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In 2004, the UK Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Blood and Tissues for Transplantation (MSBT) advised that people who have received a blood transfusion since 1980 should no longer be allowed to donate blood in order to reduce the risks of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) via a blood transfusion. The then Scottish Executive accepted those recommendations.

The Scottish Government now takes its advice on blood safety from the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), which has replaced MSBT as the expert Committee advising Ministers on these matters. This matter is therefore for SaBTO to advise on and they have not suggested that this policy should change. In 2019, SaBTO advised (in its Paediatric Components Working Group report) that certain measures originally implemented to reduce risks of transmission of vCJD were no longer required; however, it advised that all other vCJD risk reduction measures should remain in place.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data. Whilst there is data available on numbers of patients who receive blood transfusions each year, the majority of these patients would be unlikely to be able to donate blood due to underlying health conditions, even if they had not received a transfusion.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10269 on‎ 5 September 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 will launch a national marketing campaign to promote the new Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme in the coming weeks. The Scottish Government has allocated £400,000 to promote this campaign during this financial year.

On promoting public transport more broadly, Transport Scotland continues to work with operating partners and stakeholders to encourage people to use public transport, as a sustainable way to access work, education and services.

The focus of the Scottish Government`s communication activities and guidance during the pandemic was to ensure that, when people needed to travel, and the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions allowed them to do so, they knew to plan ahead and were informed of the guidance to follow to use public transport safely.

Typically messaging on protection levels, ventilation, physical distancing and wearing a face covering when in crowded locations or when on public transport was included within the broader Government’s public health campaign messaging or was part of an operators own communications materials. No specific SG funding was allocated for this activity therefore, it is not possible to say how much was spent specifically on public transport marketing or advertising relating to social distancing and COVID-19 protection measures.

The total full time equivalent staff employed on Home Energy Scotland at the end of July is 208. This figure includes:

• All staff within each Home Energy Scotland advice centre working on Home Energy Scotland activity, and teams and specialists managed directly by the Energy Savings Trust including the Extended Hours team, renewables specialists and private sector landlord advisors.
• All staff within Energy Saving Trust who are covered by Home Energy Scotland funding.
• Management time within the centres and Energy Saving Trust allocated to management of Home Energy Scotland.

In August the average processing time was 8 days and the longest processing time was 10 days.

As at August 2022, the number of Home Energy Scotland Loan applications currently awaiting processing is 303.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loans that were accepted/rejected in 2020-21 and 2021-22:

Demand for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Advice service has risen significantly since the recent energy bill rises and other cost of living pressures have started to put pressure on households.

Earlier this year, we committed to expanding the HES service by 20% and this increase will be fully operational from October. HES capacity has increased in the last three years with the number of households targeted for advice and support rising from 77,000 in 2020-21 to 132,000 this year - an increase of 12,000 on 2021-22.

We recently allocated additional funding for energy advice services in the face of rising bills - £1.2 million to ensure households and businesses get support. This includes £280,000 to expand the Home Energy Scotland Advice Service and a further £198,000 for Home Energy Scotland to provide training to third sector organisations on energy efficiency.

We have also augmented the Home Energy Scotland Energy carer service which visits and supports extremely vulnerable households who would struggle to engage over the telephone or online. This type of work broadens and strengthens the capacity of the advice network but does not generate pro rata increases in numbers of households supported because the level of support required for these households is very intense.

We will continue to monitor demand for the Home Energy Scotland service to ensure it has the capacity to meet demand.