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Resilience of the Energy Sector is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Power Companies are required to meet statutory obligations under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 with respect to minimum clearances from overhead lines, wires and cables including minimum ground clearance requirements.

The Scottish Government are contributing to both the Storm Arwen Ofgem review and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) review and will carefully consider the findings to understand where improvements could be made in future.

The Maternity and Children’s Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC) is taking a quality improvement (QI) approach in its work to improve our understanding of the variation in caesarean section rates in Scotland. This work is in its early stages, with initial scoping work underway. The next phase of the QI work is due to commence early in the next quarter and will involve further engagement with NHS Boards.

MCQIC publishes resources relevant to its work on its website. Relevant outputs from this QI programme will also be shared in this way as the work progresses.

Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC) | Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) | ihub - Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC).

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children and young people in Scotland have access to a digital device by the end of this parliament. This is a highly complex and ambitious commitment that requires careful partnership planning. Since May 2021, we have been working with local authorities to prepare the system and the people in it for a wider rollout of devices.

Local authorities across Scotland also have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those local approaches. COSLA have reported that 122,000 devices (including the 72,000 funded by the Scottish Government) have now been distributed. However, it is our view that this is an underestimation.

We are working closely with local authorities and are in planning stages of this commitment. We will report to Parliament in due course.

The draft Framework was shaped throughout 2020 and 2021 by a range of stakeholders, including the patient representatives of the National Advisory Committee on Chronic Pain (NACCP). All members of the NACCP were informed of the proposed approach in advance, were provided with an advanced copy of the Framework and were encouraged to share their feedback on its content via the public consultation. The consultation closes on the 28 February and I would encourage everyone with an interest in improving care and support for people with chronic pain to participate and share their views.

We are working closely with local authorities and are in planning stages of this commitment. We will report to Parliament in due course.

No private marketing company has been used for work relating to the Draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05595 on 25 January 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 .

Decisions regarding the use of technology to operate Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are for industry to take in line with the principle of producer responsibility.

We would anticipate that industry will make extensive use of digital technology in delivering the scheme, for example by developing an IT system to track payments made and received, adopting state-of-the-art reverse vending technology to prevent fraud, and using digital media to communicate with the public regarding DRS.

We are aware of the so-called ‘digital DRS’ as a proposed approach to delivering deposit return whereby consumers redeem deposits on scheme articles by scanning them with a smartphone before placing them in their kerbside recycling. We considered this approach during the policy-development process for DRS and the strong feedback from both industry and environmental NGOs was that the technology is not sufficiently mature for implementation on the timetable for our DRS.

We, and Circularity Scotland Ltd as scheme administrator, are monitoring developments including trials of ‘digital DRS’ in Wales. However, we are focussed on delivering a return-to-retail DRS, in line with international best practice, that will make it as easy to return a bottle or can as it was to buy it.

The Scottish Government launched the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum (SBCF) in 2018 to increase our understanding of Scotland’s marine stores of carbon (“blue carbon”), their role in carbon uptake and their vulnerabilities to human activities. We have committed over £650,000 to the Forum’s research programme, which has leveraged significant match funding from partner organisations. The Forum’s expertise is recognised internationally. During COP26, the SBCF joined the International Partnership for Blue Carbon as its 50 th member and brought together science and policy experts from around the world for a two day conference “Blue Carbon: Beyond the Inventory” in Edinburgh, driving forward the research and policy agenda to protect and restore these important habitats.

Research by the SBCF continues to enhance our understanding of Scotland’s blue carbon habitats and will provide an improved evidence base for future decision making.

Many of the key habitats and species that research has identified as being important for blue carbon are Priority Marine Features (PMFs) and are also safeguarded within Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

With 37% of our seas already designated as MPAs, we have committed in the Programme for Government to deliver the outstanding fisheries measures required to achieve MPA conservation objectives by March 2024. We are also providing additional protection to our inshore waters by developing fisheries measures for the 11 PMFs most at risk from bottom trawling outside our MPAs, in line with the National Marine Plan. In combination these measures will help reduce pressures on marine habitats known to be important carbon sinks.

In the Programme for Government, we have also committed to designating at least 10% of Scotland's seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) by 2026. The policy and selection framework for HPMAs will provide for the protection of blue carbon habitats, using the growing evidence base.