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The Scottish Government has committed to a four-step economic plan, comprising response, reset, restart and recover. The package of support so far has focused on the response stage, including the delivery of business support measures. We are regularly reviewing the physical distancing restrictions and, as we move from the immediate response phase of the crisis, through the stages of reset, restart, recover, we will be working with businesses, on a sector by sector basis, to establish the best way that businesses can reopen, taking account of the very real ongoing public health priorities.

The package of support we have delivered includes a fund to provide grants for businesses experiencing hardship as a result of COVID-19. A £10,000 grant is available to small businesses in receipt of Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) or Rural Relief on 17 March 2020; or properties eligible for SBBS and in receipt of either Nursery Relief, Business Growth Accelerator, Fresh Start or Disabled Relief on 17 March 2020. Retail, Leisure and Hospitality properties with a rateable value from £18,001 and up to and including £51,000 may apply for a £25,000 grant.

On 15 April, the Scottish Government announced a Phase 2 of the Business Grants Funding Scheme, which commenced on 5 May.

This is specifically aimed at ratepayers with more than one property. In addition to a 100% grant on their first eligible property, ratepayers with additional qualifying properties will be eligible to apply for a 75% grant on each additional property. This will make available Small Business Grants of £7,500 and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants of £18,750 on any additional qualifying properties that a ratepayer may have, subject to compliance with EU State Aid Rules.

The announcement also extended the eligibility for the £10,000 Small Business Grant to additional ratepayers that hold one or more properties within retail, hospitality or leisure, with individual rateable values not exceeding £18,000, and a cumulative rateable value between £35,001 and £51,000.

The Scottish Government recently announced that it will double the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund from £45 million to £90 million. The fund will be managed by the Enterprise Agencies and will support vulnerable SME firms who are vital to the local or national economic foundations of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28745 on 12 May 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27437 on 12 March 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

 The requested information is not centrally held.

The primary purpose of the Royal College of GP (RCGP) curriculum is to train future GPs with the types of generalist medical skills and capabilities to work competently and safely within general practice settings, part of which is to recognise when a patient’s need requires more specialist intervention or assessment. Throughout their training, GP trainees will encounter a broad variety of patients of all ages, and with various needs and conditions. The curriculum is not intended to equip them with detailed medical specialist knowledge and skills, although upon completion of their training GPs may go onto attain additional skills through Continuous Professional Development opportunities.

Within the GP curriculum, gender dysphoria is covered more fully in the ‘Sexual Health’ and ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ topic guides, whereas Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is covered in the ‘Gynaecology and Breast’ topic guide.

HRT for transgender patients is a specialised area which is Health Board dependant and may be provided by a combination of medical consultants in Gynaecology and Sexual and Reproductive Health. GP’s would prescribe/monitor treatments as per national guidelines and consultant input.

The Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit is responsible for the consideration of applications for large-scale generating stations over 50MW. Any applications for less than 50MW would be considered under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 by the relevant planning authority. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold aggregated information on wind turbine consents. However, we have included a breakdown of section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 determinations by planning authority:

The Scottish Government operates a robust and fair planning system. Scottish Planning policy is clear that development plans prepared by planning authorities should identify those areas that are likely to be most appropriate for onshore wind farms, as a guide for developers and communities. It is also clear that development plans should set out the criteria that will be considered in deciding applications for wind farms and that there should not be moratoria on onshore wind development. Each wind farm presented to the planning system is, by law, considered in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. When considering applications for wind farm developments, Scottish Ministers are required to take into account information regarding the likely significant effects of a proposed development, such as, the cumulation of effects with other existing and/or approved developments.

Onshore wind is the lowest cost electricity generation at scale and remains vitally important to our decarbonisation ambitions. Paragraph 166 of Scottish Planning Policy states that proposals for onshore wind turbine developments should continue to be determined while spatial frameworks and local policies are being prepared and updated.

Tariff policy is reserved to the UK Government. However, tariff-free trade with Europe, the elimination of non-tariff barriers and quick and efficient customs procedures are indispensable to the functioning of Scotland’s energy system and its supply chains. Any tariff barriers arising from hurried, sub-optimal trade deals negotiated by the UK Government could increase the administrative and compliance costs of the energy sector exporting to, or importing from, the European Single Market.

The Scottish Government embraces the values of solidarity, cooperation and democracy which underpin the European Union, and we believe they are critically important for the great global challenge of our time – tackling climate change. The EU’s international and growing influence in driving climate ambition means that Scotland’s best interest lies in negotiating as close a relationship as possible with the EU, and to do that before any other nation or trading bloc. This does not, however, preclude the use of trade as a policy lever to drive climate change ambition and action with other partners, including high-emitting countries; our first preference, however, would be to use trade to open up new markets for Scottish low carbon goods and services, helping trade partners to decarbonise their economies.

The UK Government recently published its objectives for a free trade agreement with the USA. It is unacceptable that the UK Government is seeking to compound the harm of leaving the EU by signing up to a US trade deal that will increase emissions. Any trade displacement from the EU to more distant partners will inevitably raise emissions and make our respective net zero targets more difficult to achieve.

The use of vaccines for prevention of diseases in livestock should only be carried out under the supervision of a veterinary surgeon and the costs of vaccines are carried by livestock keepers. Published literature on this topic is available, however disease control at a national level presents a more complicated picture.

Vaccines are one of a number of preventative tools that can be used to protect livestock, these include safe sourcing of new stock, isolation and disease testing after purchase and swift treatment and removal if necessary of any affected stock. A combination of methods, tailored to suit circumstances on each farm is most likely to optimise the outcomes for livestock health.

This ‘mixed economy’ approach has been successful in the SG supported bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) eradication scheme which has used safe sourcing, movement controls and diagnosis alongside vaccination; a recent analysis has shown benefits on from controlling BVD to be between £2,000 and £14,000 per year for the average farm.