This is a matter for individual Health Boards. We do not hold this specific information centrally.

Since 2018-19, as part of our annual staff governance monitoring exercise, Boards advise us of the number of formal bullying and harassment cases raised locally each year. This information was not requested in 2019-20 due to the pandemic.

The information we hold does not separate out the number of cases that relate to bullying, sexual harassment or other forms of harassment. We also do not hold information on the outcome of these cases or level of compensation if paid.

The Boards have reported the following information to us (please note where numbers of cases are less than 5, we cannot give specific figures for reasons of maintaining anonymity):

? NHS Ayrshire & Arran reported less than 5 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 19 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Borders reported 6 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 7 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Dumfries & Galloway reported 8 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 7 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Fife reported 17 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 9 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Forth Valley reported 12 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Grampian reported 14 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 8 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde reported 21 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 10 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Highland reported 14 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 38 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Lanarkshire reported 27 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 7 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Lothian reported 41 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 36 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Orkney reported less than 5 formal complaint of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Shetland reported less than 5 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Tayside reported 6 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 13 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Western Isles reported less than 5 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 6 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Education for Scotland reported no formal complaints in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Golden Jubilee Foundation reported less than 5 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland reported less than 5 formal complaint of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and no cases in 2020-2021.

? NHS Health Scotland - Public Health Scotland reported no formal complaints in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS National Services Scotland reported 16 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 6 in 2020-2021.

? NHS State Hospital reported less than 5 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS 24 reported 12 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and less than 5 in 2020-2021.

? NHS Scottish Ambulance Service reported 24 formal complaints of bullying and harassment in 2018-2019 and 7 in 2020-2021.

As we recover from the pandemic ScotRail Trains Limited will adapt its rail services to meet passenger demand and travel patterns, the latter of which is likely to be markedly different to that experienced previously.

Though there has not been a specific date nor target level set for the increased revenue Transport Scotland will continue to monitor the revenue situation as it is reported on a period by period basis so as to enable Ministers to make informed decisions at all times.

Encouragingly, patronage levels on our railway are improving. In the middle of last year (week ended Saturday 3July), reported demand stood at about 831,000 journeys. By the week ended Saturday 5 March 2022, reported demand had increased to 1,183,000 journeys.

Local Authorities have been provided with New Burdens funding to support new processes for gathering supporting information on behalf of clients applying for disability assistance. These new processes introduced a new requirement for Local Authorities to receive, triage, manage and respond to these requests for information from Social Security Scotland for Child Disability Payment.

The funding provided for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 years is detailed below:

The funding allocation is made on the basis of the anticipated level of need to support these processes in each Local Authority. Scottish Government Communities Analysis division have provided forecast estimates for the number of requests for supporting information that each Local Authority may receive.

The estimates for supporting information requests have been created by using actual volumes of applications in Scotland for the DWP equivalent benefit, Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAC) over the past 5 years as the basis. This data was combined with statistics from the Department for Communities (DfC) which provided a percentage breakdown of cases where additional supporting information was required. This percentage was applied to the Scottish application projections and ratified by Health and Social Care practitioners in Social Security Scotland.

Working with COSLA and the Local Authorities who supported the Child Disability Payment Pilot, the Social Security Programme agreed an appropriate level of funding to support Perth and Kinross Council as a medium sized authority with a mixed urban/rural demographic to act as a median. The funding allocated to all other Local Authorities was based proportionately upon the volume of Supporting Information requests they are expected to receive against the base level of funding agreed for Perth and Kinross Council.

Using this methodology Island Authorities were thought to be unfairly disadvantaged due to the small number of requests they are likely to receive. As such an Island Uprating was agreed to ensure that all organisations received at least £29,000 per annum to adequately resource this new burden. The methodology for funding allocation was approved through the Settlement and Distribution Group and the COSLA Leaders meeting in Autumn 2021.

