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The Healthy Start programme in Scotland is a means-tested UK-wide scheme for pregnant women and children under four. From the tenth week of pregnancy, pregnant women on certain benefits or tax credits – or any pregnant women under 18 years irrespective of income – can claim for Healthy Start which provides vouchers that can be put towards the cost fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and milk at any participating retailer. Eligible pregnant women receive one £3.10 voucher a week.

All 32 local authorities offer kinship care payments.

At present our focus is to secure devolution of management and revenues of the Crown Estate in Scotland. We will implement interim arrangements to manage Crown Estate assets in advance of the Scottish Parliament using devolved powers which ensure a full and faithful implementation of The Smith Commission recommendations.

Future decisions on the longer term management arrangements will form part of a Scottish Government consultation process. We have already committed to provide coastal and island councils with 100% of net revenue from Crown Estate marine activities inside the 12 nautical mile zone, following devolution.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with island councils and other local authorities, through the Stakeholder Advisory Group on the Crown Estate, to develop options for the longer term framework. As part of the Island Areas Ministerial Working Group process we have been discussing the potential for piloting devolution of functions for management of Crown Estate assets in the three island council areas ahead of a Scottish Bill.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30769 on 18 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government provided the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC) with funding of £66,000 for a three year period which was always intended to end in March 2016, with no organisations guaranteed funding beyond this point.

However, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment was able to provide SAYFC with funding of £30,000 in recognition of the role it plays in his portfolio interests. This is not linked to the previous funding.

Applications to the new Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Funds were assessed in terms of relevance, need, quality (of outcomes proposed), sustainability, consideration of vulnerable groups (equalities), partnership/collaborative working, likelihood to deliver and value for money.

All applications were assessed according to these criteria and scored. The score for the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC’s) application fell below that of many other organisations which better met the fund criteria. That decision was taken by the board set up by the Scottish Government to ensure that the fund had a balanced portfolio and that essential activities and services will be supported, and make final decisions.

SAYFC has received feedback on the quality of its application from Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and importantly, on how to improve any future application.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30765 and S4W-30769 on 18 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

To give a full answer to the question i.e. to provide information spanning five years, broken down as requested has necessitated further bespoke interrogation of the IT system and will take some time to complete. The requested information will be made available to the requestor as soon as we are able to do so.

The Special Working Group of the Expert Commission on District Heating submitted its report on potential regulatory frameworks for district heating in Scotland to Scottish Ministers in February 2016. I welcome the report which will be published shortly. The recommendations in the report are currently being considered by the Scottish Government as part of the work to develop a new energy strategy alongside the third report on policies and proposals for climate change. Further investigation and consultation will be necessary to fully explore the implications of the recommendations with regards to devolved competence and their impact on both operators and consumers.

As part of the process of designing and optimising Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out on Orkney, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) asked BT to explore what synergies could be achieved with SSE and other utilities providers in order to make the deployment as effective as possible. It was established that SSE had no commercial plans to lay further cable in or around Orkney at that time and BT planned its fibre deployment on that basis.

For any future broadband projects, the Scottish Government and HIE will continue to look at how existing infrastructure could be used.