Chamber and committees

We are working across the Common Travel Area to ensure that the vaccination certification scheme recognises people who were vaccinated in other countries in the Common Travel Area with a Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved vaccine. We will put in place, before the scheme goes live, an interim process to enable Scottish residents who have had a dose outside Scotland to have their vaccine record updated. People will be able to get a record of their vaccination from whichever country they were vaccinated in – this will be accepted in Scotland for entry purposes.

Consultation on this matter took place prior to the announcement by the First Minister, and in line with the provisions of the cooperation agreement.

1,020 applications were received under the Seafood Producers Resilience Fund. 911 applications were approved and paid a total of £5,808,112 with 109 applications declined.

We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.

The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.

Our draft Heat in Buildings Strategy notes that communities, large and small, will play an important role in driving forward the transformation of the nation's building stock. An Islands Communities Impact Assessment is being finalised alongside the Strategy and will help inform the final Strategy. We are currently analysing responses from our consultation on the draft strategy and will publish a final version in due course.

In addition, as set out in our Strategy, our new CARES programme will focus further on supporting communities to work together to address and champion heat decarbonisation on a local level. Through CARES we will work to understand further the models and solutions most appropriate for communities in Scotland.

Building on these approaches, we will work with stakeholders to ensure there is an evidence based, tailored service for islands and remote locations, and will set out more detail in our forthcoming Islands Energy Strategy.

All our current advice and support services are already open to those in rural /island locations. Home Energy Scotland (HES) provides free, impartial advice including specialist bespoke advice on home renewables. HES is also the gateway to loans and grants programmes from Scottish Government for energy efficiency improvements and zero emissions heating in homes in Scotland, for example the HES loan which covers up to 100% of the cost of measures and offers cashback of up to 45% on energy efficiency measures and 75% for renewables measures.

The Scottish Government values the positive contribution made by Catholic schools and there are no plans to review the important role they play in the Scottish education system and wider society.

As no timeline has been specified by the member, information from 22 March 2021 to 22 September 2021 is provided. During this period, no meetings have taken place between Cabinet Secretaries or Ministers with representatives of CalaChem Ltd in Grangemouth. I last visited CalaChem as Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation on 5 November 2019. The Scottish Government does not hold the information on Scottish Enterprise meetings with CalaChem Ltd centrally. However, I have requested that Scottish Enterprise respond to the member directly with this information.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

The consultation on the draft National Falls and Fractures Strategy closed on 30 September 2019. Analysis of the responses highlighted a disparate range of views, expectations and desired outcomes from a strategy including feedback that a separate strategy may not be the best mechanism to achieve improvement in this area.

The review of the strategy was subsequently delayed due to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into account the changed landscape, officials are currently considering the comments received, including how and where they align with the shared ambitions for our new health and social care strategy for older people.

We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.

The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.