Chamber and committees

The Improvement Service (IS), who manage the application process, do not have the statistics on applications started available. Some online applications were submitted in advance of the 10 January 2022 application open date. At close of business on 1 March 2022, there had been a total of 201,306 online applications submitted.

The IS are able to report on the online rejection numbers only. At close of business on 1 March 2022, 47,251 applications had been rejected. Among the most common reasons for rejection were:

? Abbreviated birth certificate supplied which contains insufficient information necessary to prove that a parent is authorised to act on behalf of a child.

? Documents supplied cannot be read

? Parental ID not supplied

? Mismatch on address

? Data mismatch

? Non-compliant photo

? Documents do not pass security features checks

? Wrong date of birth

? Duplicate application

? Failed ID verification checks

The Scottish Government expects to lay commencement regulations in early May 2022 that will bring into force the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021 this summer.

The Scottish Budget allocated £1 million to develop the Community Bus Fund in 2022-23 to support Local Transport Authorities to improve public transport in their areas, and to explore the full range of options in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. We are currently working on the design and scope of the fund and this involves discussions with CoSLA and ATCO on how the £1 million may be best spent in 2022-23.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect statistics on wider international parental child abduction cases outwith the 1980 Hague Convention On The Civil Aspects Of International Child Abduction. The Scottish Government’s Central Authority has been involved with 110 cases between 2015 and 2021, where an application under the 1980 Hague Convention On The Civil Aspects Of International Child Abduction has been made to a foreign country to bring a child back to Scotland.

The Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) will replace the Ferries Plan and will consider island connectivity more broadly, including having regard to connecting and onward travel. The ICP will develop objectives based on supporting delivery of the National Transport Strategy 2 and the National Islands Plan, and develop proposals to meet those objectives which represent public value.

The ICP will also include a long-term investment programme for new ferries and development at ports, that will aim to improve resilience, reliability, capacity and accessibility, while increasing standardisation, cutting emissions and meeting the needs of island communities whilst providing value for money.

In addition, the ICP will explore pathways to zero/low emission ferry transport and undertake a ferry fares policy review.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06205 on 4 March 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 .

The Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers opened on 6 January and closed on 21 January. It provided much-needed support to creative freelancers experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The total number of applications received by Creative Scotland was 1,946. The number of approved applications was 1,766. Of these approved applications, so far 1,763 have been paid in full.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06927 on 4 March 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 .

Special Advisers are appointed by the First Minister for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 obligates the Scottish Government to prepare and lay before the Scottish Parliament an annual report about Special Advisers, and additional updates to Special Advisers and their responsibilities are published as appropriate on the Scottish Government website.

The statutory responsibility for delivering and commissioning care home placements at a local level lies with local authorities and integrated health and social care partnerships. The agreement on the rates paid for care home placements is determined by the contractual relationships in place. Scottish Government provides funding through the local government settlement but is not a contractual party to these arrangements.

The Scottish Government has allocated £862 million to Health Boards to support with costs arising from the pandemic, this will include additional costs for the adult social care sector. The current arrangements for additional financial support for the sector are in place until 30 June 2022.