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Regular open and constructive engagement with the early learning and childcare sector continues to be a vital part of our approach to policy development. This includes engagement with the sector representative bodies, and through the Childcare Sector Working Group, which last met on 16 June 2022.

Scottish Government and Education Scotland’s ‘Realising the Ambition – Being Me’, the national practice guidance on supporting young children’s learning, was published in 2020. Private providers contributed to its development via sector representative bodies and through a series of consultation events held across Scotland in order to seek the views of practitioners working in the public, private, third and childminding sectors.

We have undertaken significant engagement with people who have lived experience of energy limiting conditions and organisations which represent them. Adult Disability Payment has been designed to be inclusive and accessible for people with energy-limiting conditions. Applications can be made through a choice of channels and the questions are relevant to people with fatigue and fluctuating conditions. Social Security Scotland makes entitlement decisions based on the individual’s account of the impact of their disability or condition and other supporting information, including from people’s wider support network. This is particularly helpful for people who may have difficulty accessing a diagnosis or treatment.

Consultations between a client and a health and social care practitioner employed by Social Security Scotland will only be held when necessary. Examinations, such as asking clients to touch their toes, will not be used as they do not provide reliable information, especially in relation to energy-limiting conditions. Social Security Scotland case managers also stringently apply the reliability criteria. This means that entitlement decisions must take into account the full impact fatigue has on individuals when completing activities, including any recovery time needed afterwards.

On 24 June it was confirmed that all Temporary Covid Policies (including Special Leave) will be removed ( https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2022)21.pdf) and that from 1 September 2022, NHS Scotland colleagues who are absent due to COVID-19 will revert to contractual sick leave entitlement (Section 14 – Sickness Absence https://www.msg.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/AfC-Handbook-Master-Scottish-Copy-2021-Revamp.pdf ).

All NHS colleagues benefit from the Once for Scotland Attendance Policy ( https://workforce.nhs.scot/policies/attendance-policy-overview/attendance-policy/ ) which aims to encourage attendance and support employees, where health issues impact on their ability to be at work.

At present, support for people with Long COVID in Scotland is underpinned by the full range of NHS services, including local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for secondary care investigation where needed.

To ensure care continues to be resourced and delivered across Scotland in the most appropriate way, we are investing an initial £3 million from our Long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to support NHS Boards and key partners to take forward a range of projects to improve care and support for people with Long COVID.

This will provide resource to enable Boards to design models of care tailored to the specific needs of their local populations, which may involve strengthening the co-ordination of existing services, or establishing dedicated services where appropriate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08833 on 14 June 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 .

Case transfer is a joint programme between the Scottish Government and the Department for Work and Pensions. We aim to have safely and securely transferred the awards of everyone living in Scotland in receipt of devolved disability and carer benefits currently delivered by the Department of Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland by the end of 2025.

From 29 August 2022, adults in Scotland in receipt of Disability Living Allowance will have their awards moved to Adult Disability Payment if they would otherwise have been asked by the Department for Work and Pensions to apply for Personal Independence Payment. Final policy is still being developed on moving the awards of all other adults currently in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.

There have been four Gateway Reviews of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. Regular Gateway Reviews are a standard part of the Scottish Government’s project management framework, there is no requirement to notify the Scottish Parliament in advance when a Gateway Review is commissioned.

Since May 2021 the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has taken a number of meetings and attended events at which victims/survivors have been present. As people will not always disclose or wish to mention the nature of their experiences, or want these recorded, it is not possible to provide a definitive answer. However, at least 14 meetings and events over the period where victims/survivors have been present have been identified.

The Scottish Government has been working with the other members of our Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce over the past year to co-design a pathway to zero emission buses. The Pathway will be published tomorrow, 10 August, alongside case studies of good practice in decarbonising bus fleets. The pathway sets out a shared approach between Transport Scotland and the key sectors represented on the taskforce (bus operating, manufacturing, energy, finance and public sector), that, by working together, we will achieve a future where all buses in Scotland are zero-emission buses; people enjoy travelling on buses knowing that doing so is one of the most sustainable travel and climate friendly choices they can make; there is an even stronger and diverse domestic manufacturing sector and supply-chain comprised of high-quality skilled jobs; and that after an important period of support, the Government has ceased subsidising zero-emission buses.

Since December 2020, over the lifetime of the Taskforce, Scottish Government has invested £113 million capital (and committed £21 million resource subsidy over a 5 year period), and leveraged in a similar sum from the private sector, to acquire 548 new battery electric buses and associated charging infrastructure for operation in Scotland. Those companies that have taken the lead can rightly be proud of their ambition and achievements. Our clear signal of high aspiration, given in the 2021 Programme for Government, has been successful in driving progress, as the proportion of zero emission buses in Scotland is approximately 3 times higher than those in England. As with every other part of the economy and society, delivery of further progress has been slowed by the pandemic, and Brexit is also causing supply chain issues and delays in investment decisions. The Taskforce also identified the need to adapt the approach to ensure that smaller operators can benefit and participate in the decarbonisation programme.

To enable delivery of the Pathway, the Scottish Government is also announcing today a second phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund in 2023. Ahead of that, to support SME and rural bus operators be in the best possible position to benefit from that funding, a new £500,000 Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme will open on 10 August.

The Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme will fund:

a) Small bus operators, to assess which zero-emission technology is best for them and how it can be implemented;

b) development of collaborations across the operating, manufacturing, energy and finance sectors to bring scaled up, innovative bids to ScotZEB Phase 2 that will alter the market and bring in more private financing;

c) demonstration of the potential role that repowering of older diesel buses can play in the transition, recognising that repowering may be a more cost-effective option for SME operators, and may create additional green jobs in Scotland.

In a further positive development, eligibility for the Transition Scheme and ScotZEB Phase 2 will be expanded to support providers of home-to-school, community-to-healthcare, community bus services, and SME coach operators, in addition to public service bus operators. This will help ensure that those least able to pay for the transition to net-zero are supported, and benefit from the transition and that we progress faster and further to decarbonising bus and coach travel in Scotland and ensure that buses play a key role in providing sustainable, net zero travel in the future.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities.

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The 2022-23 Local Government Settlement of almost £12.7 billion is both fair and affordable, under the most challenging of circumstances.

Following publication of the Audit Scotland report on Maintaining Scotland’s Roads in 2016, the National Roads Maintenance Review undertaken by Transport Scotland, SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland), CoSLA and SoLACE (the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) considered the recommendation for long term funding settlements for local road maintenance. However, the conclusion was that this would lead to further ring fencing of local authority funding settlements which would impact on local accountability and decision making, and was not taken forward.

Scottish Rail Holdings advised that the cost of the recent pay agreement with ScotRail train drivers is £4.5 million per annum. It will be funded from the 2022/23 budget allocated to ScotRail Trains Limited, with no other budgets having been affected.