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I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Where possible, the use of the Virtual Court process should be facilitated in the first instance, either from Police Custody Units (PCU’s) or mainland prisons, unless the individual is directed to appear in person by the Sheriff.

Where an escort is required to facilitate a court appearance in person, and the flight to that island is not available, or the airport is not available, the service provider is required to ensure that they have planned and organised the transportation of the individual(s) with sufficient time to ensure the person and escorting staff arrive in time for the scheduled court appearance.

This may mean organising ferry transport to the Scottish islands, and potentially liaising with SPS to temporarily locate the individual at an establishment closest to the ferry terminal if they have travelled from a significant distance.

Where required, the service provider may also need to liaise with Police Scotland to locate the individual in local legalised police cells overnight prior to, or after, the court appearance if off island transport is not available.

SCVO estimate that the public sector as a whole invests around £1.8 billion each year to support the work of charities and social enterprises. Of that, around £500m comes from the Scottish Government via a broad range of programmes including those supporting community empowerment, mental wellbeing, children and families and health and social care.

The Scottish Government fund Third Sector organisations for specific projects or for core funding and these organisations often also attract income from other sources. That is a matter for those individual organisations and the Scottish Government do not keep a record of which organisations source additional funding from other sources and which do not.

The UK Government has not provided details on how their plans to reduce the number of civil servants by 91,000 will affect their staff working in Scotland. There are around 24,800 1 Civil Servants who are part of the reserved Public Sector in Scotland.

For Civil Servants who serve the Scottish Government, the responsibility for determining our workforce size resides with Scottish Ministers and the Permanent Secretary.

The Scottish Government is committed to contributing to achieving the broad aim set out in the Resource Spending Review to return the total size of the devolved public sector workforce to around pre-COVID-19 levels by 2026-27. This will be achieved through effective vacancy and recruitment management, working in partnership with the Council of Scottish Government Unions.

The RSR also sets out how the wider decrease in the public sector workforce will not be achieved via a uniform approach due to varying trends in demand for different services and the recovery of services from COVID-19. Whilst we consider the longer term workforce requirements, and the impact of the Resource Spending Review on the Scottish Government's workforce size and cost for the future, we are already taking action and have enhanced recruitment controls in place, ensuring as much money as possible is directed onto the delivery of the policy priorities of the Government and improving the lives of the people of Scotland.

[1] Source: Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 1st Quarter 2022

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Scottish Court Custody and Prisoner Escort Service Contract (SCCPES) provides the requirements of the service provider to ensure safe and secure transfer of prisoners between court appearances and mainland prisons.

1. The escort provider has clear processes and Standard Operating Procedures that have been agreed with SPS including:-

• the management of all transfers, regardless of location, including the use of public transport where the use of their vehicle fleet is not possible and other transport is required, such as Ferries, Boats and use of Aircraft.
• agreement of the protocols with Scottish airports for the facilitation of the movement of prisoners through the terminal buildings to facilitate the flight to and from all Scottish Islands where a flight is necessary, timeous and has been deemed to be required.

1. The current service provider has established a robust working relationship with all Scottish airports to facilitate the movement of individuals through the airport and terminal buildings.

In the scenario where an airport is unable to facilitate the transfer, the service provider will arrange, where possible, a flight to another Scottish airport and manage the ongoing movement via road transport if necessary, taking into consideration the impact of the person being escorted and the time spent in transit.

The Scottish Government empowers Head Teachers to make local decisions that are best suited to the needs of their communities. This includes engagement with their own parents and children. As outlined in the refreshed 2022 PEF National Operational Guidance, a key principle of Pupil Equity Funding outlines that headteachers should ensure that parents, carers and children and young people should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating any approaches. Schools must have plans in place at the outset to evaluate the impact of the funding. These plans should outline clear outcomes to be achieved and how progress towards these, and the impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap, will be measured.

The Pig Producers Hardship Support Scheme was first published in August 2021, when a £715,000 fund was made available. All 39 applications received were successful, totalling a spend of approximately £654,000.

In February 2022, the scheme was extended to offer a further £680,000 and had 32 applicants, leading to a total spend of c£675,000. There were no unsuccessful applications.

In June 2022, a further extension to the scheme of £410,000 saw 32 applications, with no unsuccessful applicants. The total spend for this third and final round of the Pig Hardship Scheme is estimated at £406,000 with payments to be made by the end of August.

This amounts to c£654,000 being paid out in 2021 and approximately £1,081,000960 to be paid in total this calendar year. Due to the nature of the scheme, the same applicants could apply for multiple rounds of support.

Crown Estate Scotland contributed £150K funding towards the data collection component of the National Electrofishing Programme (NEPS) for Scotland 2021.

The total cost of data collection for NEPS 2021 was ca. £416,337 and was issued as a Grant to Fisheries Management Scotland. Marine Scotland covered the remaining costs of data collection and will cover the costs of analysis and publication.

The Crown Estate Scotland grant covered some modest project management time from Fisheries Management Scotland (£5,100) and the costs incurred by local fisheries managers (e.g. staff time, travel) in sampling fish populations at 810 sites across Scotland in 2021.

Payment was made on a “per-site” basis at £460 for electrofishing and a further £43.33 for genetic sampling, which underpins the National Introgression Programme for Scotland (NIPS).

The Crown Estates Scotland funding was not ring-fenced for specific regions or components of the data collection and, therefore, should be considered a contribution to the overall project.

We are aware that a number of local authorities in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK are considering setting up warm banks this coming winter, to ensure people who cannot afford to heat their own home have a place they can access to stay warm. This is a relatively new concept, which we will continue to monitor, working together with our local government partners, alongside other measures that we may be able to deploy to provide support to those most affected by the rising cost of energy prices.

Our foremost concern is to support people worried about heating their homes to access the information and support they need to reduce their energy bills, and we have expanded the capacity of our Home Energy Scotland advice service this year to help an extra 12,000 households a year receive free, impartial advice.

Within our limited budget, we have allocated almost £3 billion in this financial year to help families and households face the increased cost of living. This includes support for energy bills, childcare, health and travel, as well as social security payments not available anywhere else in the UK. We will continue to monitor the best ways we, along with our local government partners, can provide support.

In further response to the cost of living crisis and our winter preparedness, the Scottish Government has already committed £10 million towards our Fuel Insecurity Fund across 2022/23, which provides direct support to people who are at risk of self-rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely. From winter 2022-23, we will also introduce our Low Income Winter Heating Assistance, which will guarantee a £50 annual payment to around 400,000 low-income households each winter.

Work is ongoing on the Islands Connectivity Plan, with priority being given to a long-term plan and investment programme for vessels and ports, with the aim of publishing a draft consultation by the end of 2022.

Work on the other elements of the Islands Connectivity Plan will follow, with a view to further publications in 2023.

The Scottish Government package of support for Scottish student nurses is currently at its highest level, and is the highest level of support available to nursing and midwifery students across the UK. Our non-means tested, non-repayable paramedic, nursing and midwifery student bursary is £10,000 per year and will remain at this level for the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year. Scottish domiciled students on degree, honours and masters levels of study leading to registration as a paramedic, nurse or midwife are all eligible.

Nursing students may also be eligible for a range of funding on top of the non-means tested bursary, including a Dependants Allowance, Disabled Students’ Allowance and/or Single Parent’s Allowance.

Students who are in financial difficulty may also be able to access the Nursing & Midwifery Discretionary Fund, which is administered by higher education institutions on behalf of the Scottish Government.