Seòmar agus comataidhean

On 14 December I confirmed in my statement to Parliament that the implementation date of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will be 16 August 2023. Accordingly, revised regulations were laid on 15 December which will change the date by which producers are required to register with SEPA to 1 March 2023 (instead of 1 March 2022). Once the revised regulations come into force, the registration window for producers is in effect changed to the period from 1 January 2023 to 28 February 2023.

Since the announcement on 17 March 2021 that ScotRail services will be provided through the Scottish Government’s Operator of Last Resort arrangements on expiry of the current franchise agreement, no costs have been charged for legal work in connection with those arrangements undertaken by solicitors of the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

In terms of external solicitor costs, works to the value of £157,763 have been charged for to date. At this rate, Transport Scotland would estimate legal expenditure to be under £500,000 by the commencement of ScotRail Trains Ltd services on 1 April. It should be noted that this is a substantially lower amount than might have been expected in support of a rail franchise procurement competition.

This data is not currently available in the format requested. Public Health Scotland (PHS) collect and report vaccine wastage data for Scotland. The latest publication of vaccine wastage data is publicly available in the Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Statistical Report.

A further update will be included in the edition to be published on 15 December 2021.

An Incident Management Team was stood up on 27 November specifically for Omicron. The team has met daily since and continues to do so. The group is chaired by Public Health Scotland’s Incident Directors. The team meets with other UK nations and wider partners to share intelligence on a four nations basis. The team’s composition does not extend to international public health agencies but they do receive information on the latest international situation with Omicron.

The majority of Lateral Flow Tests are distributed through the UK 4 nations National Testing Programme and a detailed breakdown is not available. Information on the number of Lateral Flow Tests used and reported in Scotland is published weekly by Public Health Scotland.

Sport scotland has followed Scottish Government guidance on rent charges for tenants.

sport scotland have been clear that the COVID support fund was there to support any Scottish governing bodies (SGBs) that were in financial difficulty, this includes both tenants and non-tenants. In addition to the COVID support fund, sport scotland released its full annual investment to all SGBs and allowed them to use this flexibly.

sport scotland meet regularly with tenants to discuss both short-term access to offices, in the context of the latest Government guidance, and establish medium to longer-term requirements for office space. These meetings have been well attended and well received by tenants. Going forward, sport scotland is also offering a 10% discount to tenants on next year's rent. This is in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding how often office space will be used.

Following observations on a small number of patients with long COVID symptoms who received an experimental drug called BC 007 at the Universittsklinikum Erlangen in Germany, a trial of this drug as a potential therapy for long COVID is reportedly being planned by this research institute.

Applications from the Scottish clinical research community for research projects on possible treatments for long COVID can be submitted to the independent research funding committees operated by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office ( Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk) ). Applications are assessed through independent expert peer review and funded based on the recommendations of the funding committees. No applications to trial BC 007 have been received for consideration.

As the First Minister set out in her statement of 30 November. The nine cases of Omicron identified at that time continue to be supported by Health Protection Teams and, as enhanced contact tracing is still taking place, it would not be appropriate to disclose further information with regards to the event in question.

In the summer of 2020, the Scottish Government undertook a Capital Spending Review of its capital budgets against the backdrop of Covid-19, which necessitated a review of rail enhancements priorities.

Following the 2020 review, amid significant financial pressures on the available rail enhancements capital budget, the North Hanover Street development was deferred. Against a backdrop of rising costs and pressures on the rail enhancements budget, Network Rail was instructed to return to Transport Scotland with a proposal to progress the development, with options for alternative funding.

Transport Scotland await a revised proposal from Network Rail. Officials continue to remain engaged in regular meetings with key stakeholders such as Glasgow City Council, Network Rail and Scottish Futures Trust aimed at keeping each other updated in respect of developments in and around the Queen Street station area.

Significant financial and non-financial investment has been made in capercaillie conservation by Scottish Government, its partners and agencies, NGOs, landowners, communities and individuals. While the status of the capercaillie population in Scotland remains vulnerable, without the investment that has been made it is likely that we would have lost capercaillie from Scotland.

Support has included funding from NatureScot towards research and conservation of capercaillie in Scotland since 2011 as well as funding via the Forestry Grant Scheme specifically to support capercaillie populations.

Other Scottish Government funding in support of habitat management is likely to have benefited capercaillie but where not specifically provided for this species no breakdown is available.