Seòmar agus comataidhean

As noted in the answer to question S6W-04597 on 6 December 2021, the next set of Child Disability Payment statistics are due to be published in January 2022, covering the period of the pilot from 26 July to 21 November 2021. The Scottish Government will also publish feedback from clients and stakeholders to learn from their experience during the pilot in Spring 2022.

The purpose of the Child Disability Payment pilot was to ensure that Social Security Scotland could safely deliver a service for disabled children and young people, by ensuring that systems and processes work for them. It was not intended to evaluate the wider policy changes being made by the Scottish Government to disability assistance, which will instead be considered as part of the Devolution of disability benefits: evaluation strategy .

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

26 projects were funded through the 2020 round of the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. When completed these projects are projected to support or create more than 1200 jobs, refurbish or bring back in to use 26 buildings and create more than 29,000sqm of business space.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of care homes allowing new admissions in NHS Highland.

(a) & (b) We collect high quality data from across the health system, and are working with stakeholders to improve the quality of data we can collect from GP practices to ensure it is comparable and robust. There is no obligation on practices or health boards to report data on activity to Scottish Government, therefore we don’t have a robust time series of data covering the full time period asked for at health board level.

GP practices have remained open, accessible and at the forefront of our community services to deal with non-COVID-19 medical care throughout the pandemic.

We have continued to meet routinely with GPs and their representatives, and hear regularly from patients, to help build intelligence around appointments and pressures in GP practices throughout the pandemic, and are currently working together with NSS and PHS on a more advanced digital solution for capturing this information moving forward.

(c)In relation to virtual appointments, the table placed in the Scottish Parliament Information centre under bib number 62934, shows the number of face to face appointments being undertaken using the video consulting platform Near Me, but would not fully cover the various digital means of engaging with the Health Board - for example to feed in blood pressure readings and receive feedback through a managed service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04826 on
13 December 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

Marine Scotland has commenced a long-term process to assess the future needs of its offshore marine assets.

A contract was awarded in late 2020 to deliver specialist Marine Protection Vessel (MPV) and Marine Research Vessel (MRV) concept designs. Subject to funding, these designs will be used in the coming years in the procurement of replacement vessels as existing vessels reach the end of their service lives.

Marine Scotland has also further invested in its inshore protection capability with two new small patrol craft delivering in early 2022 to add resilience to our inshore protection capability.

Our future aircraft needs will be assessed in the coming year, including consideration to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), both from ashore and vessel application.

A public consultation on the not proven verdict and related reforms will open today, 13 December 2021, until 11 March 2022 and will be available at https://consult.gov.scot/justice/not-proven-verdict .

The Scottish Government recognises the strong case that can be made for the abolition of the not proven verdict but we also understand that there are many who have principled and informed objections to such a reform, or highlight the complex impact that moving to two verdicts could have on the wider Scottish criminal justice system.

We will continue to take an open and consultative approach to these matters and as part of this consultation will seek to capture the views of a broad range of stakeholders including legal professionals, the third sector and those with lived experience of the system.

This Government will listen carefully to what consultees tell us before we weigh all the evidence and reach a decision.

I look forward to considering the full range of views received.

We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue discussions with UK Government and the other devolved administrations and continue to seek to take a four-nations approach to future changes to regulations and the travel regime.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04826 on 13 December 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

To date, recruitment of staff for ScotRail Trains Ltd. beyond 1 April 2022 has been conducted by Abellio ScotRail.