As the First Minister set out in her statement of 30 November. The nine cases of Omicron identified at that time continue to be supported by Health Protection Teams and, as enhanced contact tracing is still taking place, it would not be appropriate to disclose further information with regards to the event in question.

In the summer of 2020, the Scottish Government undertook a Capital Spending Review of its capital budgets against the backdrop of Covid-19, which necessitated a review of rail enhancements priorities.

Following the 2020 review, amid significant financial pressures on the available rail enhancements capital budget, the North Hanover Street development was deferred. Against a backdrop of rising costs and pressures on the rail enhancements budget, Network Rail was instructed to return to Transport Scotland with a proposal to progress the development, with options for alternative funding.

Transport Scotland await a revised proposal from Network Rail. Officials continue to remain engaged in regular meetings with key stakeholders such as Glasgow City Council, Network Rail and Scottish Futures Trust aimed at keeping each other updated in respect of developments in and around the Queen Street station area.

Significant financial and non-financial investment has been made in capercaillie conservation by Scottish Government, its partners and agencies, NGOs, landowners, communities and individuals. While the status of the capercaillie population in Scotland remains vulnerable, without the investment that has been made it is likely that we would have lost capercaillie from Scotland.

Support has included funding from NatureScot towards research and conservation of capercaillie in Scotland since 2011 as well as funding via the Forestry Grant Scheme specifically to support capercaillie populations.

Other Scottish Government funding in support of habitat management is likely to have benefited capercaillie but where not specifically provided for this species no breakdown is available.

Local authorities were issued with non-statutory guidance to support them in their administration of the Tenant Grant Fund on 17 September 2021. A copy of this guidance can be found here .

We know some local authorities are already delivering Tenant Grant Fund payments at pace. For example, Dundee City Council has already paid out over £36,000 in grants, providing vital support to tenants in financial need caused by the pandemic.

All 32 local authorities are required to submit their first quarterly report by the end of December 2021, which will set out the number and level of grants issued (broken down by tenure); how many of these grants paid off the rent arrears in full or partially; and how many tenancies were sustained, at that time, as a direct result of the grant being paid.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04874 on
‎ 20 December 2021. 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 vast majority of people can wear a face covering and everyone who can is required to do so where it is mandated by law.

The Scottish Government was the first of the devolved administrations to produce guidance on the use of face coverings – recognising exemptions where people are unable to, or it would be inappropriate to, wear a face covering. Discrimination against people in this situation is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

The Scottish Government, in conjunction with a range of equality stakeholders, developed a face covering exemption card, to support those who are unable to wear a face covering to feel more confident and safe when accessing public spaces and using public services.

Further information is available on the Exemption Card Scotland website .

Total expenditure on the organ donation campaign in Scotland since the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019 received Royal Assent, on the referred media, is £657,922.31. This is broken as follows:

Throughout Storms Arwen and Barra the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division maintained daily contact with the power companies and close engagement continues.

It must be noted that resilience of the electricity networks is reserved and is the responsibility of the UK Government. The Scottish Government will be engaging with both the upcoming Ofgem and UK Government Storm Arwen reviews.

In addition, the Deputy First Minister requested that the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division begin work on the scope and terms of a review into the Storm Arwen response on 30 November 2021, and on 14 December 2021 he formally commissioned the Scottish Resilience Partnership to collate evidence from local resilience partnerships to inform the findings of the review.

The Scottish Government will also gather evidence from other relevant groups, for example the voluntary sector and utilities companies, including power companies.

‎This work is already well underway and we aim to publish a review paper with recommendations in mid-January.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has operational responsibility for our Modern Apprenticeship (MA) programme. Official MA statistics are published quarterly by SDS, including the number of starts, however a breakdown by month is not available.

The total number of MAs recruited by each occupational grouping is published at the end of each year, as recruitment of apprentices is carried out throughout the year. The MA 202-/22 Q4 (Year End) statistics are expected to be published in May 2022.

There are a large number of Small and Medium Enterprise businesses who take on smaller numbers of cohorts each year. The table below shows the top three employers who have recruited the largest number of MAs each year since 2019 and the volume of MA starts each year:

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table provides the number of SPS issued mobile phone handsets that have been confiscated at HMP & YOI Grampian, each month, from 1 September 2021 to 10 December 2021: