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The Scottish Government is undertaking a Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares as the country recovers from the pandemic.

The Fair Fares Review will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry across the whole of Scotland. The Fair Fares Review will also take into account the cost and availability of services, and will consider options that take cognisance of the relative changes to the overall cost of travel. Public transport services between Inverness and Aberdeen, including rail services, will therefore be considered as part of the wider review.

This information is provided in Scottish Water’s Annual Report and Accounts which is published on Scottish Water’s website and laid before Parliament each year. The information is copied in the following table.

None. Business Stream was provided with access to precautionary funding facilities during 2020-2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. To date there has been no requirement to drawdown against this facility.

Figures are available for the past 6 years. Between 2017 and 2022 there were 13 incidents within core Scottish Government where information was determined to have been inappropriately released to the media. During that same time period 2 people were identified as having breached protocols.

From the £12 million we made available to support the wellbeing of the health, social work and social care workforce in 2021-22, we:

• Used £3.5 million to assist in the continuation of our national wellbeing resources
• Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to provide evidence-based support to meet the needs of those working in primary and social care
• Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to be used by Chief Officers of Integration Authorities (IA's) to support staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
• Allocated £2 million to Health Boards to support NHS staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
• Allocated £1.5 million to Health Boards to provide additional practical support that staff needed due to increased pressure from the Omicron variant
• Made £1 million available to support wellbeing projects for staff working in Adult Social Work and Social Care

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of FIVEXMORE’s [The] Black Maternity Experiences Survey – a Nationwide Study of Black Women’s Experiences of Maternity Services in the United Kingdom , published on 24 May 2022, and we are considering its findings carefully, alongside the actions and recommendations from all audit reports and the MBRRACE-UK confidential enquiries. Our expectation remains clear: that mothers and babies receive high-quality, person-centred maternity care at all times, tailored to their needs, with quality and safety central to decision-making.

We are participating in the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Race Equality Taskforce . The Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Officer for Maternity and Women’s Health is a member of the Taskforce, which will make recommendations for actions in maternity services to tackle the inequity in outcomes for pregnant women and babies from minority ethnic communities.

The Scottish Government and its agencies collaborate closely with their counterparts in Wales and England on the control of INNS. Scottish Government officials have played an active role with their counterparts in drafting the 2022-2030 Great Britain Invasive Non- Native Species Strategy. This key document sets out our agreed, collaborative approach to preventing invasive non-native species reaching our shores, through surveillance, early detection and rapid response provisions and long terms management and control of species already established. The provisions in the Strategy will be implemented in Scotland through the Non-native Species Action Group, and similar partnerships, which has representatives from the public and voluntary sectors.

In September 2021, the Scottish Government announced £250,000 from the Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF) for Afghanistan. However, given the acute need and deteriorating conditions, this was subsequently increased to £360,000. £120,000 was awarded to Tearfund while £240,000 was awarded jointly to Christian Aid and Islamic Relief. These projects have now concluded and a report on their outcomes and results will be made publicly available in due course.

The Scottish Government subsequently awarded a further £240,000 from the HEF to the Disasters Emergency Committee for their Afghanistan appeal launched on 15 December, bringing our total commitment to Afghanistan to £600,000.

Data relating to visas and arrivals under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, including the Scottish super sponsor scheme, is published regularly by the UK Government;

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority

a)We do not request that each applicant provides a breakdown of green space created and/or restored by the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme. However, 20 projects have received funding from the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme to date and the projects listed in the following table include green space creation as their primary focus.