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Under section 36 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the Scottish Government has a legal duty to produce a catch-up report with additional policies and proposals to compensate in future years for the excess emissions from any missed annual emissions targets. These have already been published for any previously missed targets. The 2020 target, which is the most recent to have been reported on, was met. We are one of only a very few countries to have such a rigorous statutory system which requires us to outperform on future targets when past targets are not met.

The consultation, Scotland's social security system: Enhanced Administration and Compensation Recovery, sought views on proposals to effect ongoing improvement of the Scottish social security system across a range of topics. Taken together, the proposals reflect the Scottish social security principles, unanimously endorsed by the Parliament, on seeking opportunities for continuous improvement in ways which put the needs of clients first, and delivering efficient systems and value for money.

The Scottish Government intends to publish the analysis of responses to the consultation before the Parliament’s Spring Recess.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13760 on 24 January 2022. 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 COPFS Victims Right to Review Annual Report 2021-22 was published on the COPFS website on 24 January 2023.

The report is available on the COPFS website at the link below.

https://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/victims-right-to-review-annual-report-2021-to-2022/

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Scottish Child Payment including full applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The next quarterly release of Official Statistics, covering the period to the end of December 2022, is due to be published on 28 February 2023 and will include the total number of payments made to clients each month, and the number of children actively in receipt of Scottish Child Payment as of the end of December 2022.

As part of data improvement, development is currently underway to include additional child age breakdowns in the future editions of the Scottish Child Payment statistics publication.

The information could not be provided for the answer to question S6W-12962 as the Scottish Government does not hold this level of service detail for Rape Crisis Centres. Rape Crisis Centres are independent charitable organisations which hold their own information on their waiting lists. It is for individual local centres, or Rape Crisis Scotland as the umbrella organisation, to provide this information.

We have provided this information in past answers because we specifically asked for the information from Rape Crisis Scotland. The Scottish Government do not consistently hold or collect this level of information and recommends that it should be requested from Rape Crisis Scotland in future.

Officials are currently working with Rape Crisis Scotland and Inspiring Scotland on the issue of waiting lists and service pressures. So we have received some current waiting list information from December 2022, which is set out in the following table.

Scottish Water does not maintain this information by parliamentary region and is only able to provide information for the closest equivalent operational area (South Region Water Operational Area). The following figures include both leaks reported by customers as well as those identified separately by Scottish Water as part of their active leakage management. This data is only readily available from 2016-17 financial year.

The outcome of the 2021 emissions reduction target will not be known until statistics for that year are published by early June 2023. In the event that any emissions reduction target is missed, under section 36 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 the Scottish Government has a legal duty to produce a catch-up report with additional policies and proposals to compensate in future years for the excess emissions. This approach ensures that the total amount of Scottish emissions over the lifetime of the targets in the Act will remain no greater than would have been the case if all of the annual targets had been exactly met.

The Scottish Government understands the challenges faced by students who are required to balance study with other commitments, and the additional costs incurred during their time spent studying.

Postgraduate Social Work students who are undertaking full-time placements as part of their course, and are experiencing financial hardship, can apply to their institutions for hardship funds. The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) also administer a hardship fund. This is in addition to the bursary available to postgraduate Social Work students provided by the SSSC.

We are currently in the process of evaluating minimum unit pricing (MUP) as a whole over its first five years of operation. Public Health Scotland will be producing a final report on MUP in 2023, which includes assessing the impact of MUP on health, crime, public safety and public nuisance in Scotland, and the impact on the alcohol industry. This will inform our evaluation report which will be laid in Parliament and published in 2023. In addition we will engage with a range of interested parties as set out in Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012.