Seòmar agus comataidhean

The dualling of the A77 was not recommended as an outcome of the South West Transport Scotland Study published in January 2020. Instead, options for targeted improvements and road safety measures were recommended and these were subsequently appraised and formed the basis of Recommendation #40 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published in December 2022.

The New Deal includes collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for Local Government, alongside a new Partnership Agreement. Following the First Minister’s introductory meeting with COSLA President, Councillor Morrison, on 31 March, work on the Partnership Agreement has progressed at pace. The Scottish Government has also undertaken intensive collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for local government and will continue to work with COSLA over the coming months to agree further substantial aspects of a Fiscal Framework alongside the Partnership Agreement.

The Scottish Government has not requested a progress update from the Scottish Civil Justice Council on its review of court rules in relation to Protective Expenses Orders. The Scottish Civil Justice Council is an independent body. Publicly available minutes of meetings of the Costs and Funding Committee on 26 May 2022 and 31 October 2022 record that detailed discussions took place about the court rules governing Protective Expenses Orders and drafting instructions were to be issued.

The Scottish Government has noted the report of the independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS) as published on 12 May, including the recommendation that victims be automatically referred to a new Victim Contact Team (itself subject to a separate recommendation in the report) to be offered enrolment on the VNS, given information on the process, and their rights and entitlements.

As the report makes clear, a number of organisations have a role to play in delivering the current scheme (including the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board for Scotland).

Therefore, the Scottish Government intends to consider the report’s recommendations (including the automatic referral recommendation) in collaboration with stakeholders in the current months to fully explore their implications. This approach is particularly important for recommendations that are likely to have a direct impact on victims. We intend to take forward these discussions in the coming months as a matter of priority, and to publish a formal response to the report in due course.

Although through The Land Reform (Scotland) Act, access is free to most outdoor spaces and the use of public and active transport is encouraged, The Scottish Government appreciates that many of our rural outdoor spaces can only be easily accessed by motorised vehicles.

The Scottish Government is in close discussion with Forestry and Land Scotland to see what further mitigations can be put in place to ensure the correct balance between free access to Scotland's national forests and land both during the current economic climate and beyond and the need to sustainably manage our forests and encourage responsible vehicle use and active transport, mitigate safety and environmental impacts at popular sites and support the net zero challenge.

Blue Badge holders can park for free and money-saving annual passes are available.

As highlighted in answer to question S6W-15794 on 22 March 2023 Scottish Government officials have had regular engagement on progress throughout the implementation of the Safe Deposits Scotland (SDS) system upgrade and will continue to do so. Officials have discussed the concerns raised by Mr Greene as part of this engagement.

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 next set of results for the SCJS will be published in Autumn 2023. These results will cover a full years' worth of interviews through to December 2022.

Along with the other large household surveys that rely on face-to-face interviews, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) was suspended in March 2020 to restrict social contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, no SCJS interviews were conducted during 2020-21 and no report will be published for that year. In recognition of the evidence gap opened up by the suspension, the Scottish Government introduced the Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey as a discrete and additional collection to the SCJS. This asked people about their experiences and perceptions of crime, safety and policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, with findings available at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Fieldwork for the SCJS resumed in late 2021.

Scottish Government officials will next meet with SafeDeposits Scotland on Thursday 14 September for their 6 monthly review meeting. There are currently no plans for myself to meet with SafeDeposits Scotland.

Public Health Scotland publish Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information which shows the number of available staffed beds and percentage occupancy (Table 4) by financial year (2012-13 to 2021-22) and by quarter (2020 Q2 to 2022 Q1), by NHS Board and hospital location. In addition, PHS produce a quarterly publication which provides similar beds information up to and including the quarter ending 30 September 2022. Data for the quarter ending 31 December 2022 was published on 30 May 2023. The PHS statistics do not provide specific information on COVID beds. NHS Boards reconfigured parts of hospitals during the pandemic, with, in particular, significant increases in critical care capacity, and this should be taken in to account when interpreting the annual bed statistics.

Public Health Scotland also publish statistics on the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 which is available in the Weekly national respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistical report with Health Board level data available through the Open Data Platform: COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland - Daily Case Trends by Health Board - Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data (nhs.scot) . Until 7 May 2023, this also included the number of patients with COVID-19 in ICU.

As stated in the answer to question S6W-17851 on 31 May 2023 the Scottish Government has no role in setting the levels or assessing the impact on individuals of registration fees for the regulated health professions. These functions are within the statutory authority of the governing councils of the independent UK regulators, including the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

The Scottish Government recognises the unwelcome additional burden that higher fees will place on registrants, especially during the current financial climate. However, we acknowledge that the HCPC - as a registrant-funded independent regulator - is facing the same cost pressures as other organisations, including other regulators that have also raised their fees.

Occupational Therapy is one of the professions included in the Scottish Government's Agenda for Change (AfC). Following acceptance by all Unions, the 2023-24 Pay Deal was implemented, with both uplift and additional payment, in the April pay run. This pay deal came after Agenda for Change took difficult decisions to find this money within the health budget, confirming its commitment to supporting AfC staff, particularly during a cost of living crisis.

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