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Current investment for A77 Trunk Road Maintenance is allocated on a rolling 1 and 3 year programme. Our programmes currently indicate an allocation of £7,03m for this financial year as well as a provisional maintenance spend for 2023/24 and 2024/25 of £5.4m and £5.74m respectively.

The Scottish Government will launch a national marketing campaign to promote the new Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme in the coming weeks. The Scottish Government has allocated £400,000 to promote this campaign during this financial year.

On promoting public transport more broadly, Transport Scotland continues to work with operating partners and stakeholders to encourage people to use public transport, as a sustainable way to access work, education and services.

In 2004, the UK Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Blood and Tissues for Transplantation (MSBT) advised that people who have received a blood transfusion since 1980 should no longer be allowed to donate blood in order to reduce the risks of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) via a blood transfusion. The then Scottish Executive accepted those recommendations.

The Scottish Government now takes its advice on blood safety from the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), which has replaced MSBT as the expert Committee advising Ministers on these matters. This matter is therefore for SaBTO to advise on and they have not suggested that this policy should change. In 2019, SaBTO advised (in its Paediatric Components Working Group report) that certain measures originally implemented to reduce risks of transmission of vCJD were no longer required; however, it advised that all other vCJD risk reduction measures should remain in place.

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Scotland Loves Local Fund has been (a) allocated and (b) spent to date, on the Scotland Loves Local gift card scheme.In 2021-22, more than £2m of funding was allocated to the Scotland Loves Local programme including £1.5m to the Scotland Loves Local fund. The fund was available for a range of initiatives including local support for the Scotland Loves Local gift card scheme. A full list of grants awarded from the Scotland Loves Local Fund, including details of what that funding has been used for, is available on the Scotland Loves Local website, Media - SLL Fund 2021 (lovelocal.scot) .

Transport Scotland has recently undertaken a significant engagement exercise with local authorities, in partnership with the Improvement Service and National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). This has allowed us to assess offline application processes, including capacity and uptake of applications through schools, and we have provided additional support to facilitate this where it has been requested.

We have provided a communications toolkit and promotional materials to local authorities, schools, further education bodies and a wide range of other stakeholders. Engagement has been positive with the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland, and others, who have aided in the promotion of the scheme to students through college and university networks.

Transport Scotland also launched freebus.scot in May to help improve communications about the scheme, simplify information about the application process, emphasise the benefits of the scheme, provide tips for safe travel and, ultimately, increase uptake across Scotland.

The following table outlines how many homes are proposed to be built as part of each successful application for the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP). The VDLIP provides funding to cover capital costs associated with remediating and unblocking long-term vacant and derelict land sites. Additional funding to support the delivery of new homes, where this is part of the project proposals, is considered as a part of the application process by the independent investment panel.

In August the average processing time was 8 days and the longest processing time was 10 days.

Demand for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Advice service has risen significantly since the recent energy bill rises and other cost of living pressures have started to put pressure on households.

Earlier this year, we committed to expanding the HES service by 20% and this increase will be fully operational from October. HES capacity has increased in the last three years with the number of households targeted for advice and support rising from 77,000 in 2020-21 to 132,000 this year - an increase of 12,000 on 2021-22.

We recently allocated additional funding for energy advice services in the face of rising bills - £1.2 million to ensure households and businesses get support. This includes £280,000 to expand the Home Energy Scotland Advice Service and a further £198,000 for Home Energy Scotland to provide training to third sector organisations on energy efficiency.

We have also augmented the Home Energy Scotland Energy carer service which visits and supports extremely vulnerable households who would struggle to engage over the telephone or online. This type of work broadens and strengthens the capacity of the advice network but does not generate pro rata increases in numbers of households supported because the level of support required for these households is very intense.

We will continue to monitor demand for the Home Energy Scotland service to ensure it has the capacity to meet demand.

The total full time equivalent staff employed on Home Energy Scotland at the end of July is 208. This figure includes:

• All staff within each Home Energy Scotland advice centre working on Home Energy Scotland activity, and teams and specialists managed directly by the Energy Savings Trust including the Extended Hours team, renewables specialists and private sector landlord advisors.
• All staff within Energy Saving Trust who are covered by Home Energy Scotland funding.
• Management time within the centres and Energy Saving Trust allocated to management of Home Energy Scotland.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loans that were accepted/rejected in 2020-21 and 2021-22: