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These projects are all being funded from the Scottish Government’s £254 million investment in the North East, which is in addition to the £125 million committed to the Aberdeen City Region Deal in 2016.

Option selection for rail improvements, towards which £200 million has been allocated, is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2022.

Following the publication of Draft Orders, Transport Scotland is currently dealing with objections to the Laurencekirk junction, towards which £24 million has been allocated.

Digital projects, towards which £10 million has been allocated, are progressing as expected. The City Network Extension project, connecting 57 Aberdeen City corporate sites to full fibre was completed in November 2021. The full fibre project in Aberdeenshire is due to be completed by the end of March 2022.

To date, no eligible projects have been submitted for housing infrastructure projects, towards which £20 million has been allocated. Scottish Government officials have been in discussions with officials from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils to identify suitable projects following the launch of the Housing Infrastructure Fund (Round 2) in October 2021.

Face coverings are recommended in schools for adults and children aged 12 and over. Mitigations to reduce risks in schools and Early Learning Childcare settings including face covering measures, are kept under regular review by the Scottish Government’s Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues. This approach is grounded in evidence and draws on the expert advice of the advisory sub-group. The group last met on 11 January and further details can be found here .

The Scottish Government recommends that face coverings are made of cloth or other textiles and should be two, and preferably three, layers thick in line with WHO recommendations and fit snugly around the mouth, nose and chin while allowing you to breathe easily. A face covering can be a covering of any type, except a face shield, that covers the mouth and nose. There is no requirement for face coverings to meet specific levels of filtration efficiency and breathability.

More information on face covering guidance can be found here and further information on guidance for schools can be found here .

Wind farm applications under 50MW are considered under planning legislation whilst proposals over 50MW are dealt with under the Electricity Act.

Planning legislation cases

Information on the approval rate of wind farm applications in each local authority area, not determined by Scottish Ministers, is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publishes figures on the approval rate of all planning applications determined by Planning Authorities for different types of development in Scotland. Over the past 5 years the approval rate has been consistently over 93.7% (this includes the development type Electricity Generation, which includes wind farm applications). The information is available on the following website: https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/

Scottish Ministers have called-in two planning applications from Orkney Islands Council and issued decisions in 2021 granting consent for both applications.

The following table confirms the position in relation to planning appeals. All bar two of these appeals were decided by reporters from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division of the Scottish Government. The two appeals not decided by reporters were in the Argyll and Bute Council area, one in 2017 and one in 2019, and were both allowed by Scottish Ministers.

The data specified in the question is held in a range of different data sources as summarised below. As each element of the answer is taken from a different data source there will be variations in methodology which mean that they are not directly comparable.

The Carbon Footprint of Scotland’s Household Waste publication published by Zero Waste Scotland ( 2019 Carbon Metric HH Brief - V01.00.pdf (zerowastescotland.org.uk) ) provides estimates of emissions from household waste. The relevant information is provided in the following table.

Our approach to information governance underpins all government business, including our ongoing response to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government Information Management Strategy and Records Management Plan clearly set out the Scottish Governments approach to the preservation of information, in line with the requirements set out in the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

• For further information refer to the Scottish Government Information Management Strategy
• For further information refer to the Scottish Government Corporate Records Management Plan
• For further information refer to the NRS Public Records [Scotland] Act 2011

From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:

• have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; and
• have symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the previous five days; and
• are associated with one of the patient groups considered at high risk from coronavirus and with a clinical condition prioritised for treatment.

Health Boards can accept a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result from eligible individuals whilst waiting for confirmation of a positive PCR test in certain circumstances. The LFD test is not complete until eligible individuals report their result, either online or by phone, and receive a result confirmation notification.

Some COVID-19 positive individuals who meet the eligibility criteria will decide not to receive anti-viral treatments, or may be unable to, for example due to other medications they are taking. Patients are asked to contact their local Health Board if they believe they are eligible for treatment.

There is also ongoing work to proactively contact (e.g. by text message) individuals who may be eligible with a reminder of the access arrangements at the point of a positive PCR test result.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05411 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

Scotland’s strong homelessness rights mean households are placed in temporary accommodation as a legal right, with three quarters of families with children in temporary accommodation housed in social housing. Temporary accommodation should always be a short term option, and local authorities are working hard to ensure people have the appropriate support and move as rapidly as possible into settled accommodation.

The Scottish Government collects information on individual temporary accommodation placements and whether or not they are unsuitable, as defined by the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014.

Temporary exceptions were put in place to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19. The legislation noted that a placement was not considered unsuitable if:

• a person in the household has symptoms of coronavirus and the household requires to isolate; or
• the accommodation is required to provide temporary accommodation to ensure that a distance of 2 metres can be maintained between a member of the household and a person who is not a member of the household; or
• the local authority is unable to place the household in suitable accommodation as a result of the impacts of coronavirus on temporary accommodation supply in the area, provided that where a household includes a child or a pregnant woman the household is not placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than 7 days.

(To note: the first two of these were introduced in May 2020 and the third in September 2020.)

It is possible that local authorities applied the COVID-19 exceptions in different ways, which may impact upon comparability in data reporting and the figures in the below table.

A household placed in unsuitable accommodation where an exception did not apply must still be recorded as an unsuitable accommodation placement.

The most recent data available is up to 31 March 2021. The following table shows snapshot data of the number of individuals and households in unsuitable temporary accommodation as at 31 March 2021, defined as above.

In the absence of a definition of ‘families’, this has been taken to mean any household with children.

The Scottish Government collects information on the composition of households making homelessness applications through the HL1 data collection. The HL3 data collection gathers information about temporary accommodation placements connected to homelessness applications.

Therefore, information relating to the number of individuals and household composition of those within temporary accommodation placements has been derived by linking household records between the HL1 and HL3 data collections. However, it is important to note that the household composition included in the HL1 return may not be a true reflection of those who are present in the associated temporary accommodation placement(s). This can be particularly the case for children e.g. where households make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation.

Households and individuals in unsuitable temporary accommodation as at 31st March 2021

The centrally available information for part (i) is shown in the table below. This shows the number of discharges from acute hospitals where the patient was recorded as having no fixed abode and covers all Local Authorities. Not everyone who has no fixed abode will have an active HL1 application (i.e. be registered homeless with a local authority) and the recording of no fixed abode is likely to be incomplete. The table does not include discharges from psychiatric and maternity hospitals and geriatric long stay facilities.

‎ Table: Discharges from acute hospitals where the patient was recorded as having no fixed abode.

Booster information was made available in the international travel section of the NHS Covid Status App on 9 December and on paper/pdf versions of certificates from 13 December.

The inclusion of booster information will allow those travelling to the small number of countries that are seeking evidence of more recent doses to provide evidence of their booster or third vaccination.

The domestic section of the NHS Covid Status App was updated on 13 January to include booster information. From Monday 17 January, for the purposes of domestic Covid certification, a person will need to show they have had a booster to be considered ‘fully vaccinated’ if their last vaccine dose was more than four months ago. This is in recognition of vaccine waning against Omicron, and will ensure that the scheme provides a greater level of protection to those attending venues.