The Housing to 2040 strategy and the New Deal for Tenants Draft Strategy consultation both encourage professionalism in the housing industry. The consultation particularly seeks views on how to drive up standards in the private rented sector, including around training.

The Scottish Government do not have a remit in relation to the training and skills of the housing sector workforce, social landlords have a duty to train their staff appropriately and this includes the upcoming delivery of any Housing to 2040 outcomes, and private landlords must meet the legal standards required, but specific professional training is not essential.

We have put in place a process for individuals who have received their coronavirus vaccinations outwith Scotland which allows them to upload official proof of vaccination from an approved country to their Scottish Vaccination Record through NHS Inform . This will allow those who have been vaccinated within the UK or internationally to receive a combined fully vaccinated status to show for travel and domestic purposes. We are working to increase the number of countries that this applies to.

Our decision-making criteria agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Information Commissioner defines the roles and responsibilities of different parties in relation to FOI request handling, including the role of Special Advisers in providing views and comments and is available here .

Documentation for all FOI requests is held in individual case files. We do not keep a collated record of all cases on which Special Advisers have been asked to comment, since we have no business need to do so.

The Scottish Government has provided £1.23 million to Care and Repair Scotland during 2021-22. This includes £1.1 million to support compliance with the new fire alarms legislation and £130,000 for its role as national coordinating body for Care and Repair services in Scotland .

Private sector landlords in Scotland are subject to the same regulatory requirements, irrespective of the number of properties they let.

Most private landlords are required to apply for registration with their local authority under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 . The applicant must provide information to help local authorities assess whether they are a fit and proper person to let houses.

The fit and proper person test is intended to provide a level of assurance that the owner of a let property is a suitable person to let privately rented property. It is a standard that all private landlords are required to uphold throughout the time that they operate as a private landlord.

In addition, where the property in question is a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), the landlord must apply for a licence. The HMO owner or their agent is subject to the fit and proper person test, and the property is subject to inspection by the local authority and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Local authorities are responsible for administering Landlord Registration and Houses in Multiple Occupation licensing.

From 1 December 2017, new tenancy agreements for most privately rented properties would be Private Residential Tenancies and tenants will also therefore be afforded the rights and protections flowing from that regulatory framework (as set out in Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016).

Our New Deal for Tenant's consultation, which runs until the 15 April, makes clear that all tenants should live in properties where quality and standards are high, and people have clear rights. It also seeks views on our vision for the future regulation of the rental sector - setting out that regulation should seek tenure neutral outcomes for tenants in all sectors, empowers tenants through routes to redress failures and support good standards across the rented sector.

No assessment has been made of whether and how the conveyancing system may affect house prices.

Conveyancing is the legal process that transfers ownership of a property from one person to another including the completion of the missives.

The Scottish Government is aware of reports of unusually large numbers of emaciated and dead seabirds that were found along the North Sea costs in autumn 2021 and have been working to establish the potential causes. We have a number of dead seabird, fish, plankton and water samples undergoing analysis with the aim of identifying potential causes for the mortality event. The Scottish Government has been working closely with the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Sea Mammal Research Unit and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the findings of these investigations will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children and young people in Scotland have access to a digital device by the end of this parliament in 2026.

The Scottish Government has been working with other organisations across the UK, including UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Sea Mammal Research Unit and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science to investigate the unusually large numbers of emaciated and dead seabirds that were found along the North Sea coasts in autumn 2021.

Due to the long life spans of many seabird species, the full impacts of the increased mortality in 2021 may not be evident for a number of years. However, long term monitoring of populations and individual survival at some seabird colonies may provide an indication of the impacts of the recent mortality event, although these data will only become available from the autumn of 2022.