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The Scottish Government fully recognise that the A77 plays a vital role in supporting the local economy through facilitating the movement of goods, connecting people to employment and education opportunities, as well as providing businesses with access to the labour market. The second Strategic Transport Projects Review recommended that improvements are made on the A77, which would increase connectivity through reduced journey times and increased resilience associated with improved safety. All of which is anticipated to have a positive impact in terms of promoting inclusive growth.

Transport Scotland is preparing to undertake an evaluation of the A77 Maybole Bypass Project which opened to traffic on 31 January 2022. The evaluation will be undertaken in line with Scottish Trunk Road Infrastructure Project Evaluation (STRIPE) Guidance, comparing conditions one year after (1YA) opening with forecasts of the impacts made during project design and development. The evaluation will consider scheme objectives; operation, including traffic flows and journey times, environment; safety; economy; integration; accessibility and social inclusion and cost to government. Transport Scotland is aiming to complete this work and publish the evaluation report on Transport Scotland’s website by March 2024.

Full dualling of the A77 was not recommended by the South West Scotland Transport Study (SWSTS), because of the significant cost and environmental impacts when compared with the other transport options for improving travel on this route. In addition, full dualling does not align well with the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy as defined in the second National Transport Strategy.

Only once an intervention is recommended at the Case for Change stage, as the SWSTS represents, would the costs and benefits or disbenefits of not building an option be considered as part of the later stages of the business case process.

The Scottish Government recognises the strategic and economic importance of the A77 Trunk Road which was reflected in publication of second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) in December 2022. Under recommendation 40, safety, resilience and reliability improvements are to be made on the A77 strategic road corridor. This could include, but is not limited to, enhancing overtaking opportunities, widening or realigning carriageways and improving junctions.

In January 2022, resurfacing and lining works were completed at Dutchhouse roundabout. Whilst there are no current minor improvement schemes planned for the Whitletts or Dutch House Roundabouts at the moment, through our ongoing maintenance of the A77, a resurfacing scheme for the A77 Whitletts roundabout including new Intelligent road studs is currently planned for the 2024-25 financial year.

No finance options have been explored given that full 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.

In March 2022, the Scottish Government agreed that the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) funding period should be extended by 18 months beyond September 2023, to allow suitable lead in time for a new funding model to be developed, following the conclusion of the Independent Strategic Funding Review.

The Scottish Government established the Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of violence against women and girls services to develop a new funding model to ensure victims have access to high-quality, accessible specialist support.

A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on 6 June 2023. This will provide information on Winter Heating Payment, including the number of eligible clients and number of payments issued, up to 30 April 2023.

The Official Statistics for Winter Heating Payment can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications

The independent review of the VNS was commissioned by the then Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans in March 2022, in line with a Victims Taskforce recommendation. The Scottish Government’s commissioning of the review reflects its commitment to ensuring that the justice system is person-centred and trauma-informed.

The review’s report was published on 12 May this year. It made 22 recommendations, including a recommendation on key data. This recommendation involves identification of key data for the VNS in order to determine how efficient and effective the scheme is, and for related purposes.

The Scottish Government intends to consider the report’s recommendations (including the recommendation on key data) in collaboration with stakeholders in the current months to fully explore their implications. 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.

The Scottish Government itself has a role to play in delivering the VNS for victims of people in the forensic mental health system who are subject to a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order (“the CORO VNS”). This means that it holds information on this aspect of this scheme. However, taking into account the small number of COROs imposed each year, the numbers of registered victims on this scheme are very small. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not publish data on the CORO VNS because this could risk identifying a victim.

Research was commissioned through ClimateXChange on the subject of “Electricity system stability & security of supply in Scotland”, with a contract awarded on 13 October 2022. Analysis and drafting of the report are in progress, with completion expected in the coming months. Once complete, the exact timing for publication will then be confirmed.

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