Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21029 on 13 September 2023. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21029 on 15 September 2023. 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 are funding partners of the UK Bycatch Monitoring Programme, which deploys dedicated observers onboard UK fishing vessels, with the purpose of recording protected species bycatch across UK fisheries. Numbers of bycaught cetaceans are reported in the programme’s annual reports. Reports from 2012-2017 can be accessed on the MB5203 project webpage: Science Search (defra.gov.uk) and reports from 2017 onwards can be accessed on the ME6004 project webpage: Science Search (defra.gov.uk) .

The Marine Directorate and Scottish Fishermen’s Federation also operate a Joint Observer Monitoring Programme, which records numbers of protected species bycaught in specific fisheries across Scottish waters. Between 2015 and 2022, this programme observed one incident of harbour porpoise bycatch.

In addition to at sea monitoring programmes, information collected through the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS) can be valuable in investigating the cause of death of marine animals stranded around the Scottish coast. While the scheme has recorded bycatch and entanglement as a cause of death in some strandings, it can be difficult to distinguish between active and lost or discarded fishing gear. Annual reports can be found on the SMASS website: Published Reports - SMASS (strandings.org) .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21441 on 27 September 2023. 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 current arrangements for religious and belief celebrants, and civil registrars, to solemnise marriage and register civil partnership allow couples to choose from a wide range of options for their ceremony to satisfy both the requirements of the law, and of any religion or belief.

These arrangements were broadened under the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 (the Act). Couples can now have their marriage solemnised by a celebrant from a belief body as an alternative to having a civil or a religious ceremony. Intended civil partners also have the same options as those who wish to marry.

The Policy Memorandum that accompanied the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill in the Parliament set out the Government’s reasons for rejecting the option of opening the solemnisation of marriage to celebrants with no link to a religious or belief body at paragraph 28.

This remains our position and we have no plans to change the law.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21029 on 13 September 2023. 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 .

Plans to pilot drug checking facilities are being developed in Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow following a research project funded through the Drug Deaths Taskforce.

The research work, carried out by Stirling University, highlighted the need for a national hub for drug checking to be established alongside the facilities in the three pilot cities.

That national hub will: provide the ability to re-test samples from the city drug checking sites; confirm the identity of compounds; and quality check the results supplied by the sites. This will allow for the establishment of levels of accuracy and error margins, and assess limitations from the city drug checking sites. The information produced can then be used to inform services and individuals as well as feeing into Public Health Scotland’s RADAR system.

Once the national hub has been established it has the potential to be used to provide a similar type of service as the WEDINOS service currently operating in Wales.

In the Programme for Government we committed to begin work to phase in an expanded national offer for more families with two-year-olds, focusing on those who will benefit most. We already offer 1140 hours of high quality, funded early learning and childcare to around a quarter of families with two year olds who experience the most disadvantage.

We now have the highest number of two year olds ever accessing the existing funded 1140 offer and following years of work with the UK Government we now have new data sharing agreements in place which mean that, for the first time, local authorities are able to access much better information to allow them to identify and contact eligible families.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities and providers to maximise uptake of the existing offer as we develop plans to phase in the expansion.

Over the next year we will also work with local authorities and our partners in the sector to develop plans to expand access to around 40% of families in Scotland over time.

Further detail, including on the additional investment required to deliver the childcare expansion over this Parliament, will be set out at the Scottish Budget for 2024-25 later this year.

The 2023-24 Scottish budget provides over £250 million funding to NHS Boards to support Covid-19 and other services. This funding is used to support the Covid-19 vaccination programme, testing, personal protection equipment and public health measures.

Within monthly financial returns issued to Scottish Government from NHS Boards on their Covid-19 expenditure with over £45 million of reported expenditure as at month 4. Please note, this total is based on the most recent figures reported by NHS Boards.