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All councils are now offering 1140 hours of funded ELC to all eligible children, making high quality early learning and childcare available to families in line with the increased statutory entitlement which came into force on 1 August. This will save parents up to £4,900 per year for each eligible child. Up to 130,000 children are expected to benefit this year.

Scotland is the only part of the UK to offer the equivalent of 1140 hours to all 3 and 4 year olds regardless of their parents’ working status, putting children first. This is a fantastic achievement that has been delivered in the face of the pandemic by Scottish Government, Local Government and our local delivery partners.

The Green Book notes that immunosuppression is one of the clinical risk groups for COVID-19 immunisation. This immunosuppression may be due to disease or treatment, including patients undergoing chemotherapy leading to immunosuppression, patients undergoing radical radiotherapy, solid organ transplant recipients, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients, HIV infection at all stages, multiple myeloma or genetic disorders affecting the immune system (e.g. IRAK-4, NEMO, complement disorder, SCID).

All the UK governments receive their expert clinical advice from the JCVI and the Committee has been closely monitoring this issue throughout the vaccination programme both from real world data from the UK programme and from the literature review from across the world.

The Committee are fully aware of the potential sub-optimal response to two doses of the vaccine by some immunosuppressed individuals and that’s why they recommended that these groups of people should be given highest priority for a booster programme in the autumn.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government welcome the results of the OCTAVE study led by Prof. McInesss of Glasgow University. OCTAVE is one of a number of studies looking at vaccine effectiveness through measuring immune response.

The study found that “while 40% of these clinically at-risk patient groups were found to have a low or undetectable immune response after a double dose of the vaccine, we are encouraged that this figure isn’t higher. However, it is possible even partial protection may be clinically beneficial, and this is something we will closely monitor."

These preliminary results of OCTAVE and the results of continuing and forthcoming research will be instrumental in helping inform how best to vaccinate patients with immunosuppressed conditions and protect them from COVID-19 infection in the future.

We await the JCVI’s final advice on any potential Covid-19 booster programme, with the interim advice being that this should begin in September 2021, in order to maximise protection in those who are most vulnerable to serious COVID-19 symptoms ahead of the winter months.

The Scottish Land Fund (SLF) has had a budget of £10 million per annum over the last five financial years - being a total of £50m.

The programme is managed so as to achieve an annual outturn figure that is as near as possible to budget in each financial year. Actual spend in any given financial year depends on the date that assets are acquired (as opposed to when funding is approved). The length of time from approval of award to completion of sale and drawdown of funds varies. This means that, at the time an award is made, it is not possible to know with certainty when drawdown will happen, making it very challenging to exactly match actual spend to the annual budget.

The Fund has a two-stage application process. It offers grants of between £2000 and £30,000 at Stage 1 to help with project development, and between £10,000 and £1 million for acquisition at Stage 2. It is demand-led.

To be successful, applicants need to be suitably constituted, geographically-based voluntary/community organisations who can demonstrate that their project will be well managed and financially sustainable. They must show that their proposals:

• are supported by the local community
• represent value for money and
• will achieve more sustainable economic, social and/or environmental development through the ownership of land and/or buildings

Applicants are supported throughout the application process by experienced Scottish Land Fund advisers. The Fund is managed by the National Lottery Community Fund. An independent Committee oversees the SLF and scrutinises applications for funding for acquisition.

Figures for funds unspent in the Scottish Land Fund at the end of each of the last five financial years are as follows:

2016-17 £4,813,355*

2017-18 £0*

2018-19 £1,127,500

2019-20 £12,189

2020-21 £254,336

*Awards made in 2016-17 included a grant of £4.4 million to the North West Mull Community Group for the acquisition of the island of Ulva. This grant was paid out when the transaction settled in June 2017, bringing the outturn for 2017-18 for the Scottish Land Fund to £11,701,431.

The Mobilisation Recovery Group (MRG) was an advisory group established by the previous Cabinet Secretary under Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: the Framework for NHS Scotland.

Membership, the dates on which meetings took place, and minutes of those meetings can be found on the MRG website, available at Mobilisation Recovery Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Minutes include a list of attendees at each meeting. The number of attendees varied depending on the meeting.

In 2021, the MRG met on 22 January, 15 February, 5 March, 26 March, and 16 April. All meetings scheduled to take place after Friday 16 April have been cancelled. Meetings were scheduled to take place on 5 June, 25 June, 16 July, 6 August, 27 August, 24 September, 15 October, 5 November, and 3 December.

The minute of the meeting held on 16 April will be published on the website shortly.

The Scottish Government and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd have investigated the options for utilising zero emission electric propulsion systems and found that the current commercially available technology is best suited to the smaller vessels. The Small Vessels Replacement Programme will see up to 7 of the existing ‘Loch’ Class ferries replaced as part of Phase 1 with low or zero emission vessels. These will join the 3 diesel electric hybrid ferries already in service and help the Scottish Government achieve its target of 30% of the ferries it owns being low or zero emission by 2032.

https://www.cmassets.co.uk/project/svrp/

Going forward the Islands Connectivity Plan will investigate further the available and emerging opportunities and technologies available to the maritime sector and set out pathways towards the decarbonisation of ferry services. in support of the Scottish Government’s climate change commitments.

The review of governance arrangements within the tripartite remains on track and will deliver a final report to Scottish Government around the end of the year.

Ministers and Transport Scotland will then take time to fully consider the review findings and further engagement with relevant stakeholders including local communities and trade unions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02400 on 31 August 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 .

From the Period March 2020 – July 2021 the following companies have supplied personal protective equipment (PPE) as part of a Scottish Government Contract:

The Scottish Government publishes information on the initial (3 months after leaving school) and follow-up (9 months after leaving school) destinations of school leavers from publicly funded schools.

Initial destination: School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Follow-up destination: School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Note that this does not directly identify the proportion who have gone to university but does identify those who have went in to Higher Education. Within these statistics Higher Education is defined based on the qualification being studied rather than the place of study. It covers those following a course of study at a level higher than the standard of the National Qualifications, i.e. above SCQF level 7. This includes degree courses, courses for the education and training of teachers, higher level courses for professional qualification and Higher National Certificate / Diploma or equivalent. This will include those studying such courses at University but also in other settings such as a Higher Education Institutions or Colleges.

The latest follow-up destinations data on the proportion of publicly funded school leavers who were in Higher Education is provided below. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of independent school leavers who have gone to university or Higher Education.

Proportion of school leavers from publicly funded schools with Higher Education follow-up destination

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02400 on 31 August 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 .