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ScotRail has commenced the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) and the timetable consultation process will contribute to this assessment. The purpose of the consultation is to enable passengers and stakeholders to provide specific feedback on how the proposals impact their journey compared to ScotRail’s current timetable and will allow completion of the EIA prior to finalising the timetable from May 2022 onwards.

Following the completion of the timetable consultation, a copy of the EIA document would be available directly from ScotRail.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02844 on 23 September 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 .

The Scottish Government is now determining how this work will proceed and the resourcing it requires, as we do for delivering our commitments across the whole range of our responsibilities in the interests of the people of Scotland.

ScotRail will continue to serve the diverse range of communities across Scotland, reflecting their changing travel needs. ScotRail’s proposed timetable for May 2022 would provide more seats than the current timetable and the vast majority of customers will find either no change to their current service or that their service improves with a more regular interval between services and/or some more trains provided each day.

A range of civil servants will be responsible for overseeing different aspects of work relating to an independence referendum. Overall leadership of the civil service supporting the Scottish Government lies with the Permanent Secretary and Executive Team.

Yes, this remains Scottish Government position. We strongly discourage trade with all illegal settlements, including those in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In their most recent CAMHS Waiting Times Data Quality Report, Public Health Scotland published that NHS Grampian are experiencing challenges reporting on “did not attend appointment” (DNA) due to the functionality of their current patient management system and database. Work is ongoing to rectify this and NHS Grampian anticipate that they will be able to provide this to Public Health Scotland by the end of 2021 when they expect to have transitioned to their new patient management system.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8867/data-quality.pdf

In the Programme for Government announced on 7 September 2021 the Scottish Government committed to developing options to remove charging for non-residential social care. We are working to deliver these as soon as possible.

Every public information campaign has a unique set of objectives and associated target audience.

The Scottish Government carries out research to ascertain the most effective strategy and messaging for all public information campaigns.

In some cases, a well-known public figure can deliver a message in a more compelling way thus increasing the potential impact of the campaign. Where that is the case, the Scottish Government consider various options recommended by their rostered agencies based on the personality and profile of the celebrity required and appointments are made based on suitability, availability and level of budget (if any) required.

A new protocol is being created and put in place by the Scottish Government to improve the approach to vetting public figures used in campaigns. This protocol will improve the sharing of knowledge between public sector bodies and the Scottish Government central communications function regarding the use of public figures.

Self-directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care. Under the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 , all people in Scotland who are assessed as being in need of social care support have a right to choice, control and flexibility to meet their personal outcomes.

SDS is therefore not something that is applied for or denied. Local Authorities are required to ensure that people are offered a range of choices on how they receive their social care support.

Self-directed Support can be provided using one of four different options. Public Health Scotland statistics from 2018-19 indicate that 102,805 people in Scotland were involved in choosing and controlling their support through one of more of the self-directed support options.