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The Scottish Government’s view is that the New Plan for Immigration and the Nationality and Borders Bill will not achieve the change that is needed or result in systems that are effective, efficient and deliver for people who are often vulnerable and highly traumatised.

The First Minister wrote to the Home Secretary on 26 July setting out our concerns and we have had frequent and ongoing communication with the UK Government on the Nationality and Borders Bill following its publication.

Support and assistance to victims of human trafficking is within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. Section 9 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 requires the Scottish Ministers to secure support and assistance to adult victims of human trafficking in certain circumstances. Support for victims of human trafficking or slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour was placed on a statutory footing on 1 April 2018 through the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 (Support for Victims) Regulations 2018 and defines the relevant period for such support to be the earlier of 90 days or the date on which there is a conclusive determination that the adult is or is not a victim of an offence of human trafficking or slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

The Scottish Strategic Rail Study, published in 2003 by the Scottish Executive, was undertaken with the purpose of identifying the costs and benefits of potential improvements to passenger rail services in Central and North East Scotland and to outline the strategic priorities for the railways in these parts of the country.

The first Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR1), completed in 2008, covered all parts of the rail network in Scotland. Given the corridor, strategic node and urban network approach used for STPR1 the most relevant details related to the locations noted in the question are contained within the Glasgow urban network section of the review, with cross reference to Corridor 7 - Glasgow to Oban / Fort William and Western Isles; Corridor 15 - Glasgow to Stranraer and South West and Corridor 17 - Glasgow to Inverclyde and Islands. Full details of the appraisal are available here: Strategic Transport Projects Review .

Work on the second Strategic Transport Projects Review is currently on-going and is due to report later this year. This review has taken a regional approach to the appraisal process with the most relevant reports that cover the routes noted in the question identified below:

National Case for Change – Main Report: Initial appraisal: Case for Change - National - STPR2 (transport.gov.scot)

Glasgow City Region: Initial appraisal: Case for Change - Glasgow City Region - STPR2 (transport.gov.scot)

Ayrshire and Arran Region: Initial appraisal: Case for Change - Ayrshire and Arran - STPR2 (transport.gov.scot)

All rail based options (approximately 200) that have emerged from the sifting exercise undertaken as part of the development of the Initial Appraisal: Case for Change element of the review are now subject to more detailed appraisal. The draft recommendations from the review together with the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Statutory Impact Assessments will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government is aware of appraisal work relevant to the named corridors, that has been undertaken or ongoing by other parties:

• Scottish Planning Assessment (which informed the Route Utilisation Study), August 2006, Network Rail
• Route Utilisation Study, March 2007, Network Rail
• Scotland Route Study, 2016, Network Rail
• Westerton-Milngavie - A81 Milngavie – Bearsden Corridor Study, STAG Final Report, March 2015, East Dunbartonshire Council;
• A81 Transport Options Appraisal Study, February 2017, East Dunbartonshire Council
• Helensburgh Central – Fastline Faslane STAG Study, Hitrans (with funding from Scottish Government – Local Rail Development Fund)

The following table provides information on gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per primary school pupil.

Table 1: Gross revenue expenditure per primary school pupil across Scottish Local Authorities in 2019-20

As we see children return to school after summer I understand how important it is for families to feel involved, especially where children are attending school for the first time. However, as we monitor the impact of important changes to self-isolation policies amongst children and young people, it is also important that we continue to minimise the risks of infection and transmission in the school environment.

Updated guidance, published on 3 August, makes clear that visitors to schools should be agreed in advance and arrangements appropriately risk-assessed. Parents/carers may accompany children onto school premises where this is agreed with the school and strictly necessary to support children and young people, for example where there are concerns about individual children making a successful transition from Early Learning and Childcare to P1. Otherwise, where virtual arrangements for parental engagement are already in place and working well, these should continue to be used.

The updated guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-reducing-the-risks-in-schools/ . These arrangements will be kept under careful review, and are expected to be in place for up to six weeks at the start of the new term.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact that periods of imprisonment, including time on remand, can have on families. That is why we are committed to reducing the use of short-term imprisonment, including remand and increasing the use of community-based interventions.

SPS are committed to ensuring that people in prison are able to maintain contact with their family during their time in custody. The SPS Family Strategy puts families and family contact at the heart of supporting prisoners during their time in custody. The Strategy doesn’t differentiate between convicted or remand prisoners and recognises the positive contribution that close family contact and involvement can make in supporting the reintegration of prisoners back into the community.

