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We have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over 5 years, to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre revitalisation and community led regeneration. This programme will include support for repurposing of land and buildings, creating new space for local enterprises, facilities and services and support the resilience and wellbeing of communities across Scotland.

We have also launched a £10 million multi-year Scotland Loves Local Fund to support local people, businesses and community partnerships to bring new ideas and activity to towns and neighbourhoods to support local economic recovery and resilience.

The Town Centre Action Plan and our UK-leading town centre first approach provide a framework for those working to revitalise town and neighbourhood centres so that they can become more diverse, sustainable and thriving places for communities to live, work and enjoy. An independent review which considered the impact and lessons from the Town Centre Action Plan and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was published in February 2021. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and partners to respond to the review.

We support Scotland's Towns Partnership to work with local authorities, communities and businesses to provide information, support and services which contribute to the vibrancy, viability and diversity of our town centres and neighbourhoods, and to support the development of Business Improvement Districts.

To support the small businesses that will be vital to the recovery of our towns and high streets, we will maintain the Small Business Bonus Scheme for the lifetime of the Parliament - ensuring that 100,000 business properties pay no rates and that the majority of ratepayers continue to pay a lower poundage than elsewhere in the UK.

Our City Centre Recovery Task Force is working to identify innovative actions aimed at assisting city centres through their economic recovery. To kick-start the Task Force, we invested £2 million in a City Centres Recovery Fund. This has supported innovative actions with a focus on inclusive and sustainable growth to aid the recovery of our city centres.

The Scottish Government has published the Evaluation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism 2011-21 today. In response I am delighted to announce £650k this financial year, for tests of change on adult neurodevelopmental pathways. Additionally I can announce new funding of £425k to trial the Scottish Government’s new Learning Disability and Autism leadership and engagement work, from the Recovery and Renewal fund. I would also like to announce £400k for the understanding autism project charity funding. This represents a substantive package of support of £1.4m, £1m of which is new funding from the Recovery and Renewal fund.

The evaluation is available to view at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802013696

The Scottish Government’s message to those experiencing domestic abuse is very clear– you are not alone, you do not have to wait and you should not hesitate to come forward and get support.

Equally Safe is Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls including domestic abuse. Our Equally Safe strategy continues to have a decisive focus on preventing gender based violence and tackling the underlying attitudes that perpetuate it. A refresh of our Equally Safe Delivery Plan and Strategy is underway. This will build on the many achievements of the previous iteration.

We are providing direct support for specialist services to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse, and driving improvements in the justice sector’s response. As announced in the Programme for Government, we will invest £100 million to support frontline services and focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards. We will also invest in services which support male survivors of rape and domestic abuse.

Within the first 100 days of this government, new funding totalling £5M went to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to cut waiting lists. It comprised approximately £4.5 million split between Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland, and a total of £500,000 for 12 other specialist support services and organisations. We created a new Delivering Equally Safe Fund (£19m per annum) and have recently confirmed allocations to 121 projects from 112 organisations working to provide services and prevent gender-based violence and abuse. Last year we allocated an additional £5.75 million to frontline services to support rapid redesign and enable them to respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse attributed to the pandemic.

The Equally Safe strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/equally-safe-scotlands-strategy-prevent-eradicate-violence-against-women-girls/

The Equally Safe Delivery Plan final report can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/equally-safe-final-report/

The Caledonian System provides rehabilitation services to male perpetrators of domestic violence to address and challenge their harmful behaviours. We plan to increase our investment in it to £10 million over the next two years and to support the national rollout of the system with the aim of making it available to all 32 Scottish local authorities by the end of the parliamentary term.

Our priority is to ensure a successful, safe and secure COP26 in November and Ministers and officials are working with UK Government counterparts, our partners in Glasgow and the relevant public health bodies to achieve this.

We are continuing to work closely with the UK Government, Glasgow City Council, and all our partners to ensure that strong COVID mitigation measures are in place that will support the full and active participation of international delegates, and protect public health.

Further details on vaccine certification for registered COP26 delegates will be announced shortly.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02718 on 24 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 aware that East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, along with many areas across the country, is experiencing extreme pressures due to increased demand for care and staffing pressures, due to annual leave, sickness and self-isolation of staff. The partnership has taken the difficult decision to temporarily relocate the bed capacity and staff from Edington Hospital to East Lothian Hospital to maintain safe staffing levels and provide safe and functional care. The partnership also has plans to open 10 additional interim care beds at Crookson Care Home within 3 months, which will provide additional step-down capacity and help improve the flow through hospital.

East Lothian Integrated Joint Board has established a Care Homes and Community Hospital Change Board, to oversee the developments and look at the longer term options for community hospitals in East Lothian, Including Belhaven and Edington hospitals.

We are working with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to address current workforce issues and improve hospital flow and discharge arrangements across Scotland.

The Scottish Government and all associated agencies, are currently working towards the targets set out in the 2019-20 Programme for Government, where we outlined our commitment to phase out the need for all petrol or diesel cars in the public sector fleet by 2025 and for all other new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee on the Climate Emergency is currently being established. Once finalised, the remit of the new Sub-committee, including its membership and operating arrangements will be subject to approval by the First Minister. It is however envisaged that the first meeting will take place during October 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02823 on 24 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 .