One of the key pillars of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation is to strengthen Scotland’s position in new markets and industries to generate well-paid jobs and support a just transition to net zero. The Strategy sets out a range of actions to deliver on this vision. We are now developing sectoral and regional Just Transition Plans, which will identify relevant green industrial opportunities. Our first Just Transition Plan will be the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which is intended for publication in draft form in autumn 2022.

Work is also underway to strengthen our supply chains in the renewables energy sector. We're aware, for example, that Scotland’s developing hydrogen economy will require a strong domestic supply chain.

That's why the Scottish Government has announced a Hydrogen Supply Chain Event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on 22 September to help build on and explore the opportunities that exist within this emerging sector.

For Offshore Wind, applicants to the ScotWind leasing round were required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) that sets out the level and location of supply chain impact throughout the lifetime of projects. These commitments amount to billions of pounds of investment to the Scottish supply chain. Initial projections show an average spend of £1.5bn in Scotland per project.

Dr Church, the independent chair of the review, has advised that he intends to launch another round of stakeholder engagement for stakeholders by the end of July, running through to August or early September, during which he will be both seeking responses to specific questions and open to any further representations stakeholder may wish to make. This is in addition to the engagement already undertaken through the Call for Evidence for the review.

The Bus Priority Rapid Deployment Fund (BPRDF) ran from July 2020 until June 2021 and was designed to support local authorities – working closely with bus operators - to respond to congestion with interventions such as temporary bus lanes or gates. 41 bus priority projects were implemented across Scotland.

Though the Fund was for short-term measures, it provided an opportunity for local authorities to test interventions as they developed plans for longer-term investment in bus priority, to lock in benefits for bus passengers, the bus industry and the environment. Learning and evidence from BPRDF informed local authority applications to the Bus Partnership Fund, which opened in July 2021 for bids to develop and deliver permanent bus priority infrastructure on local roads.

Section 40 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 amends section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 to include a new offence of arriving in the United Kingdom without a valid entry clearance. The new offence comes in force on
‎ 28 June 2022.

There are no plans to introduce Lord Advocate’s guidelines in relation to the new offence.

Where the circumstances of alleged offending are reported to the Procurator Fiscal, prosecutors will decide on appropriate prosecutorial action, if any, on the basis of both the principles in the published Scottish Prosecution Code and, where relevant, the published Lord Advocate’s instructions for non-prosecution of victims of human trafficking.

An implementation timetable for the Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 has been published. Implementation will be a collaborative and iterative process with frontline staff, taking account of the learning from the pandemic whilst recognising the new environment within which services will now operate. The timetable sets out an intended full implementation date of April 2024.

The number of vacant posts in each NHS Board can be found on the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) website: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

To ensure all Health Boards including NHS Fife have sufficient capacity planning guidance has been issued to support the production of new Three Year Workforce Plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data.

As part of this all Health Boards must consider local population health needs and projected service demand, using that information to assess current staffing capacity and any relevant staffing gaps.

At national level, we will use this intelligence to inform new staffing projections for health and social care, which will be published in the coming year as part of the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care.

The specification of, and recruitment to staff roles supported by investment through the long COVID Support Fund is a matter for individual NHS Boards.

The Strategic Network for long COVID managed by NHS National Services Scotland is providing support to NHS Boards as they plan and implement service developments.

We are supporting NHS Boards to test the introduction of models of care that will generate learning and benefit the management of other long-term and complex conditions, including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08992 on 17 June 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.

ScotRail’s temporary timetable aims to provide the best possible service to as many passengers as possible with the available resources. The major determining factor is driver availability by rostered hours, location and with the necessary competencies, which fluctuates daily.

ScotRail has regularly reviewed the temporary timetable to take account of stakeholder feedback, wherever possible, and changes to driver availability and just recently was able to add additional services. With the positive progress made on pay negotiations with ASLEF, I have tasked ScotRail with reintroducing the previous timetable as soon as possible.

The exact number of unpaid carers living in Scotland is not known. Therefore, the number of unpaid carers in Scotland is estimated from national survey data. The preferred survey used to estimate the number of unpaid carers is the Scottish Health Survey , as it samples both adults and children and allows for detailed breakdowns.

The latest estimates from the 2020 Scottish Health Survey telephone survey , which ran with a reduced number of questions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, suggest that there were around 839,000 (between 738,000 and 939,000) adult unpaid carers (aged 18+) living in Scotland in 2020.

This report cannot be compared to previous years due to differences in methodology from the main Scottish Health Survey series.

Data from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey will be published in Autumn 2022.