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We do not routinely monitor for giardiasis in beavers. A 2021 report on health screening of wild beavers found no animals testing positive in Britain for Giardia. However, NatureScot continue to collect beavers reported to have been found dead in the wild or killed as part of licensed control and conduct screening on these carcasses for a range of diseases and pathogens as an ongoing programme of disease surveillance in beavers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10431 on
‎ 6 September 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

To date Giardia has not been found in any beavers in Scotland, though targeted testing has been carried out on both live animals and carcasses in Tayside as well as in Knapdale.

Although beavers can carry this parasite the EPIC report published in 2017 points to other sources of environmental contamination being equally or more likely to be a source of Giardia infection. Humans, livestock and wild animals are all potential sources of Giardia. EPIC conclude ‘the reintroduction of beavers is likely to present a very small additional risk as the number of beavers excreting these organisms will be likely to be small relative to the large number of wild, domestic and livestock animals and humans which contribute to existing public health risk’.

NatureScot continue to carry out general health screening to ensure that beavers released under licence from NatureScot are not acting as a source of disease prior to any translocations.

Scottish Government has provided an unprecedented level of financial support throughout the pandemic to support NHS dentistry. The £50 million of COVID-19 funding was provided directly to NHS dental contractors through the financial support payments. Alongside this, practices have received £35 million of free PPE to support the provision of NHS dentistry.

In addition, £5 million of funding for ventilation improvements and £7.5 million for speed adjusting hand pieces, was made available to NHS practitioners to support recovery and help increase capacity within practices providing NHS dental services. This scope for this funding was subsequently expanded to allow practices to claim for repairs and replacement of a range of dental equipment. This funding was allocated to Health Boards and practices were advised of the process for claiming funding if they wished to submit an application.

Demand for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Advice service has risen significantly since the recent energy bill rises and other cost of living pressures have started to put pressure on households.

Earlier this year, we committed to expanding the HES service by 20% and this increase will be fully operational from October. HES capacity has increased in the last three years with the number of households targeted for advice and support rising from 77,000 in 2020-21 to 132,000 this year - an increase of 12,000 on 2021-22.

We recently allocated additional funding for energy advice services in the face of rising bills - £1.2 million to ensure households and businesses get support. This includes £280,000 to expand the Home Energy Scotland Advice Service and a further £198,000 for Home Energy Scotland to provide training to third sector organisations on energy efficiency.

We have also augmented the Home Energy Scotland Energy carer service which visits and supports extremely vulnerable households who would struggle to engage over the telephone or online. This type of work broadens and strengthens the capacity of the advice network but does not generate pro rata increases in numbers of households supported because the level of support required for these households is very intense.

We will continue to monitor demand for the Home Energy Scotland service to ensure it has the capacity to meet demand.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loans that were accepted/rejected in 2020-21 and 2021-22:

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loan applications received during 2020-21 and 2021-22 were:

As at August 2022, the number of Home Energy Scotland Loan applications currently awaiting processing is 303.

The total full time equivalent staff employed on Home Energy Scotland at the end of July is 208. This figure includes:

• All staff within each Home Energy Scotland advice centre working on Home Energy Scotland activity, and teams and specialists managed directly by the Energy Savings Trust including the Extended Hours team, renewables specialists and private sector landlord advisors.
• All staff within Energy Saving Trust who are covered by Home Energy Scotland funding.
• Management time within the centres and Energy Saving Trust allocated to management of Home Energy Scotland.

In August the average processing time was 8 days and the longest processing time was 10 days.