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Territorial NHS Boards’ 2022-23 funding from the long COVID Support Fund has been split into two tranches. The first tranche (70%) was provided to NHS Boards in June. The second tranche (30%) will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

This is a well-established practice for the allocation of health board funding to account for any slippage in programme delivery, and is used across a range of policy areas.

Due to Adult Disability Payment being in the early stages of delivery, we have not commenced publication of statistics relating to clients’ specific disabilities or conditions. This information will be included in future statistical publications.

As of July 2022, the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment in Scotland for which COVID-19 or Long COVID is recorded as the client’s primary disability or condition was 307.

Matters relating to the procurement of new vessels for Orkney and Shetland’s internal ferry services are the responsibility of those councils. Therefore any discussions with the Clyde Catamaran Group on this topic would be for Orkney and Shetland Island Councils.

To date, there have not been any discussions between the Scottish Government and the Clyde Catamaran Group regarding it's Scottish ferry shipbuilding strategy. However, a meeting has been arranged with the Clyde Catamaran Group and I look forward to discussing their proposals on the matter.

The most robust method for reporting ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operational performance across the current contract to-date is by presenting the average daily number of non-operational charge point units. The following table provides a monthly breakdown of this information across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network under the current contract. The transitional period immediately after the migration to the current operator focused on network stabilisation, including resolving technical issues across the network, hence the disparity in operational performance in the months of August and September.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention by an engineer.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area. However, CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will be continuously updated with detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, such as uptime by Local Authority area.

The Forestry Grant Scheme already provides an extensive package of support to help landowners improve the condition of ancient woodlands. This funding is available through the Woodland Improvement Grant Habitats and Species option. This offers capital grant support to remove invasive species such as Rhododendron, for fencing costs, felling and tree removal. Forest management and enhancement is also supported through 5 year management agreements covering habitat monitoring and deer control as well as stock management support for grazed woodland. For special sites, such as SSSI’s or Natura 2000 sites, the support available can cover 100% of the costs.

Since 2016 the Forestry Grant Scheme has supported over 210 projects to restore native woodlands with a combined value of over £12m.

Funding provided to NHS Boards for Childsmile programme delivery is set out in the following table.

In addition to direct programme allocations, funding is provided to NHS Boards through the annual Outcomes Framework allocation to deliver a range of core services, including for Childsmile. The total value of this allocation for each of the five years is also set out below:

To answer both parts of your question: The Scottish Government received confirmation from the Maritime Coastguard Agency on 20 October 2022 that the vessel which caused damage to the primary telecommunications feeding Shetland had been identified and is a UK registered fishing vessel.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12547 on 5 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 .

The Scottish Government has taken forward a range of measures to support the efficient delivery of Scotland’s Redress Scheme. The delivery of the scheme, in partnership with the independent decision making body Redress Scotland, is survivor led with feedback encouraged and acted upon.

Total numbers of applications to the Scottish Government are in line with modelling done prior to scheme launch. The comparatively higher level of applications submitted in the first few months reflects the large number of survivors who worked tirelessly to see the scheme open.

The scheme is open for five years and recognises the need for applicants to carefully consider their options, at their own pace. The scheme aims to empower applicants by providing information and support in order that they can decide if the scheme is right for them.

As of 31st October 2022, 1756 applications for redress have been received and 277 applications have been passed to Redress Scotland for consideration.

Of the 202 payment offers made, 178 applicants have accepted and payments totalling £8,570,168 have been made to survivors or their next of kin.