Scotland will receive £24.6 million from within the £484 million package of support announced by the UK Government. This will be distributed to the sector via the Scottish Funding Council. Universities and research institutions may be eligible for other aspects of the package announced by the UK Government.

This allocation is intended to address the shortfall in research funding caused by delays in negotiating association to the Horizon Europe Research programme. The funding awarded reflects Scotland’s previous track record of success and influential position in this prestigious and highly competitive research programme.

We highly value European partnerships and collaborations, built through initiatives like Horizon, which help drive Scotland’s strength and excellence in research. The impact of Brexit has risked our ability to continue to access funding and compete as a world leading research nation. Therefore, the Scottish Government’s position remains that maximising participation in Horizon Europe is the best outcome for Scotland.

We urge the UK Government to work together with the European Commission to limit the damage caused by their ideological pursuit of a ‘hard’ Brexit. Finding a mutually beneficial solution for our research and innovation communities remains of pressing importance.

I am pleased to confirm the publication today of the Scottish Government’s fourth thematic report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report. This not only includes a narrative, context and additional information about key recommendations but, importantly, also has a tracker showing what progress has been made.

This shows that 55 of the non-legislative recommendations are now complete leaving only 16 non-legislative recommendations still in progress and one to be kept under review.

Through their leadership and commitment, policing partners have delivered major business transformation and service redesign to improve how complaints are handled, bringing greater transparency, fairness and accessibility to systems, policies and processes.

Building on this and as announced in the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government will introduce a Police Complaints and Misconduct Handling Bill in this Parliamentary year to further strengthen public confidence in policing in Scotland.

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 dedication to this important work.

The report can be accessed here: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805252610

The Scottish Government and its agencies support many of our festivals and events in a multitude of ways as set out in the following table:

Financial Support – financial year 2022-23

The Scottish Government proposes to take a phased approach to the alignment with the recast Drinking Water Directive. This prioritises the health based standards that can be implemented now and recognises that some parts of the Directive apply at a later date.

A more detailed description of the approach to alignment is provided in the policy note which accompanies The Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002 (draft). This is contained in the Clerk’s papers for the 32 nd Meeting of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee ( 4647 (parliament.scot) ).

Consultation will be undertaken with relevant stakeholders as the various parts of the Directive are introduced to ensure that they are proportionate and in Scotland’s interests.

As of 12th December 2022 there are:

(a) 7 posts in the Alcohol Harm Prevention Team, all posts are currently filled

(b) 4 posts in the Alcohol Treatment Policy Team, with 3 posts filled

(c) 46 posts in the Drugs Policy Division, with 44 posts filled

This information is not held centrally and is a matter for the Care Inspectorate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12798 on 12 December. 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 .

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are currently consulting with data users to ensure that census outputs are accessible and provided in a format which meets the needs of census data users.

As previously noted, NRS are planning to publish the first census outputs approximately one year after conclusion of the census data collection phases. Census data collection phases concluded in Autumn 2022.

We welcome the one-year update report from the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) on prison deaths and FAI outcomes in Scotland which will inform work across organisations to prevent deaths in custody and in relation to FAIs.

We are committed to making improvements to the response to, and experiences of, families impacted by a death in custody and to that end we have welcomed the recommendations from the Independent Review of the response to Deaths in Prison Custody and we are working with partners to implement these.

A dedicated Crown Office team was piloted from November 2021 under the umbrella of the Health and Safety Investigation unit to consolidate how we investigate deaths in custody and to make improvements to these processes. During the pilot period, the unit investigated deaths in custody with common underlying themes, namely drug deaths and deaths by suicide. Following a successful Pilot, the Custody Death Unit was established in August 2022 with a remit to investigate all deaths in legal custody occurring in Scotland after that date. It is anticipated that this holistic approach will streamline the approach to investigations resulting overall in a reduction to the journey time of cases whilst still ensuring a robust and through investigation. In addition, it is anticipated that the streamlined approach will allow for accelerated processes for particular categories of death and greater scope for conjoining FAIs which will further reduce the time taken to conclude these investigations.

Preventing suicide and supporting people who self-harm are key areas of focus for the Scottish Prison Service in developing its Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The Prevention of Suicide in Prison Strategy aims to care for those ‘at risk’ of suicide by providing a person-centred care pathway based on an individual’s needs, strengths and assets and by promoting a supportive environment where people in SPS custody can ask for help.

In September, the Scottish Government and COSLA published Creating Hope Together - a new long term suicide prevention strategy for Scotland. Our vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. The strategy sets out a new approach to reducing suicide in Scotland, targeting key settings where suicide risk is higher, such as prisons. We are now implementing the strategy and are working with partners across the criminal justice system.

In terms of the findings relating to Fatal Accident Inquiries, the Lord Advocate is constitutionally responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected and suspicious deaths in Scotland. These functions are exercised independently of government. Whether or not a recommendation is made at the end of an inquiry is a matter for the presiding Sheriff who has listened to all the evidence.

We keep matters in relation to FAIs and deaths in custody under review in consultation with the Crown Office and continually consider and evaluate whether there are ways in which the system can be improved further.

COPFS is committed to reducing the timescale for commencing FAIs, including those arising from deaths in custody, whilst ensuring that the circumstances surrounding each death are thoroughly investigated. COPFS has introduced a number of measures since the implementation of the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 to reduce the average time taken to complete FAIs.

Organised by volunteers since 2005, the Ullapool Book Festival has become a feature of Scotland’s literary calendar of events.

Following the announcement, neither Scottish Government nor Creative Scotland have been approached for discussions with the organisers of the event - who we understand have decided to step back due to personal reasons.

The Ullapool Book Festival has been supported through National Lottery funding by Creative Scotland since it began, and Creative Scotland would welcome applications for funding from the team behind the Ullapool Book Festival for ad hoc events under that banner in the future.