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Alongside the Heat in Buildings Strategy we published a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which sets out the evidence relating to capital and running costs of converting to zero emissions heat.

We recognise that the costs of conversion for island and rural homes can be higher than equivalent urban properties for a variety of reasons, including supply chains, transport needs and weather disruptions. Further details and mitigating actions are set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy Island Communities Impact Assessment , and we will publish an Islands Energy Strategy later this year. Our Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan will include a specific focus on developing local supply chains particularly in our islands and remote communities to help bring costs down.

The financial implications for households will depend on how heat and energy efficiency measures are funded and financed. This is an area of active policy development. We already run schemes to help households retrofit their properties to cut emissions, and are committed to supporting those least able to pay. We have established a new Green Heat Finance Taskforce which will recommend ways the Scottish Government and private sector can collaborate to scale up investment.

The Climate Justice Fund does not currently contribute to projects tackling forest fires or reforestation in the Amazon Basin or Indonesia. The focus of the Fund is on actions to achieve climate justice, principally supporting communities most affected by climate change build a more resilient, inclusive and equal future. Projects in Scotland's three international development partner countries of Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia will remain the primary focus of the expanded Fund.

The Scottish Government is working with the other UK administrations to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. How much producers pay for a particular type of packaging will depend on its environmental impact. This will create a powerful incentive to adopt more recyclable packaging.

The Scottish Government has laid regulations before Parliament that ban some types of packaging products such as expanded polystyrene cups and food containers that, if incorrectly disposed of, contaminate kerbside recycling bins.

I recently announced the first £20 million of landmark investments from the Recycling Improvement Fund, to increase the quantity and quality of recycling. We are funding a range of improvements to improve the quality of recyclate, including local service redesigns to align with Scotland’s Household Recycling Charter, and new ‘in cab’ updates to help councils tackle contamination. New funding will also enable Fife Council to become the first local authority in Scotland to locally sort and separate the plastic films it collects for recycling, and boost Scotland’s capacity to recycle this problematic material. This will allow the council to accept flexible plastics and films for recycling within the existing kerbside schemes.

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets. This work will include consideration of recyclate capture and quality. We will also introduce a Circular Economy Bill this parliamentary session which will include measures to encourage reuse of products and the reduction of waste.

The Scottish Government recognises that the decommissioning of nuclear sites requires the retention of a highly skilled workforce over many years. We also recognise that the skills of the workforce decommissioning Scottish nuclear sites could ultimately be utilised by the renewables sector as part of our transition to net zero.

In December 2020 the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland published the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) setting out the actions required to ensure Scotland’s labour market is able to effectively support the transition to net zero. For example, as a priority action identified in the CESAP, the Green Jobs Workforce Academy administered by Skills Development Scotland, launched on the 23 August 2021 to help workers identify and access relevant green jobs and training.

Work to transfer the operation of the Sumburgh approach provision continues. The transfer is expected to complete in 2022.

The Framework for supporting people through Recovery and Rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 was published in August 2020. We then undertook a significant scoping exercise to understand the current status of rehabilitation services in Scotland, from the perspective of the staff working in them. This was done using a self-assessment tool and the report on the findings ( Rehabilitation Framework Self-Assessment Tool: Analysis of Survey Responses ) was published on 9th December 2021.

The findings from the self-assessment tool, along with demand and capacity data, will inform the development of a national programme of improvement work which we will work with NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and the third sector to implement. This will deliver a ‘Once for Scotland’ rehabilitation pathway that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it.

The National Advisory Board for Rehabilitation last met in October 2021, and it is expected it will meet again in early 2022 now that the report on the self-assessment tool had been published.

The National Stoma Quality Improvement Group’s Short Life Working Group’s final report of November 2019 recommended that NHS Boards review their future Stoma Nurse workforce. I expect NHS Boards to plan their workforce, including stoma clinical nurse specialists, to meet the needs of their population. At this present time, the recommendations from the National Stoma Quality Improvement Group Short Life Working Group and the Scottish Government are not considering the appointment of an implementation lead.

The Scottish Government are currently collating this information for an Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) request which will then be published for the public by its deadline of 8 February 2022.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) uses an operational database. The database is designed for the management of cases rather than for statistical purposes.

COPFS can provide data in relation to charges reported and prosecuted based on the sex of the accused (perpetrator). COPFS cannot provide data in relation to the sex of the alleged victim.

The information is provided in the following table:

Whilst the Scottish Government supports the Accreditation Programme for Psychological Therapies Services, there is no requirement to make an application. The Scottish Government is developing a Psychological Therapies and Services standard for Scotland by June 2022 which is being developed with Stakeholders and those with lived experience. This will link very closely with the Psychological Therapies MATRIX for Scotland which is a stepped guide to planning and delivering evidence-based psychological therapies within NHS Boards in Scotland.

This will describe what good quality evidence based psychological care will look like for all ages, all levels of need, and in all settings (such as health, education, and prisons) and will describe not only what applied psychologists do but also the high standards expected of those delivering psychological therapies

Psychological therapies and psychological services across Scotland will then be expected to deliver care that meets this standard including quality and quantity of care delivered.