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Early medical abortion at home and the changes adopted in March 2020 to enable women to take the first abortion drug, mifepristone, at home where this was felt to be clinically appropriate for them and where the patient wished to do so has been an important measure to ensure abortion services continued to be delivered throughout the pandemic, without delays. The ‘Pills by Post’ service is an English service, which is not provided in Scotland. While many NHS Boards in Scotland are following similar arrangements, medication is in most cases delivered or collected from a clinic, rather than being sent by post.

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the future arrangements for early medical abortion at home on 30 September 2020, which closed on 5 January 2021. Responses to the consultation have been published on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space website. The future arrangements for early medical abortion at home are being considered in light of the findings from the consultation and other available evidence and the Scottish Government plans to confirm our approach this summer.

The number of people who have been rejected for Home Energy Scotland loans as a result of poor credit scores is 886 out of a total of 9335 applications since 2017.

The Scottish Government commissioned an independent review of the non-domestic rates system in 2017 chaired by Ken Barclay, which provided recommendations aimed at improvements to better support business growth, long term investment and reflect changing market places. We accepted the majority of these recommendations and have already implemented a number of key reforms such as three-yearly revaluations from 2023 with a one-year tone date, the introduction of the unique Business Growth Accelerator and Fresh start relief, and the introduction of the UK’s first Day Nursery relief.

It is important that the Barclay reforms are fully implemented and evaluated before a further review is undertaken.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a competitive and sustainable rates regime, and has delivered the lowest poundage in the UK for the third year in a row by taking the unprecedented step of reducing the poundage mid-revaluation in 2021-22. We also introduced the Intermediate Property Rate for properties with a rateable value between £51,001 and £95,000, ensuring that 95% of properties pay a lower rate than anywhere else in the UK, alongside the most generous package of reliefs.

Transport Scotland continues to work collaboratively with ScotRail to increase the number of cycle spaces on board passenger services on Scotland’s Railway.

Details of when the planned increase in cycle capacity on ScotRail trains will take place, broken down by route and train class is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 62443).

We are focused on supporting town centre businesses affected by change of working patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the shorter term and for longer term adaption.

We have extended 100% non-domestic rates relief for all retail, leisure, aviation and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22. Additional funding announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy on 2 June will support businesses remaining in level 2 and we are launching a £10 million Scotland Loves Local programme. This follows support of £3.6 billion since the start of the pandemic directly benefitting businesses including town centre businesses.

We will deliver a response to the Town Centre Review which will help us work collaboratively to revitalise our town centres, aiming to increase footfall which will benefit town centre businesses. The Review recognises that there is an opportunity to lock in renewed interest in independent and local businesses, often in local towns and neighbourhoods, encouraged in part by home working and reduced commuting.

We are working with the retail sector to develop a strategy to support recovery from a year of limited trading through to the next five years and beyond, including considerations of how the sector may have to change and adapt to meet the challenges of the impact of Covid-19.

To support longer-term place based renewal and community-led regeneration, including for town centres, and 20 minute neighbourhoods, we have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over five years.

The National Public Bodies Directory provides information on all Scottish Government public bodies, including those bodies constituted as limited companies. The directory was last updated on 26 January 2021.

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts also include a complete list of all nationalised companies where Scottish Ministers are the sole shareholder as well as providing information on other organisations and companies where the Scottish Ministers have an interest. The accounts are published on an annual basis with the most recent accounts published on 17 December 2020.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-00019 on‎ 26 May 2021. The answer is available on the Parliament's website at: Official Report - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament

We recognise the unique and significant pressures that COVID-19 has placed on businesses over the past year, including the independent brewing sector. That is why we have commissioned an independent Gateway Review to assess the impact of the pandemic on the go-live date for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

We have no current plans to adopt a ‘stepped’ approach in which certain producers would initially be exempt from obligations under DRS. This would be likely to cause significant consumer confusion and jeopardise the behavioural change that DRS requires.

Weddings, civil partnerships and funerals are recognised as life events within Scottish Government guidance. Weddings, civil partnerships and funerals are of particular importance to people and society and are protected under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Wedding receptions and funeral wakes mark the social and personal importance of these protected life events. Additionally, there are very practical reasons why funerals cannot be postponed for any length of time. Therefore, these events have been given particular exemptions within the Levels Table compared to the general guidance on other life events.

There are no specific exemptions at this time for birthday parties amongst adults, or gatherings to mark a wedding anniversary or other life event, which remain subject to the general restrictions on people gathering.

Therefore, other events such as birthday parties for adults, wedding anniversary celebrations and celebrations after a religious life event should only take place in line with the general rules for meeting others indoors and outdoors.

The full guidance on protection levels and what individuals can and cannot do at each level can be viewed here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) protection levels: what you can do - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of workers, other than frontline health and social care workers. We are inviting those of working age in all sectors for vaccination, in line with advice on clinical risk of severe disease and hospitalisation.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority lists represents 99% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme. The JCVI advice is that an age-based approach is the best way to quickly protect those who have not yet had the vaccine but who are at increased risk due to occupation or other factors.

The Scottish Government has met its target to offer all of those in JCVI groups 1 to 9 an initial dose of COVID vaccine, with over 99 per cent of those aged over 50 having received their first dose. Those aged over 40 are now in the process of being invited for vaccination. Beyond that we will aim, supplies permitting, to have offered first doses to the entire adult population by end July, rather than September as previously anticipated.