Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to PQ S6W-08047 on 10 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

Scottish Government does not yet hold this data for 2021-22. We have asked for this information as part of routine monitoring of implementation of the Young Patient’s Family Fund, from Health Boards.

Transport Scotland officials and Scottish Ministers have regular engagement with British Transport Police (BTP). These have included meetings with the new Chief Constable BTP UK and the Chief Superintendent D Division BTP Scotland where topical rail issues, such as the topic of ScotRail services being brought under Scottish Government ownership on 1 April 2022, have been discussed.

I personally met with the Chief Constable of BTP UK, Lucy D’Orsi, on 31 March and we discussed this matter along with several other topics.

We are continuing to work with the BSI to finalise the membership and terms of reference for a new Scottish technical group to help achieve this. The membership of the group will include a representative who can highlight the needs and concerns of remote rural and island communities in Scotland. We expect the new group to identify and establish good practice for retrofitting traditional properties in more exposed locations, such as coastal and island communities.

The process of reaching out to potential members of the new group has been started and we expect the first meeting of the new group to take place during the Summer.

As noted in the reply to question S6W-08344, we commissioned independent research into the steel sector in Scotland: this included consideration of the scope for electric arc furnaces in Scotland. We would encourage any company interested in developing an electric arc furnace to seek advice and support from their local Enterprise Agency. These are large-scale ambitions that need large-scale solutions and will require significant private sector investment.

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’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports research grant schemes providing funding opportunities for applied research projects across the range of NHS, health and care challenges in Scotland. These are open to applications for research projects on long-COVID involving long-COVID patients that could include laboratory-based analyses. Applications to these schemes undergo independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees. CSO funded NHS Research Scotland infrastructure also provides support for research in this area including to recruit patients to the UK-wide Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study to understand and improve long-term health outcomes for patients who have been in hospital with COVID-19.

After assessment, the Scottish Government was pleased to be able to offer 12 month extensions to 5 of our projects in Rwanda and 2 in Zambia. In total, £1.6M of additional funding has been allocated between our Rwanda and Zambia programmes for financial year 2022/23.

We are currently working on restructuring our current funding schemes, in line with the outcomes of our 2021 Review. New funding streams will therefore include:

• funding under a new Equalities programme;
• funding to support sustainable recovery from COVID; and
• funding to support institutional resilience.

New programmes in Rwanda, Zambia, and Malawi will commence in 2023.

We will update the Parliament further in due course.

The Scottish Government commissioned independent research into the state of the steel sector in Scotland from the University of Warwick. This report is available to read online and can be found here .

The Master Policy is the compulsory professional indemnity insurance arrangement which covers all Scottish solicitors working in private practice, arranged by the Law Society of Scotland it exists to ensure that where someone establishes a valid claim for negligence against a solicitor, that claim will be paid - even if the solicitor is no longer in practice, no longer solvent or cannot be traced.

Prior to making a claim one must establish that a solicitor acted in a negligent way. Many claims are resolved by negotiation. Where negotiations fail, one may wish to raise court proceedings. In respect of a civil claim for negligence, an individual may choose to take this forward using a success fee agreement provided for by the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018. Success fee agreements provide clarity on the amount a client can be asked to pay their solicitor and place a cap on the level of the success fee that a solicitor can recover from a client’s damages, providing for greater consumer protection.

In addition, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission has an oversight function, to monitor and make recommendations on the effectiveness, including improvement, of the Master Policy professional indemnity arrangements to the Law Society of Scotland. The Scottish Government liaised with the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to consult on amendments to the Master policy in December 2020, which would seek, as far as possible, to ensure that where awards of redress are made under the statutory complaints process, the complainer will receive redress in full.

As stated in the Business Ventilation Fund Guidance published on 23 November 2021, the deadline for works to be completed was 31 March 2022, as the budget for this fund was only available for financial year 2021-22.

The Scottish Government extended the deadline for submitting claims to 15 April 2022 to allow businesses to get works done and provide the paperwork required for claims to be made.

The Scottish Government will evaluate the impact of the Business Ventilation Fund and consider more widely how organisations can be supported to improve ventilation in their premises.