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We are supportive of ensuring the organics sector, as part of the wider Scottish agriculture industry, contributes fully to our Ambition 2030 strategy to grow our food and drink industry.

We have committed to doubling the amount of land used for organic farming, doubling the amount of organic produce that comes from Scotland and are focussing on more organic produce being used in public sector food procurement. We are considering how best to build upon the Scottish Organic Action Plan and will be meeting with the Scottish Organic Stakeholder Group to hear their views.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have recommended that, where operationally possible, those aged under 40 should receive an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, everybody who has already had a first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should receive a second dose of the same jab, irrespective of age, except for the very small number of people who experienced blood clots with low platelet counts from their first vaccination. There have been no confirmed cases of thromboembolic events to date in second doses.

People will not be offered options on which vaccine they will receive, unless there is a clinical reason why this would be required, such as an allergy. Any vaccine authorised for use in the UK, by the appropriate Medical authorities is safe and effective, and will have a similar effect in terms of protection.

It is also worth noting that this is the case with many other vaccines. People are not routinely offered a choice of the type of vaccines in other vaccine programmes in Scotland. The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce an option for receiving either COVID-19 vaccine, beyond a clinical recommendation as the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for the vast majority of the population.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the 2021 grade results broken down by state and independent school.

The SQA plan to publish information on results be centre type - Attainment Statistics for every National Qualification in 2021, tabulated by Centre Type (Education Authority Schools, Independent Schools, Colleges) - on their website ( Statistics 2021 - SQA ) on 21 September 2021.

The following table shows office-cancelled breast screening appointments, broken down by month from January 2020 until July 2021. It is important to note, however, that all of these office-cancelled appointments are reappointed as a matter of course and an invitation to screening sent to the participant. Where appointments are rescheduled in this way before a letter of invitation has been sent, the screening participant may be unaware their appointment has been cancelled and reappointed .

The data provided below was provided as management information and has not been subject to quality checks that would be applied in an official publication. Quality assured breast screening programme statistics are published annually by Public Health Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not provide direct support to land managers to manage beavers through either lethal control or translocation.

However, NatureScot, through the Scottish Beaver Mitigation Scheme, offers free advice and support to land managers and can provide and install equipment to help them mitigate the impact of beavers on their land. More information about the support available from NatureScot under this scheme is available on their website - Beaver Mitigation Scheme | NatureScot

Ensuring high quality palliative and end of life care for people towards the end of life is an important priority for the Scottish Government.

Since 2016, it has been the responsibility of Integration Authorities to commission and plan palliative and end of life care services and supports to meet the needs of their local population. The assessment of palliative and end of life care services is also their responsibility.

For this reason, the Scottish Government does not collect this data centrally.

However, Integration Authorities report on their progress using a range of indicators within their Annual Performance Reports, which provides some data on palliative and end of life care services. Information on the Core Suite of Integration Indicators can be found at https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8411/2021-07-13-coresuiteindicators-background-and-glossary.pdf. It is, however, important to note that due to the pandemic, full data is not currently available for all indicators at present.

Public Health Scotland also publish official statistics on the percentage of time spent at home or in a community setting in the last six months of life. ( Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Financial years ending 31 March 2011 to 2020 - Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Publications - Public Health Scotland ).

Meetings of the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group have taken place on 10 December 2020, 18 February 2021 and 19 August 2021. All minutes, once approved by the Group are publicly available on the Scottish Government website Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The following table shows the number of people who attended a breast screening appointment from January 2019 to July 2021. 2018-2019 data is provided as a baseline; as the programme operates on a 3 year basis, and as in some years the locations are further away from base sites, these figures are provided as an average. It is important to note that the 2020 and 2021 data provided was collected and used for management purposes for monitoring the recovery of the program and has not been subject to quality checks for official publication. Public Health Scotland publish breast screening programme statistics every year; the last publication was in May 2021 and the next publication is due in 2022.

The Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group met on 19 August 2021. The meeting was chaired by myself and also attended by Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work. The date of the next meeting has yet to be confirmed.

The vaccination programme uptake in Scotland is highly successful overall with around 90% of the adult population (18+) having received their first dose - far beyond our planning assumption of 80% - and so far 73% have received their second dose.

To ensure good uptake amongst younger age groups the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland are undertaking a wide range of initiatives.

Drop in clinics are widely available for people who want a first vaccination or are 8 weeks or more from their second vaccination – regardless if they have an appointment in the system. Drop-in mobile centres are attending a range of sites such as football grounds, parks, workplaces and shopping centres.

Young people within the eligible Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) age cohorts will still also receive a scheduled invitation which they may attend if the time and date suits. A dedicated self-registration portal allows SMS notification to take account of the greater turnover of registered addresses amongst young people.

We continue to engage with young people in a variety of ways, including through social media outlets, to make sure they have access to the correct information on vaccines. To this end the Scottish Government has developed a comprehensive set of public information campaigns across TV, radio, print and online to disseminate quality information on vaccines and positive encouragement to take up vaccination invitations.

We are presently strengthening communications targeting the 18-29 age group, such as the Roll Up Your Sleeves campaign, to ensure we vaccinate as many people in this cohort as possible.

All NHS Boards have dedicated inclusion plans within the vaccination programme, outlining how they will actively offer vaccination to people who may face barriers in taking up the vaccine. Some examples of outreach include offering vaccinations in places of worship, in other community settings, providing concessionary bus travel to appointments and working with community leaders to promote uptake.

We are continuing to discuss a range of measures with universities and colleges to help ensure students get vaccinated as soon as possible before arriving on campus. We remain in regular dialogue with Universities Scotland and Colleges Scotland and have agreed with Health Boards and Higher and Further Education Institutions to appoint Single Points of Contacts in universities and colleges. Additionally, we are engaging with the Health Boards to support vaccine delivery for both international and home based students where there is local need, including the possibility of on-campus pop-up clinics.