I welcome Audit Scotland’s review into drug and alcohol services and their recommendations. We agree that more can be done to improve the accessibility and transparency of funding and how it is used.

Currently information on funding allocation is available through various publications including published budgets and I also report to Parliament regularly outlining our progress and funding decisions. We have also recently agreed on eight recommendations with COSLA to implement the Partnership Delivery Framework which underpins the governance of Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, this includes a recommendation requiring Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Finance Officers to be represented at the ADP and provide assurance regarding funding for alcohol and drug services including clear financial reporting. In addition, Public Health Scotland have been tasked with introducing new monitoring to track both the number of and investment in residential rehab placements by ADPs.

Telecoms is entirely reserved to the United Kingdom Government, which means that the Scottish Government does not have the powers to intervene in commercial matters. Therefore, in the absence of further action by the UK Government, it is ultimately up to suppliers themselves to decide how and where they choose to stimulate demand for connections and/or services. However, we do work closely with communications providers and encourage new entrants into Scotland’s fibre infrastructure market – for example, by extending non-domestic rates relief to fifteen years for newly laid and lit fibre, ten years more than the UK Government currently offers.

The governance body of a Green Freeport, which will need to be approved by the Scottish and UK Governments, will be required to maintain a record of all businesses operating, or applying to operate, within the tax site. That record must be kept up-to-date, contain information about the beneficial owner of the business, and be readily accessible to law enforcement agencies, including HMRC and the National Crime Agency. Law enforcement will use this information to carry out checks on the businesses and their beneficial owners before businesses are authorised to operate within the tax site.

Hybrid working is one of the ongoing behaviours that will help to manage COVID-19 effectively for the long term and may have benefits that go beyond the need to control the virus. We will work with employer and business organisations and trade unions to understand the economic impacts, exploring the opportunities and challenges of hybrid working as evidence and practice develops.

As set out in the recently published Strategic Framework, the Scottish Government encourages employers to engage with employees to consider hybrid working models where feasible and appropriate. However we recognise that employers are best placed to understand how their operations work most effectively and their employees’ and requests for flexible working, based on consultation with staff and unions. We trust organisations to make balanced and risk-assessed decisions in line with their business practices.

We recognise the many challenges faced by businesses throughout the pandemic and have provided businesses with £4.5bn of support since the start of the pandemic. In December we announced a £375m support package for firms impacted by the necessary measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron. We have also confirmed an £80m Covid Economic Recovery Fund for local authorities to support local economies and cities recover from the pandemic.

City centres have been heavily impacted and that is why the Scottish Government has convened a City Centre Recovery Task Force, run in partnership with our seven cities, through the Scottish Cities Alliance. It is working to identify innovative actions aimed at assisting city centres through their economic recovery, and will deliver its report this spring. We have allocated £6 million to the City Centre Recovery Fund this year to deliver the priorities of the Task Force and encourage people to return and enjoy all that our city centres offer. We are also working collaboratively with COSLA and partners on ways to support our town centres and prepare a response to the 2021 independent review of the Town Centre Action Plan and its recommendations with a shared action plan by spring 2022.

The Scottish Government criminal proceedings database does not hold information on the specific type of powered transporters involved in charges prosecuted in Scottish Courts.

Please note: The Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for 2019-20 financial year. Information for 2020-21 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 Statistical Bulletin. This is planned to be published later in 2022.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs

Resilience of the Electricity Sector is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Both BEIS and Ofgem have published their post-incident reviews/interim reports on Storm Arwen. The UK Government interim report on Storm Arwen review considers the issue of underground cables on p.10 and Ofgems Review into the networks’ response to Storm Arwen – Interim Report on page 16.

The Scottish Government contributed to both these reviews and will carefully consider the findings to understand where improvements could be made. We will continue to track progress against these recommendations.

We will also continue to press the UK Government, industry and the regulator for assurance that increased resilience of the electricity networks in Scotland is a priority.