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Care and Repair provide the alarms and installation free of charge for older or disabled homeowners who live in properties with council tax Bands A-C and who are in receipt of pension credit or disability benefit. Our funding has also enabled them to supply and fit compliant alarms at a subsidised cost for older and disabled people who are not fully eligible. Final figures will not be collected until the end of the financial year and we will publish these once available.

A proposed station at Thornhill was assessed as part of the preliminary appraisal stage of second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). The outcome of this was that this station reopening did not form part of the strategic transport investment recommendations within STPR2. Instead, recommendations, set out in STPR2, for rail focus on the decarbonisation of the remainder of the network; measures to increase the amount of freight travelling by rail and improving connectivity between our 7 cities.

However, there remains a path for regional or local rail projects to come forward, and Transport Scotland will consider these subject to a strong business case being developed in accordance with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and suitable funding being available.

The consultation period on the 45 STPR2 recommendations is open until the 15 April 2022, further details are available via the online STPR2 consultation portal: https://consult.gov.scot/transport-scotland/strategic-transport-projects-review/ .

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of homelessness funding provided to local authorities in the annual local government finance settlements since 1999 has been included in the block grant and is therefore not separately identifiable. It is therefore not possible to determine how much of the local government finance settlement each year supports work to tackle homelessness in any year.

However, the unquantified amounts within the block grant have been supplemented in recent years through identifiable sums added to the block grant, which are enhanced or reduced by the overall annual changes in the local government finance settlement. The additional resource, set out in the table below, was allocated to local authorities for the development and implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans and for preventing and responding to homelessness.

CalMac Ferries Ltd and NorthLink Ferries Ltd, who operate public service ferry contracts on behalf of the Scottish Government, are required to comply with UK employment legislation. In addition, employment terms and conditions of staff reflect the principles set out under the Scottish Government’s Fair Work Framework.

The arrangements in place at other commercial and local authority ferry operators are a matter for the relevant employer and employees.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities

On 23 December 2021 we published a report on implementation of the actions set out in the Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan (2017). The report shows encouraging progress made in a number of key areas including raising awareness of hate crime and encouraging reporting.

Building on this progress we will publish a new hate crime strategy later this year. Development of a strategy of this nature will engender consideration of and engagement on a number of relevant initiatives to tackle hate crime and prejudice – including Islamophobia – in Scotland. It will therefore also naturally allow for further consideration of the need for the Scottish Government to adopt a formal definition of Islamophobia, such as the definition advanced by the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims.

On 23 December 2021 we published a report on implementation of the actions set out in the Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan (2017). The report shows encouraging progress has been made towards tackling hate crime in Scotland, with successful delivery of the vast majority of actions in the 2017 Action Plan.

Publication of this report allows the Scottish Government and partners to take stock of and refresh approaches to tackling hate crime. As such, and building on progress in this area, we will work with key delivery partners to develop a new hate crime strategy, for publication later this year. The new strategy will help guide how we tackle hatred and prejudice – including Islamophobia – in Scotland and will also support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

We are in the process of convening a strategic partnership group to provide a robust, multi-agency approach to development of the new hate crime strategy. Consideration is also being given to other necessary engagements that will allow for a range of voices to shape the strategy as it develops. We would therefore like to reiterate our previous commitment to working collaboratively on Islamophobia, including on the range of issues highlighted within the report of the public inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland.

Our records show that 178 properties have been purchased with golden share and 171 properties retain golden share through the Open Market Shared Equity scheme.

Information on whether an application has been subject to a staff error is not routinely reported as part of Social Security Scotland’s processes.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Scottish Fiscal Commission to provide the data and information necessary to inform their forecasts.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission outlined the uncertainties of forecasting Adult Disability Payment in their August 2021 publication, which can be found at https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Scotlands-Economic-and-Fiscal-Forecasts-August-2021-Full-Report-Revised-October-2021.pdf . This includes a detailed sensitivity analysis and a description of the Adult Disability Payment forecast uncertainty.

The accuracy of these forecasts are reviewed and updated throughout each forecasting process, using the latest data and developments. The Scottish Government will continue to mitigate risks through taking a responsible and capable approach to Scotland’s finances.