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The Scottish Government recognises that recruitment and retention of nursing staff is key to the provision of safe and high-quality health care services. We published our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in March 2022, which outlines our shared vision: a skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do.

We are investing £11 million over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system. There are record high numbers of nursing and midwifery staff, up by 14.8% since September 2006, and numbers of student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-2023, the 10th successive increase in recommended student numbers.

We are firmly committed to supporting a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable health and social care workforce, with a strong leadership that promotes wellbeing. There is no place for bullying or harassment in the NHS - or anywhere else - and we have made it clear to Health Boards that this behaviour is unacceptable and expect them to ensure any reported incidents are taken seriously and fully investigated.

There is also no place for discrimination; we will publish a refreshed overarching Fair Work action plan later this year focusing on minority ethnic and disabled people’s employment and tackling the gender pay gap. We will also publish a new ethnicity pay gap strategy which will set out our approach for employers in addressing racial inequality in the workplace and will underpin our actions related to this within the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan.

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care detailed the launch of a new National Leadership Development Programme (NLDP) which will work to influence culture change across health and social care. It also included establishing a National Minority Ethnic Forum for the NHS and a new proposed accelerated development programme for minority ethnic staff working in the NHS and Social Care.

The Scottish Government’s consultation on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill, published on 30 May 2022, proposes that Scottish Ministers should have powers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses in order to improve data capture and public transparency and help businesses measure and take action on their waste and surplus. The consultation also set our intention that the initial priority for subsequent secondary legislation, with further consultation, would be to introduce mandatory public reporting of food waste and food surplus.

Subject to the outcome of our consultation, we will work with stakeholders to develop detailed assessments and proposals for further consultation, including on the type and size of business that should be subject to any reporting requirements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09005 on 23 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S60-00653 on 20 January 2022 in relation to the report from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission on the use of glue traps I set out our plans to introduce a ban on the sale and use of glue traps.

While the Commission’s report found that there are public health concerns in certain high-risk situations that require effective and rapid pest control in order to reduce the spread of disease the report was also clear that the animal welfare issues connected with the use of glue traps would justify an immediate outright ban on their sale and use .

I understand there are some concerns from the pest control industry on the available alternatives to glue traps, which is why the Scottish Government has been and will continue to engage with stakeholders as this policy develops.

As part of the normal legislative process, we intend to have a full public consultation to seek views on our proposals, and this will include consideration of whether a transition period is necessary.

All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Meeting of the Parliament: 20/01/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website .

As of close of business on 20 June 2022 a total of 410,721 cards had been issued under the Young Persons Scheme (YPS) through the National Entitlement Card scheme and Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

The Improvement Service is responsible for the application process and issue of the National Entitlement Cards. They are being supported by Scottish Government to work with local authorities to identify and support improvements to both online and offline processes to maximise the uptake of scheme and increase accessibility for children and young people. I met with the Improvement Service in late April to make clear our expectations for delivery of the scheme and to ensure they continue to streamline the online process. I will shortly be writing to local authorities seeking assurance on their processes for handling offline applications and providing support if needed.

Transport Scotland also launched the Transport Scot Collect App on 28 February which allows existing Young Scot cardholders aged 16 and over to add the free travel product onto their existing card.

Information on salaries/fees of ScotRail Board members will be published by the end of June 2022.

Domestic Abuse remains a high priority, and Police Scotland are committed to proactively target perpetrators and to protect victims and their families from the harms of domestic abuse. Police Scotland have a well-established National Domestic Abuse Taskforce to target perpetrators and local domestic abuse investigation units are located in the 14 divisions throughout Scotland.

Despite UK Government austerity we have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, and remain committed to working closely with both the SPA and Police Scotland to ensure we continue to have a safe, protected and resilient Scotland. We have made a total investment across the justice sector of over £3.1 billion in 2022-23 to further strengthen and reform vital services.

Under the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, the Scottish Government provided £825,000 to support the training of 14,000 police officers and staff, and advanced training of 700 Domestic Abuse Champions to embed training and sustain organisational change. Officers are now much more aware and informed around the dynamics of domestic abuse. Police Scotland are also undertaking Divisional Reviews on their policing response to domestic abuse across the country, which includes partnership and multi-agency engagement.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the food security of Scotland, and in response to the conflict in Ukraine, Scottish Ministers established a short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce, jointly with industry.

The purpose of the short life taskforce was to monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the situation in Ukraine. It also sought to recommend any short, medium and longer term actions that might be taken to mitigate impacts and resolve supply issues.

The work of the Taskforce has now concluded and arrived at a set of recommendations to strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. The full report and its recommendations will be published today https://www.gov.scot/publications/short-life-food-security-and-supply-taskforce-report/ , it reinforces the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to use all powers it has available to support people in Scotland.

I am pleased to confirm the publication today of the Scottish Government’s third thematic report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report.

The thematic progress report shows that 44 recommendations are now complete which represents more than half of the non-legislative recommendations. This demonstrates that partners’ collective actions are laying foundations to deliver transformative change of the complaints, investigations and misconduct framework. This is supplemented by our current live consultation on legislative proposals which is another step in that journey.

I commend Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland for their continuing efforts and progress to date.

The following table shows the number of cards issued under the Young Persons Scheme (YPS) as at close of business on 20 June 2022, broken down to local authority level. This information includes number of passes collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application held by Transport Scotland and data supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.