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The Scottish Government has supported businesses with more than £4.7bn since the start of the pandemic. All funds have been allocated and no payments remain to be paid out by the Scottish Government. All Covid-19 business support funds have now closed.

Progress on implementing the summary case reform pilot has been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic and it is intended that the package of reforms will now be taken forward on a pilot basis recommencing in September 2022. The impact of the reforms will be closely monitored and reported on with a view to informing future rollout of the agreed reform arrangements.

The Scottish Government has supported businesses with more than £4.7bn since the start of the pandemic. All funds have been allocated and no payments remain to be paid out by the Scottish Government. All Covid-19 business support funds have now closed.

Applications to the Business Ventilation Fund were declined if the business did not meeting the eligibility criteria for the Fund such as being in an eligible sector, claiming for eligible items by the fund deadline or meeting the fund business rules.

This includes claiming for premises which are registered for non-domestic rates, being classed as a small or medium enterprise and having purchased or carried out works between 23 November 2021 and 31 March 2022.

The majority of businesses declined in Aberdeenshire either weren’t in a eligible sector or had made duplicate claims. Additionally, a number of applications were closed when the deadline for claims had passed and no claim had been submitted by the business. Businesses had been notified that they were able to make a claim and for what and the deadline for this as part of the application process.

Mobile home owners that are eligible for inclusion in their energy supplier’s Priority Services Register can request their site owner to register with their energy supplier as having vulnerable people on the site, if the residents do not have their own account. The situation and process is likely to vary depending on the supplier. If the residents experience a difficulty with this or the site owner refuses, Advice Direct Scotland can offer advice on how to take further action.

There is no formal definition of an NDA and the government does not hold central records of NDAs. In an employment context where a settlement agreement is entered into to resolve an employment dispute, a confidentiality clause may be inserted following prescribed guidance on information sharing. This guidance is clear that the use of a settlement agreement cannot prevent Audit Scotland from carrying out their oversight and scrutiny functions.

There is no formal definition of an NDA. The Scottish Government does not keep a central record of all NDA’s currently in operation other than in the context of record-keeping of employment settlement agreements.

In an employment context, data in relation to settlement and the number of confidentiality clauses in Scottish Government and Public bodies, NHSScotland and Scottish Funding Council overseen bodies is held from 2014 and, since then, has been provided to parliament annually. Reports are published annually by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government recognises that seal predation is one of a number of pressures affecting wild Atlantic salmon in rivers, which is why it commissioned work in partnership with Crown Estate Scotland to review measures that have been adopted globally and which could assist in developing non-lethal strategies to address seal predation on salmon in Scottish rivers.

The report ( Review of non-lethal seal control options to limit seal predation on salmonids in rivers and at finfish farms | Marine Scotland Data Publications ) which was published in March 2021 recognises that there is no single effective solution to address the problem given the nature of rivers and predation, but that there are a range of measures that have been shown to have some success or have the potential to reduce predation. The Scottish Government therefore continues to work with the sector, stakeholders and the scientific community to explore practical ways to address interactions between salmon and seals in rivers, building on the recommendation of the report.

Furthermore, the Sea Mammal Research Unit, at the University of St Andrews has provided significant advice and support to the River Dee in recent years in relation to quantifying seal presence in the river and exploring possible solutions for minimising interactions.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of Scotland’s declining populations of wild Atlantic salmon very seriously and is working to ensure the protection and recovery of this iconic species. In January 2022 the Scottish Government published the Wild Salmon Strategy which provides an overarching framework for the actions required to tackle the range of pressures affecting wild salmon. The Strategy can be accessed at Scottish Wild Salmon Strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

A commitment made in the Strategy is to undertake a study to identify the socio-economic benefits arising from healthy wild Atlantic salmon populations and how these can be maximised through partnerships between the public, private and charitable sectors. Furthermore, this study will allow comparisons to be made between the current economic value of the recreational fisheries sector to past values.

The most recent socio-economic study was conducted in 2017 and showed that recreational fisheries in Scotland contributed £79.9m Gross Value Added and 4300 FTE jobs. It is important to note that, although this study was published in 2017, it was based on data from 2014/15 when coastal netting was still in place. It is anticipated that the subsequent prohibition on coastal netting is likely to have had an effect on the economic value.

In accordance with waiting times guidance, cancellations resulting from hospital operational circumstances should not result in any detriment to the patient. The Scottish Government expects that NHS Boards will offer a rescheduled appointment as soon as possible to any patient within NHS Scotland who has had their operation cancelled.