Chamber and committees

For the purpose of this question, we have defined ‘appeals’ as data disputes in which either members of the public or suppliers registered to the Reaching 100% Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) have contacted us to raise a data dispute – when they believe that the data we hold on a property’s current connection speed and/or potential voucher eligibility is incorrect.

The broadband connectivity status of the 2.8 million properties in Scotland is reported on our online address checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com . This uses data submitted by broadband infrastructure providers through regular updates known as a rolling Open Market Review. The accuracy of this data is wholly dependent on broadband providers submitting accurate data returns.

In 2021, officials received a total of 459 data disputes. In 2022, as of 24 August, officials have received 282 data disputes. These numbers represent a total for the whole of Scotland and, unfortunately, we are unable to break this down by Scottish Parliamentary region.

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the amount of land that has changed from agricultural use to homes.

In our draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) we proposed national planning policy which included that development proposals on prime agricultural land would not be supported except in certain limited circumstances. We will lay a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament for approval in the autumn.

We do not routinely monitor for giardiasis in beavers. A 2021 report on health screening of wild beavers found no animals testing positive in Britain for Giardia. However, NatureScot continue to collect beavers reported to have been found dead in the wild or killed as part of licensed control and conduct screening on these carcasses for a range of diseases and pathogens as an ongoing programme of disease surveillance in beavers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10431 on
‎ 6 September 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

To date Giardia has not been found in any beavers in Scotland, though targeted testing has been carried out on both live animals and carcasses in Tayside as well as in Knapdale.

Although beavers can carry this parasite the EPIC report published in 2017 points to other sources of environmental contamination being equally or more likely to be a source of Giardia infection. Humans, livestock and wild animals are all potential sources of Giardia. EPIC conclude ‘the reintroduction of beavers is likely to present a very small additional risk as the number of beavers excreting these organisms will be likely to be small relative to the large number of wild, domestic and livestock animals and humans which contribute to existing public health risk’.

NatureScot continue to carry out general health screening to ensure that beavers released under licence from NatureScot are not acting as a source of disease prior to any translocations.

Table 1 – deaths from alcohol liver disease (ICD-10 K70) in Inverclyde and North Ayrshire, 2016 to 2021

Zero Waste Scotland strategy is to maximise the impact of investment in the circular economy and to partner across private and public sectors. This aims to leverage funding opportunities, and to increase co-investment and partnership models to support and to continue to deliver value across circular economy initiatives.

ZWS is also undertaking multi-party engagement with Scottish Government and Scottish Business Climate Collaboration (SBCC) which is 50:50 funded by public funds and SBCC and is working with several businesses to develop business cases for circular initiatives that will then be funded and delivered by companies themselves. In addition co-investment models have been developed with Social Investment Scotland to create a Net Zero Transition Fund for third sector organisations.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) is an independent not-for-profit company, which is able to locate, apply for and accept funding from a range of sources. As an evidence-led organisation, any expertise and/or advice ZWS provide to Scottish Government would be based on balanced outputs from research by sector specific policy experts.

ZWS is a key delivery partner for the Scottish Government in relation to circular economy policy and it would be for Scottish Government to decide on whether to use the organisations advice in development of policies.

Scottish Government has provided an unprecedented level of financial support throughout the pandemic to support NHS dentistry. The £50 million of COVID-19 funding was provided directly to NHS dental contractors through the financial support payments. Alongside this, practices have received £35 million of free PPE to support the provision of NHS dentistry.

In addition, £5 million of funding for ventilation improvements and £7.5 million for speed adjusting hand pieces, was made available to NHS practitioners to support recovery and help increase capacity within practices providing NHS dental services. This scope for this funding was subsequently expanded to allow practices to claim for repairs and replacement of a range of dental equipment. This funding was allocated to Health Boards and practices were advised of the process for claiming funding if they wished to submit an application.

The Scottish Government works closely with the NHS to minimise vaccine wastage and reviews wastage statistics regularly. COVID-19 vaccine wastage data for Scotland is published by Public Health Scotland via both the COVID-19 Statistical Report and online dashboard which is updated on a monthly basis with the latest available information.

The published data includes a breakdown of vaccine doses wasted per month, the total number of doses administered, and additional analysis on the reasons behind this.