SPS support family contact during a person's time in custody - including on remand - in a number of ways. This includes in-cell telephony, letters and family contact through visits. Under the Prison Rules, those remanded have a greater visits entitlement than those convicted. Remand prisoners have the opportunity of access to daily family visits in prisons holding remand prisoners.

The Scottish Government has provided £3.9m in grant funding for Prison Visitors Centres since 2016/17. Visitors Centres provide a range of support for families and work in partnership with other organisations to make referrals to more specialist advice and support services for things including financial support, childcare, housing support and welfare counselling. This is in addition to £138k p.a. provided to Families Outside, an organisation which supports families affected by imprisonment so that they can readily access appropriate information and support at a time they need it.

We will continue to work with partners to develop approaches in this area, learning from those with lived experience.

confirmed on 11 June 2021 that all international students in Scotland will be included in the national coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme. Universities and colleges are already encouraging students to get vaccinated as soon as possible so they will be fully vaccinated before arriving on campus. We have also agreed with Health Boards, universities and colleges to appoint single points of contact in universities and colleges who will support the delivery of the vaccination to students, including international students across Scotland, including through the use of on-campus vaccination clinics.

All vaccinations will take place in line with guidelines from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). We have provided information on vaccines for international students on the NHS Inform website and have published an FAQ document on vaccines for international students on the Student Information Scotland website.

The exact information requested is not held centrally. The most relevant and latest information available is provided below.

The Quarterly Monitoring Return, from which data on community care assessments is derived, was paused last year to reduce pressure on Local Authorities as they dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its paused social care collections and considering how best to move them forward.

Data on people receiving social care support is collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). The latest publication available covers data for 2018-19. PHS have collected data for 2019-20 and data for 2020-21 is currently being collected. These data will be published in due course.

(a) how many people have been assessed for free personal care in the last 12 months

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government collects information on the number of people who have a completed community care assessment through its Quarterly Monitoring Return. The latest information shows that in January to March 2018, there were 7,326 people aged 65+ with a completed community care assessment. However, this number includes all community care assessments and does not break down to personal care assessments only. The full figures can be viewed on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/eligibility-criteria-and-waiting-times/ .

(b) how many people have been given a care package in the last 12 months

The exact information requested is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland collects social care information directly from Health and Social Care Partnerships. This covers care at home, self-directed support, telecare and care homes. The latest available data covers 2018-19.

The following table shows the available information on people receiving care packages and personal care, new and existing in 2018-19. A full account for Scotland is unavailable (as detailed in the footnotes) and the actual numbers may be higher. A ‘care package’ includes anyone receiving care at home, all care home residents 5 and/or receiving care through self-directed support. It is from this same cohort of people personal care has been counted.

Available evidence on the level of rent arrears in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic is included in the two-monthly reports on the Coronavirus Acts, in which the Scottish Government sets out the status and operation of the necessary legislation to respond to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The latest published report (at the time of writing) can be found at Coronavirus Acts: seventh report to Scottish Parliament - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The report outlines that information published by the Scottish Housing Regulator shows that the total value of rent arrears in the social sector increased substantially from £150.0m to £165.0m in the four months between the end of April 2020 and the end of August 2020, an increase of £15.0m (10.0%). The value of arrears has subsequently stabilised across most months since then, and has decreased in the most recent month to stand at £160.7m as of the end of March 2021.

The report also outlines that in terms of evidence on rent arrears, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that, as of June 2020, no sharp increase in rent arrears for private renters was identified, with fewer than one in ten private tenants in Scotland estimated to be in arrears as of June 2020.

A separate analysis carried out by PayProp, based on the data that it holds from the processing of rent payments from tenants in Scotland, shows that the percentage of tenants in arrears increased at the start of the pandemic period from 5% in the quarter January to March 2020 up to 9% in April to June 2020. Since then this proportion has remained relatively steady, although it has increased slightly in the latest quarter from 9% in October to December 2020 up to 10% in January to March 2021.

The Scottish Government plan for its first 100 days includes the commitment to agree the first allocation of funding to councils for refurbishment of play parks. We are currently working with COSLA to confirm how the funding will be allocated and to set the parameters and principles of this work.

As per the Scottish Government statement in May 2021, we will take action to ban single-use plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), as well as other problematic single-use plastic items such as plates, straws, balloon sticks, stirrers and expanded polystyrene food and beverage containers and cups for beverages.

The Scottish Government is committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive and recently concluded a public consultation on our draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products and Oxo-degradable Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 . The draft regulations will now be made available to the World Trade Organisation for comments, in compliance with our commitments under the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement. Final regulations will be laid before Parliament later this year.