The most recent discussions that Transport Scotland has had with East Ayrshire Council regarding Bellfield Interchange were in 2022. Transport Scotland has engaged with the Council throughout the preparation of the forthcoming second Local Development Plan (LDP2), which has identified that a package of works is required at Bellfield to facilitate development in East Ayrshire.

Officials have been consistent in their advice to the Council that any potential impact to the trunk road network, as a result of development, will require to be mitigated to an acceptable level.

Notwithstanding this, I have written to East Ayrshire Council in August 2023 and March 2024 offering a meeting with officials at Transport Scotland to discuss Bellfield Interchange.

The Framework Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Rail Holdings confirms under the Stations, Operational Plan section that “particular attention should be given to identifying efficiencies in staffing levels as well as focus on elements which will be monitored through SQUIRE”. This provides ScotRail with the ability to ensure that staff are deployed appropriately across the rail network to deliver a high performing service that passengers rightly expect.

As set out in my answer to question S6W-26000 on 18 March 2024, patient related experience and patient outcome measures will be recorded through NHS Boards’ use of the C-19 YRS digital screening tool. The provision of health data through this tool will assist in understanding the provision and effectiveness of long COVID services. Where possible, the data will be disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, and deprivation quintile. This will support understanding of any inequitable variation in service provision, experience and outcomes which may need to be addressed through service changes.

The long COVID National Strategic Network has contracted the University of Leeds to support the initial evaluation of long COVID services in Scotland, using data from the C19-YRS tool. The outputs of the evaluation are expected following the end of the financial year.

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 .

The Scottish Government’s Diabetes Improvement Plan contains a key commitment to further increase access to existing and emerging diabetes technologies.

Budgets for 2024-2025 are yet to be confirmed, however we recognise the benefits that technology provides to people with diabetes.

It is for each NHS Board to determine how best to utilise the funding and resources provided by the Scottish Government to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. This includes ensuring that people with Type 1 diabetes have access to the most appropriate treatment and care.

We remain committed to delivering the £10 million long COVID Support Fund in full. The 2024-25 budget published on 19 December 2023 outlines our plans to make £3 million from the long COVID Support Fund available over 2024-25. We anticipate that the remainder of the funding will be allocated over 2025-26.

Following the publication of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee’s report on long COVID, we have confirmed that we will consider baselining long COVID Support funding for NHS Boards at a level to be determined based on progress made by NHS Boards over 2023-24.

This is a matter for each territorial NHS Board. The information requested is not held centrally.

We are currently prioritising work across the Scottish Government in light of increased pressures on the Scottish budget.

On 16 March 2023, the then Minister for Community Safety provided a submission to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee in relation to Petition PE1968 , which outlined our position on full implementation of the 2020 Act and included a section-by-section breakdown of the Act’s commencement status.

I can provide some further updates.

For the provision on the views of the child in proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, the recent ‘ Hearings for Children ’ report reviewing the children’s hearings system included a recommendation to commence section 3 of the 2020 Act. The Scottish Government has accepted that recommendation and is taking forward relevant work in that regard.

For the provisions on special measures (sections 4 to 8 of the 2020 Act), Part 3 of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill currently before the Parliament will, if enacted, extend the provisions which relate to proceedings under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to civil proceedings generally.

In relation to a register for Child Welfare Reporters (section 9 of the 2020 Act), we will be establishing a short-life working group of key stakeholders later this year that will inform the development of policy around the register. It will also consider whether changes made in the past in this area, following a previous working group, are working as intended.

On child contact centres (sections 10 to 12 of the 2020 Act), the Scottish Government continues to prepare Scottish Statutory Instruments on the regulation of these centres.

For the provision placing a duty on Scottish Ministers to ensure the availability of child advocacy services in court proceedings under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (section 21 of the 2020 Act), the Scottish Government is considering further whether or not to carry out a consultation.

For the provisions on funding for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and the ADR information pilot (sections 23 and 24 of the 2020 Act), the Scottish Government provides update reports to Parliament on the progress of this work. The latest report, covering the period 1 October 2022 to 1 April 2023, is available on the Scottish Government website .

Table 1 presents the estimated gross cost of setting the Higher Property Rate equal to the Standard Multiplier in England. In England, in all three years, the Standard Multiplier was 51.2p, or 1.3p above the Small Business Multiplier of 49.9p. In Scotland, the Higher Property Rate in all three years was 2.6p above the poundage, which was 49p in 2021-2022 (having been temporarily reduced from 49.8p in 2020-2021 in response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19), and 49.8p in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. The costs therefore represent the impact of setting the Higher Property Rate at 51.2p instead of 51.6p in 2021-2022, and 52.4p in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

The figure for 2023-2024 is presented after General Revaluation Transitional Relief is applied. The figures are gross estimates, and are not adjusted for any other relief. Figures are broken down by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table is based on the valuation roll as at 1 October 2021, 1 October 2022, and 1 October 2023, with figures from 30 March 2023 and 1 April 2023 used to calculate General Revaluation Transitional Relief.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Estimated gross cost of reducing the Higher Property Rate to the level of the English Standard Multiplier (51.2p) (£), broken down by property class.

The updated MPA Monitoring Strategy Annexes will be published on the Marine Directorate website by the end of March 2024.

This will include:

a) The plan for surveys undertaken in 2023 and proposals for upcoming surveys in 2024. The planned surveys for 2024 are indicative and can be subject to change due to survey logistics and programme focus.

b) Information on the recent surveys in 2021 & 2022.

The information on surveys conducted in 2023 will be published later in 2024.

The updated MPA Monitoring Strategy Annexes, which will include lists of all sites that have been monitored over the period, will be published on the Marine Directorate website by the end of March 2024.