessing an article with a blade or point in a public setting - one for where the weapon was not used in other criminal activity, and one for where it was used in other criminal activity. For the former, data has been presented by local authority for the requested time period of 1999-00 to 2020-21. Data for the latter is only available from 2017-18 onwards, following implementation of a procedural change to the recording of weapon possession crimes.

The amount of funding allocated to, and paid to successful applicants to the Forestry Grant Scheme in each year from 2016 to 2021 is shown in Table 1.

Claimed grant is normally lower than the total grant award as a result of contracts that were not delivered on time due to a range of circumstances including weather conditions during the planting season, succession of land ownership during the contract delivery period and requests for contract variation to subsequent years.

The health and wellbeing of everyone in Scotland, including those who are immunosuppressed or immuno-compromised, is paramount as we transition out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the success of the initial vaccination programme, the Scottish Government recently announced that a spring booster dose will be offered to everyone aged 12 and over who is immunosuppressed, in line with the JCVI recommendations.

Immunosuppressed individuals are also eligible for new treatments to minimise the impact of Covid-19, should they contract it, and have priority access to testing to ensure they receive these as quickly as possible. We will continue to respond to scientific and clinical advice regarding COVID treatments, making sure that those who we know will benefit most from them are able to access them.

We will continue to provide advice and information for people on the Highest Risk List in the meantime, including how to get help to re-connect with people and things they were doing before the pandemic, and we will continue to look at ways to identify people who may be at higher risk and ask them to follow the individualised advice from their GP or clinician who knows their circumstances and health condition best.

The presumption against short sentences was extended from 3 months or less to 12 months or less in July 2019. While relevant sentencing data is being monitored, the impact of COVID-19 on court business means it is not possible to confidently identify and attribute cause to any trends in court disposals in the period monitored to date. Caution is also required generally in attributing changes in sentencing patterns to any particular factor.

A bulletin ‘Extended presumption against short sentences: monitoring information - January - December 2020’ was published on 23 March 2021 and is available at www.gov.scot . In addition, the latest criminal proceedings bulletin presents data for the financial year 2019-2020, which includes 9 months of sentencing data after the extension.

While there is no estimate in the reduction of people receiving custodial sentences as a result of the presumption, the criminal proceedings statistics show that between 2018-19 and 2019-20, there was a 13 percent reduction in the number of custodial sentences of 12 months or less from 9,585 to 8,324. The number of custodial sentence of “up to 3 months” decreased by 19% from 3,139 in 2018-19 to 2,551 in 2019-20, and is less than half the number ten years ago.

The Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum, published on 14 December 2021, shows that our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will increase the quantity of glass recyclate by more than 1.3 megatonnes over 25 years. It is available here: Supporting documents - A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

I understand that Circularity Scotland Ltd intends to collect and transport glass separately from other materials under Scotland’s DRS. This will reduce contamination which is currently a problem with glass collected at the kerbside. I am therefore confident that our DRS will significantly increase the quality of glass recyclate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07100 on 18 March 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 .

I have not had any meetings with British Glass regarding Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). We engaged frequently with British Glass during the policy-development process for DRS, and the former Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change, and Land Reform met them on 8 January 2020 in advance of laying the regulations to establish the scheme.

Our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is complementary to extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, which we are working with the other UK administrations to introduce. Both DRS and packaging EPR will drive higher recycling rates for glass, creating a significant opportunity for the Scottish glass reprocessing industry.

On 1 February £4m of additional funding was announced to boost in-person Easter study support provision in schools and colleges. This funding should allow schools and colleges – or local authorities through authority-wide initiatives – to offer targeted sessions for learners over the Easter break, particularly for those from the most deprived backgrounds. Where an existing Easter study offer already exists, this funding could allow schools or colleges to broaden their existing offer for targeted learners or, through promotion, encourage those learners to attend existing sessions.

In addition, the National e-Learning offer continues to deliver a strong package of resources for learners, teachers and practitioners. This includes a supported study programme with real time webinars and nearly 3,000 on-demand recorded lessons for the senior phase during the academic year and an online Easter study support programme offering over 60 courses. Senior phase learners from all 32 local authorities are accessing these opportunities.