Seòmar agus comataidhean

We continue to carefully consider the report and recommendations made by the previous Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee as regards regional marine planning and are working to finalise our formal response, which will be published this Autumn.

Information on the total cost of operating waste incinerators in Scotland in each year since 2007-08 is not held centrally. Most waste incineration facilities in Scotland are privately operated and the Scottish Government does not routinely collect or hold data on the operational costs of these facilities.

Safety and security on our railways is reserved to UK Government and as such the British Transport Police (BTP) is responsible for the enforcement of the law on Scotland’s rail network. BTP can only investigate matters that are reported to them and not every incident reported to and recorded by ScotRail as the employer will be reported to BTP.

Therefore, ScotRail advised the following for how many assaults on ScotRail staff were reported since 2017, noting that 2017 is the last year that ScotRail holds data for:-

Many refugees resettled in Scotland have skills and experience developed through their trade or occupation in their home country, including in the construction industry, and may want to resume their profession here.

In Scotland, everyone working on a building site must first pass a health and safety test and be certified through the UK wide Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS).

The Building Skills for Construction Certification Project has developed supporting ESOL materials, to help ESOL learners to prepare for the computer CSCS test. Pilot courses are being delivered to test the resources. The project started on 1 September 2021 and will run until 30 November 2022. Pilot courses are running in Fife, Clackmannanshire and Dundee, as well as a national online pilot for candidates across Scotland to enable those who cannot access such training in person to benefit, particularly those in remote and rural communities where a pilot course would not be viable due to numbers.

There are seven Arabic speakers enrolled in this course across Dundee, Fife and Clackmannanshire. Throughout the rest of Scotland there are an additional thirteen learners on these courses, eleven of whom are Arabic speakers.

The CSCS ESOL course resources will be a lasting legacy of the project. At the end of the project, these resources will be freely available for any learning provider or training organisation to use, allowing courses to be run across Scotland to prepare refugees for work in the construction industry. There will also be a webinar at the end of the project which will cover how these resources should be used in practice.

This project has been funded through the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project which is part funded through the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The Scottish Government has read BASC Scotland’s report on Community Integrated Deer Management in Scotland with interest. We greatly value the contribution of local deer stalkers, their skill set and those involved in the management of deer across Scotland.

We are focusing our efforts on progressing the recommendations made in the independent Deer Working Group (DWG) report, published in December 2020. The DWG report made recommendations to improve Scotland’s systems of deer management and included consideration of the points made in BASC Scotland’s report such as, training for deer managers, availability of deer larders and engagement with local communities.

A project board has been established under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme to progress these recommendations. As the board sets priorities and works to progress these recommendations we will be working with stakeholders, such as BASC, for their views on key issues.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has provided £80,000 via the Scotland Food & Drink Covid Recovery Fund to support development of local chills and/or primary processing (deer larders). We expect that up to three projects could be supported from the fund as part of a pilot exercise.

I refer the member to my response on this matter, which was sent to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee on 25 March 2022, and which is published in the correspondence of that Committee on the Scottish Parliament website at response-from-shona-robison-25-march.pdf (parliament.scot) .

Scotland’s widespread vaccination coverage and access to new Covid treatments have meant we are now in different phase of the pandemic. On 1 May, testing changed from a population-wide intervention to a targeted response, focused on reducing severe harm of the virus.

Testing remains available to specific groups in order to protect people in higher risk settings and to support clinical care. You can still access testing if:

• you work in NHS health or social care settings
• you have a health condition which means you’re eligible for new coronavirus treatments
• you're going into hospital for surgery or a procedure
• you're visiting a hospital or care home
• you're an unpaid carer
• you're applying for the self-isolation support grant

Those not eligible for testing, should follow the guidance to stay at home in order to aid recovery, and to reduce the risk of passing your illness onto others if they experience symptoms and have a fever or feel unwell. Up to date Stay at Home guidance can be found online at www.nhsinform.scot/covid19 .

The Scottish Government gathers data on peatland restoration carried out by the Peatland ACTION programme each financial year in hectares (ha). The total number of restored hectares of peatlands in 2020-21 was 5,658ha; and the total number of restored hectares of peatlands in 2021-22 was 5,370ha.In 2022-23, we are on track to deliver a substantial increase in the number of hectares restored.

We are committed to further increasing the annual area of peatland we restore. To support this we are gathering evidence on the key bottlenecks as well as how we can best target restoration activity to deliver maximum value for money in terms of carbon, biodiversity and just transition outcomes.

LFD testing remains in place for specific population groups including unpaid carers, in order to in order to protect people in higher risk settings.

LFD tests can be ordered online through the GOV.UK portal, or by calling 119. More information can be found online at www.nhsinform.scot/covid19

Rooms for Refugees is a hosting service run by Positive Action in Housing. Scottish Government officials met with representatives from Positive Action in Housing on 4 August 2022 and discussed the Scottish Government’s Super Sponsor scheme.

Officials updated Positive Action in Housing on our Warm Scottish Welcome programme and discussed how the Scottish Government could continue to collaborate with Positive Action in Housing going forward.