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Building upon the good work already undertaken, Atkins WSP Joint Venture will take forward the engineering and environmental assessments to determine the preferred options for the medium and long term solutions, developing the subsequent detailed designs in consultation with stakeholders. They will also assist in completion of the statutory processes including acquisition of land, and in the procurement and construction supervision activities. Given the number of potential solutions and variability of scope and length of each project stage, it is not possible to provide a meaningful breakdown of estimated costs at this stage in the process.

The £25m of Scottish Government investment represents an estimate of the contract value to Atkins WSP Joint Venture to undertake the design, promotion, procurement and construction supervision of both the medium and long-term solutions. Whilst there is no allocation of spend of this estimate to either the medium term or long term solutions, it is anticipated that the vast majority of spend will be on the long-term solution as all of the options require complex civil engineering.

This independent Review was tasked with reviewing our mental health and incapacity legislation in light of developments in international human rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to consider where improvements could be made.

The final report will be published on the Review’s website on 30 September; https://mentalhealthlawreview.scot/

The Scottish Government will then carefully consider the recommendations within the report to ascertain how to better fulfil our obligation to promote and protect human rights within mental health settings and to ensure that rights and protections for those that need it most are upheld.

Ernst and Young did consult Transport Scotland on the benchmarks proposed to be inclusion in the framework of options. Transport Scotland provided some suggested operators for consideration as comparators, but the decision on which to include in the final report rested with Ernst and Young.

FMPG have advised us that the value of the towing contract is £15,000-£20,000.

The regulatory framework for the Water Industry requires the Scottish Ministers to issue to Scottish Water and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) a statement of policy regarding Scottish Water’s charges under a charges scheme in respect of each regulatory period, and a parallel statement setting out Ministers’ Objectives. Following that, the WICS deliver a Final Determination setting out the level of finance required to allow Scottish Water to meet those Objectives. In line with Ministerial Directions, Scottish Water’s board are bound to consider matters of affordability and will take those into account in setting charge levels. WICS has no power to require Scottish Water to raise a minimum amount of revenue or to set minimum levels of charges

The Scottish Government has not held discussions about a single UK-wide missing persons database.

Since 2016, Police Scotland has recorded detailed statistical information on their National Missing Persons Database (NMPD) of every missing person investigation it has undertaken. In 2019, Police Scotland rolled out the National Missing Persons Application (NMPA) across the entire force, replacing NMPD, to provide available details that help officers make informed investigative decisions to trace a missing person as quickly and safely as possible.

All UK forces inform the National Crime Agency if a person has been missing for more than 72 hours. If Police Scotland have reason to believe that a person has travelled to another part of the UK they will contact and work with that force directly.

Responsibility for maintenance of telecoms infrastructure in Scotland falls upon the operator responsible for delivering that infrastructure.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11081 on‎ 29 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

We are aware from other infrastructure projects that construction costs have been impacted by increases in inflation, as well as a rise in materials, fuel and wages as a result of the pandemic, exit from the European Union and the situation in Ukraine. The full impacts will not be known until the tender bid and evaluation stage for the Ardrossan project has been undertaken.