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Based on population projections published by National Records of Scotland, it is estimated the eligible two-year old population is 14,500 children. The Scottish Government is working with UK Government departments and the Office for National Statistics to acquire further UK government held data which will enable us to measure the eligible population more accurately.

The latest data published by the Improvement Service in May 2021 reported that at the national level, there were 6204 two-year-olds accessing funded ELC. Of that number, 4113 two-year-olds were accessing 1140 funded hours. Updated figures will be published by the Improvement Service in the next month.

In December, the Scottish Government will publish Schools in Scotland, Summary Statistics report for 2021. This report will include figures to show the number of registrations of two-year-olds at national and local authority level.

In recognition of importance of reducing flood risk the Scottish Government has, since 2007, provided £42 million each year to local authorities through the general capital grant to invest in flood protection measures. In September 2020, the Programme for Government also committed an additional £150 million over five years from 2021-22 to support flood risk management actions. Reducing flood risk is a priority for this Government and we will continue to support authorities to deliver actions that protect our communities.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the Act”) encourages a co-ordinated, plan-led approach to flood risk management, which runs in six year cycles. As part of the first cycle under the Act, 14 Flood Risk Management Strategies were published in 2015 by SEPA and 14 Local Flood Risk Management Plans (LFRMP) were published in 2016 by local authorities. Actions prioritised to reduce flood risk in Newcastleton are included within the 2016-22 Solway LFRMP; this included a flood study for Newcastleton, which has now been completed by Scottish Borders Council. It is for the Council and other responsible authorities such as Scottish Water to take forward and deliver the actions set out in the Strategies and LFRMPs.

SEPA and local authorities are currently in the process of reviewing and updating the Strategies and LFRMPs for the 2022-28 cycle. Once finalised, the Strategies will be submitted to Scottish Ministers for approval.

We also work closely with key partners to promote community resilience and flood preparedness. We have increased our funding to £195,000 for the Scottish Flood Forum, which provides vital support to communities such as Newcastleton. The Scottish Flood Forum offers advice and information to individuals to help them protect their homes from flooding or to recover from flooding.

Following the announcement from the First Minister of the £500 'thank you' payment for health and social care staff in November 2020, a short-life stakeholder focus group was assembled. This group, including stakeholders from social care provider representative bodies, CoSLA, trade unions, local authorities, Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser and Scottish Government legal officials, met regularly in December 2020 to agree on the eligibility criteria for social care staff to receive the payment. Social care workforce policy officials engaged with stakeholders, remotely due to restrictions, on the complexity of the guidance and sought to ensure that no processes involved would present unreasonable difficulty for stakeholders involved in the process.

For staff in NHS Scotland, it was important to set out clear qualification criteria for the payment, which were agreed in partnership with NHS employer and Trade Union colleagues, and which could be applied fairly and consistently across NHS Scotland Health Boards. The payment applies to staff directly employed by NHS payment and remuneration arrangements, and has also been extended to certain facilities management staff working in Public Finance Initiative and Public Private Partnership Hospitals who work exclusively for NHS Scotland. The Scottish Government does not hold information on all of the contractors working in the Health sector, however, those employed by a private employer and not covered by the specific provisions of PCS(COV)2021/3 are not eligible for the payment.

Scottish Ministers are incredibly grateful for the hard work and dedication of staff working for non-registered support organisations, and for the undoubtedly vital support they provide to people. However, following extensive consultation, it was determined by the stakeholder groups that only those services which were required to register with the Care Inspectorate as delivering adult social care can be considered as frontline social care. Non-registered services were considered to be support services, not delivering frontline social care and therefore not within scope to receive the payment.

There is no single dataset of all flytipping incidents in Scotland, as there is no legal requirement for duty bodies or landowners to report on flytipping externally. The figures provided below represent incidents reported via the Litter Monitoring System and FlyMapper.

It is clear that the data varies significantly from year to year but it is not possible to deduce whether this relates to variations in incidents or variations in reporting by relevant bodies.

The Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrel project has been running since 2008. The Developing Community Action phase of the project is due to run until April 2022.

Partners have agreed that that essential elements of the community action phase will need to continue and hence partners have also agreed to develop an interim phase to bridge the gap to develop a longer term model for continuing to support these activities. NatureScot is working with partners to assess the key outcomes and costs for this interim phase, and will look to provide a funding contribution once these costs and priorities are clear.

NatureScott considers that securing the legacy of this project is a priority given the importance of red squirrels in Scotland’s native wildlife.

The criteria for the fund is currently being developed by the Scotland on Tour steering group, which is made up of representatives from the music industry, the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland. Detailed guidance will be published shortly, with artists, venues and festivals able to apply to the fund in October 2021.

The music industry is a key part of Scotland’s culture sector and makes a significant contribution to our economy. It is vital that we support Scottish artists as they continue to recover from the pandemic, and we want to ensure that this fund is as widely accessible as possible.

As per the Scottish Government's response to question S5W-35177 on 19 February 2021 , the Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and it is for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to report on the allocation of opportunities.

Data relating to the Kickstart Scheme is collated by the UK Government and is not currently shared with the Scottish Government.

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

Scottish Ministers have not discussed the training delivered by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka. Scottish Government officials regularly discuss overseas deployments with Police Scotland’s International Development and Innovation Unit, who have confirmed that training in Sri Lanka has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Police Authority has responsibility for oversight of Police Scotland and to scrutinise the decisions of the Chief Constable.

The delivery of training by Police Scotland, in Sri Lanka, is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. The current training programme, provided by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka, is aimed at improving community policing and gender equality, with all training underpinned by equality and human rights. The Scottish Government has not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of Police Scotland’s training on gender-based violence as it is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to agree the details of any training programme. The Scottish Police Authority has responsibility for oversight of Police Scotland and to scrutinise the decisions of the Chief Constable.

Sustainability, across all three pillars; social, environmental and economic, is central to Scotland’s Economic and Tourism Strategies. Measures we are taking to ensure sustainable islands tourism include:

£30 million of investment over the next five years to ensure delivery of the National Islands Plan. This will support a range of areas including tourism, infrastructure, innovation, energy transition and skills - informed by our learning of how island communities have responded and adapted to COVID-19.

Delivery of the 2018-19 Programme for Government to develop an Islands passport to encourage more sustainable tourism to Scotland’s inhabited islands. The project was soft launched earlier this year with good collaboration with many islands and tourism stakeholder groups.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has also committed £3m to target young people through job placements particularly in the islands and west coast and support delayed community-led projects (due to COVID-19) supporting innovation in tourism leadership.

HIE is also investing £1.25m to support tourism’s transition to net zero, this includes decarbonising key tourism assets in some of their most remote regions, such as Fair Isle and Uist.