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With reference to S6W-12408 on 7 December 2022, no COVID-19 reserves have been recouped to date. Work is on-going, with IJBs, to understand their financial forecasts.

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 Programme for Government published in September 2021 covered this Parliamentary session running up to March 2026. Within it, there is a commitment as follows:

'The Scottish Government’s law officers, amongst other roles, act as the head of the independent prosecution service and as members of the Scottish Government. We will consult on whether the prosecution and government functions of the law officers should be separated.'

Work is continuing to progress towards a Scottish Government consultation. Development of the consultation will be informed by an initial phase of expert research, which is currently underway. This research will ensure a detailed baseline understanding of the many distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and will provide information on how the functions of Law Officers operate in other countries.

With reference to S6W-12070 on 16 November 2022, we continue to work with IJBs to understand their financial forecasts. Therefore, no COVID-19 reserves have been recouped to date.

Further detail will be communicated later in the financial year at an IJB level and the process and timetable will follow through further communications.

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

Officials met with the Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) on 16 May 2022 and discussed the excellent services offered by the charity and ongoing work to secure HD specialists for four further health board areas.

Since then we have progressed our work in commissioning Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to support quality assurance of the implementation of the HIS General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. A self-assessment template and guidance is being developed, supporting service-led self-evaluation of neurological services.

We welcome the engagement and expertise of third sector organisations including the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) and the SHA and support their involvement and leadership in the development and implementation of this key activity.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease.

We are also undertaking work to better understand specialist service provision for people in Scotland with neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease and the specialist provision provided by SHA and the NHS, with the aim of developing improvement. We have invited representation from NAoS and welcome input from SHA and other condition specific organisations to inform this.

This process will also align with relevant commitments from the Neurological Framework, Transforming Roles agenda and the National Workforce Strategy.

The annual Winter Service period began on 1 October 2022 and continues through to 15 May 2023. The publicity launch for Transport Scotland’s Winter Service 2022/2023 took place on 3 November, Winter service launch 22/23 | Transport Scotland .

For the 2022-23 winter service Transport Scotland has 240 vehicles available for spreading salt and ploughing snow, typically one spreader for every 16 km of trunk road. Salt barns are full and more salt is currently in stock than was used across both Scotland’s trunk and local roads during the whole of last winter.

Enhanced patrol provision will be in place across the network and route specific snow plans have been updated. To prevent snow or ice forming, gritters also provide precautionary salt treatments to roads, depending on the forecast weather conditions.

Financial spend on delivery of winter service by Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies for 2022/23 is forecast to be £29,194,484.

The 2022-23 budget allocation for emergency road repairs (Category 1 defects) is currently £1.8M, however, this may be subject to change depending on the severity of repairs experienced throughout the period.

Energy suppliers and advice services operating in Scotland have advised us in the course of our regular engagement that electric prepayment meters have a minimum top up amount of £5. The maximum credit a traditional (non-smart) prepayment meter can hold is £255, which is also the maximum value that can be placed on a top-up key.

Gas prepayment meters have a minimum top up amount of £1 and gas meters can generally hold up to £999 credit. Unless the top-up key is already full at the moment when a customer tries to redeem the voucher, there should be no reason that they are unable to top up.

I would urge any affected consumers to contact their supplier or otherwise call Energy Advice Scotland on 0808 196 8660 or at energyadvice.scot for assistance in resolving the problem.

The increase in recorded sexual offences is not unique to Scotland but is part of a global trend. Multiple factors appear to have contributed to this rise including increased reporting of historical offences. Some of this increase is also attributable to greater recognition of online sexual offending driven in part by action we have taken to outlaw new forms of harmful sexual behaviour such as non-consensual disclosure of an intimate image or film.

We will continue to prioritise support for victims of sexual crime, as well as work to identify ways to prevent such offending through the implementation of our Equally Safe strategy. We recognise that sexual offences are particularly traumatising for victims and have invested significantly to improve support for survivors. That is why our Delivering Equally Safe fund is providing approximately £9.5m in funding to support survivors of rape and sexual assault and we are also investing an extra £6m over the next three years in Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Advocacy Project to fund a key support worker in every centre in Scotland.

We know that there is more we can do to ensure that Scotland’s justice system is one in which the victims of serious sexual offences can have confidence. We are considering the recommendations made by the Lady Dorrian Review into improving the Management of Sexual Offence Cases and, through our recent Consultation and cross-sector engagement, are exploring in detail if and how these recommendations can be implemented.

SIGN guidelines are produced by Health Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) evidence directory and we understand there are no plans by HIS to publish a SIGN guideline on Huntington’s Disease at present.

SIGN guidelines are produced in collaboration with clinicians, other health and social care professionals, patient organisations and individuals. The prioritisation and development of SIGN guidelines is evidence based.

The member may find it helpful to view the documents contained on the evidence page of HIS’s website: Evidence: Advice, guidance and intelligence (healthcareimprovementscotland.org) , which provides information and guidance on how requests for the development of guidelines are assessed, and how and evidence-based decisions are made.

Any group or individual in Scotland can propose a guideline topic to SIGN and SIGN welcome requests to provide evidence or analysis on clinical issues regarding Huntington’s Disease care.

While the Scottish Government recognises that many people in rural and island communities already experience higher costs of living compared to those living in more central areas, the roll out of the Energy Bills Support Scheme is a matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government recently doubled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million through the Emergency Budget Review, with local referral partners including Home Energy Scotland, the Fuel Bank Foundation, Advice Direct Scotland and Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. We also recently provided £1.2m of additional funding to boost advice services across Scotland.

I would urge consumers who are struggling with their energy bills to contact Energy Advice Scotland on 0808 196 8660 or at energyadvice.scot.

I refer the member to my answer to the question S6W-12401 on 7 December 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