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Vaccinations have played an important role in the fight against COVID-19. The COVID-19 Vaccination Programme will continue to be monitored in Scotland, with data accessible on the vaccinations tab of the Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Daily Dashboard, and in line with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Scotland’s Strategic Framework update published in February 2022.

The Scottish Government continue to work closely with colleagues in Public Health Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, UK Government and the other devolved administrations, to ensure we have a consistent approach to vaccination reporting.

We are aware that there will be situations where those looking to travel will have tested positive for COVID-19 using an LFD test since 11 January 2022, when confirmatory PCR testing was no longer required. Further information is available from NHS Inform .

Travellers can use the text message and/or email from private PCR test results more than 10 days before travel as proof of recovery if an NHS PCR was not taken.

There are also some countries where a private supervised LFD test is acceptable and can be used instead of a PCR.

Different nations have different requirements for entry. That is why we encourage everyone to continue to check the entry requirements of the countries they intend to visit.

Recovery certificates contained within the NHS Scotland Covid Status App adhere to the standard set by the European Commission, through the EU Digital Covid Certificate scheme which Scotland is a member of. This recognised standard does not allow for unsupervised self-reported LFD tests to be used to create a recovery certificate.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

We will continue the use of existing and new and emerging testing and surveillance procedures to support early identification of future variants, including whole genome sequencing, wastewater surveillance.

Where agricultural expertise is required in Ministerial appointees to Government agencies, the sponsor team for the agency may choose to integrate that into criteria for the role. The sponsor team should work with the public body and the Board Chair on this, to represent Ministers' aims and requirements for the roles.

Government agencies will of course also ensure that they engage with their relevant stakeholders, including agricultural representatives, as appropriate.

As the Roads Authority, local authorities are responsible for the drainage of local roads and public highways under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 - including maintenance of road gullies. The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many local authorities prioritise high risk areas in their drain clearance schedules. Local Authorities are responsible for and best placed to respond to, need in their area.

The 2022-23 Local Government Finance Settlement of almost £12.7 billion represents a cash increase of almost £1.1 billion or 9.2 per cent which is the equivalent of a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent.

However, the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities. It is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes.

The Scottish Government does not take into account the length of roads for which a local authority is responsible when allocating funding to local authorities for flood risk management.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 provides the framework for effective management of flood risk.

As part of our civil contingencies risk assessment work, the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division works closely with resilience partners, including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Met Office, to assess climate change risk. This work includes the development of the Scottish Risk Assessment (SRA), which is designed to supplement UK Government’s National Security Risk Assessment. Together these documents assist Scottish responders and policy makers in understanding the most significant civil contingencies emergencies which Scotland may face over the next two to five years. The current SRA includes six new risk assessments themed around major impacts from climate change, as well as a dedicated climate change overview chapter.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places 7 duties on local authorities including duties to assess the risk of an emergency occurring, and to plan for such emergencies, and maintain those plans accordingly. Further guidance and best practice for categorised responders, including local authorities, on planning and preparing for emergencies is set out in our Preparing Scotland guidance.