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The historical deaths reported in the Scottish Sun were shocking in their alleged nature. However, enforcement of the Zoo Licencing Act 1981 is a matter for Local Authorities. In addition, I am aware that Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoo's and Aquaria, and that these incidents are currently the subject of an investigation by BIAZA. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to comment further, or indeed launch a further investigation, at this time.

The following table shows the number of properties receiving a non-domestic rates relief or exemption from rates for unoccupied properties since 2011, except for 2014 and 2017 as no data is available for those years. The figures are as at the snapshot date and may therefore underestimate final numbers of recipients in a given year, and include entire local authority areas as data by parliamentary region is not held.

Data for 2021 is expected to become available in late 2021.

The Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland issued a range of clinical guidance relating to the discharge of older people from hospital into community settings.

This guidance has been continuously updated and a timeline of the clinical guidance issued is available in Annex A of the Public Health Scotland publication Discharges from NHSScotland hospitals to care homes which is available at https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/discharges-from-nhsscotland-hospitals-to-care-homes/28-october-2020/.

No discussions have taken place about having a dedicated vessel to monitor marine plastic pollution as this is already carried out by multi-purpose research vessels.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00871 on 5 July 2021. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00871 on 5 July 2021. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00871 on 5 July 2021. 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.

Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests are approved for use by the MHRA, the UK's regulator of medicines and medical devices, responsible for ensuring their safety, quality and effectiveness. LFDs are all packaged with Instructions for Use, which are required by the MHRA to be easy to follow and available in a range of languages and formats. The Scottish Government has developed a range of resources in accordance with this.

The Scottish Government worked with NHS Inform to promote information on how to accurately take an LFD test. This included commissioning a video from Professor Jason Leitch with instructions on how to take the test. This has been translated into multiple languages including BSL, Arabic, Polish and Urdu, as have written instructions. The gov.scot site points to NHS Inform as the primary place to read the instructions.

Working with Young Scot, content was created that was aimed at children and young people on how to take an accurate LFD test, including a video from Dr Punam Krishan. A range of marketing assets have also been developed on how to do an LFD test, including posters for health and social care workers to share with local authorities and health boards.

Anyone who experiences any harm, injury, false positives or negatives, or difficulties in using the self-test device should report this to MHRA via the Coronavirus Yellow Card website, which helps identify issues which might not have previously been known that can then be addressed.

The Scottish Government is committed to a long term vision for active travel that encourages walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing in preference to single occupancy car use for movement of people, and encourages efficient and sustainable freight.

A range of programmes are underway to encourage more parents and carers to choose alternatives to using their car. This includes Sustrans’ Safer Routes to Schools programme, which is helping to fund and deliver improvements to school routes to make them safer and better places for people to walk and cycle. Cycling Scotland also runs the Bikeability programme which delivers training to school children to give them the skills and confidence needed to cycle safely to school.

The Scottish Government also provides local authorities with funds towards the provision of dedicated school transport and funded travel on public transport services for eligible pupils which also supports reduced use of cars.

The Scottish Government has put in place financial support packages, through emergency Covid Support Grants, paid at pre-Covid levels, paid to bus operators to provide and maintain essential bus services.

The National Bus Travel Concession Scheme for Young Persons will also enable all young people aged under 22 to become eligible for free bus travel throughout Scotland. Up to 930,000 young people could benefit from the scheme, which aims to encourage greater use of public transport and reduce reliance on cars.

The numbers of babies reported in the Scottish Birth Record (SBR) as having a diagnosis of ‘foetus and newborn affected by maternal use of drugs of addiction’ or ‘neonatal withdrawal symptoms from maternal use of drug addiction’ in Scotland during the period 2006-07 to 2016-17 are provided in the following table. The figures presented cover three year aggregates to avoid disclosing small numbers in each individual year. Further suppression of small numbers has been applied as per ISD’s Statistical Disclosure Control policy in order to protect patient confidentiality.

Number of babies affected by maternal use of drugs, financial three year aggregates, 2006-07-2008-09 to 2014-15-2016-17 1,2,3