The provision of Health and Wellbeing services, for the police workforce, is a matter for the Chief Constable.

Police officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health through Police Scotland's “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme. This includes the signposting of services by ‘Wellbeing Champions’ and the programme has resulted in a raised awareness of the services available, such as occupational health and employee assistance, which offer counselling, and specific interactions through the Trauma Risk Management programme (TRiM).

Portfolio responsibility for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) lies with me as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity.

In line with the principle of extended producer responsibility and the polluter pays principle, the work to deliver DRS is being led and paid for by industry, in particular the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL). I meet with CSL on a monthly basis to ensure that the agreed implementation timetable is maintained.

Lord Advocate’s guidelines to Police Scotland on the use of Recorded Police Warnings have been in place for a number of years. My statement to the Scottish Parliament on 22 September 2021 was reflected in a corresponding amendment to the guidelines.

The current guidelines permit a police officer to issue a Recorded Police Warning in relation to an offence involving simple possession of all classes of controlled drug.

The information requested is not held centrally. Any financial support provided to the Police Treatment Centres, by Police Scotland, is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Scottish Police Authority.

During times of emergency, those responders designated as either Category 1 or 2 by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 are permitted to share personal information by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) Regulations 2005.

The Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group (SICSAG) report on COVID-19 published on 2 February 2022 includes data on the numbers of COVID positive pregnant women admitted to critical care facilities (excluding obstetric High Dependency Units) to 9 January 2020. The data is presented by COVID infection wave, but not by month. SICSAG report annually on numbers of pregnant women admitted to Intensive Care Units. 2021 data is expected to be reported in summer 2022.

Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group report on COVID-19 - as at 11 January 2022 - Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group report on COVID-19 - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

We know that some homeowners may not be able to meet the cost of fitting the necessary alarms which is why we provided £500,000 through Care and Repair Scotland to help elderly and disabled people. We have also made available a further £500,000 to Care and Repair to extend this support beyond 1 February 2022.

This is in addition to the £1m funding provided to SFRS for its Home Fire Safety Visit programme to owner occupied properties assessed to be at high risk from fire.

We also provided £15m loan funding to social landlords to support them to fit compliant alarms for all tenants.

Flexibility is built into the existing legislation through a provision setting out that the work should be done “within such period as is reasonable in all the circumstances”, allowing flexibility for home owners unable to install alarms by 1 February 2022.

The consultation phase of ScotRail’s review on ticket office opening hours closed on 2 February. Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for transport users, is in the process of collating responses in order to produce a report of the consultation outputs. It would not be prudent for Scottish Ministers to prejudge the outcomes of that process prior to the Transport Focus report being published.

The UK National Screening Committee, an independent scientific body that advises all four UK nations on screening, currently recommends that women between the ages of 50 and 70 are invited for three yearly breast screening. Therefore, while programme capacity remains challenging due to COVID-19, the pause on self-referrals allows appointments to be prioritised for the recommended screening population, for whom evidence shows clear benefits.

The organisations that oversee screening in Scotland, including the Scottish Screening Committee (SSC), National Screening Oversight (NSO) and the Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed that self-referrals for women aged 71 and over should resume once capacity allows. However, in recognition of the anxiety the pause is causing, officials are exploring if there are options to accelerate the restart that would not unduly impact appointment times for the eligible screening population. Any decision will be informed by clinical advice and the on-going pandemic.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government continues to stress that if anyone, of any age, is concerned they may have symptoms of breast cancer, they should immediately make an appointment with their GP Practice.

The measures that the Parole Board had to take in response to COVID, to ensure the safe working of staff and others, meant that it has not been feasible to facilitate arrangements for a victim to observe a Tribunal. The Parole Board rules require proceedings to be kept confidential which means that a member of staff needs to be present, with the victim observing by video link.

The Parole Board has however, used this time to put in place the mechanisms needed to allow this to happen when it is safe to do so. In light of the relaxation of the working from home guidelines from 1 February 2022, the Parole Board has indicated that it will now begin to consider requests to observe hearings, with a view to testing first before moving to full implementation in the Spring. Granting of requests to view a Tribunal is a matter for the independent Parole Board following consideration of representations from the prisoner.