As set out in our Programme for Government in 2020, we are working with local authorities, the deposit return scheme administrator and potential investors to explore options that will unlock reprocessing investments and to ensure that we manage more of our own waste within Scotland. This has included an assessment of volumes of materials, including plastics, collected for recycling.

There were no death certificates stating any involvement with food poisoning in each of the last five years.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00813 on 14 July 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 UK Government (UKG) are the principle contract owners and managers of the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) and its suppliers. The UKG are therefore best placed to provide information in relation to the costing model of allocation of managed isolation facilities to travellers.

The information requested relating to (a) Aspergillus, (b) Pneumocystis jirovecii, (c) Staphylococcus epidermidis and (d) COVID-19 cases by hospital site is not centrally held by the Scottish Government. This information is held locally for local learning and quality improvement and can be sourced by contacting [email protected].

We do not hold this information centrally. However, we do have a close collaborative relationship with the owner of the electricity network in the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Power Distribution (SPD).

SPD has developed and published Distribution Future Energy Scenarios (DFES), which consider various decarbonisation routes to achieve Scotland’s Net Zero targets. These incorporate a 100% transition of cars / small commercial vehicles to full Electric Vehicles (EVs), including between 240,000-310,000 in Edinburgh by 2050.

SPD’s DFES anticipates growth in demand from customers on its Edinburgh distribution network to double by 2050, with 40% of this related to growth in EVs, as well as heat demand. Meeting this extra demand will need a combination of traditional network reinforcements but also flexibility from other energy resources (e.g. generators and battery storage).

SPD’s high level estimate is that this will require between £150-400 million investment in its Edinburgh network by 2050. The actual scale of investment will ultimately be driven by the technologies adopted by customers and the ways in which they are used.

SPD is currently preparing a draft business plan for investment across all of its distribution networks. The Scottish Government will continue to work with SPD, as well as with Scotland’s other network owners and Ofgem, to ensure that our energy and climate change commitments and targets are fully reflected in these plans and the investment that they will require.

Covid 19 has exacerbated, and brought into full focus, the existing inequalities that exist within Scotland. Ensuring equitable access to health services and improving the health outcomes for specific groups within our society, including the homeless population, is a crucial aspect of our post-Covid recovery work.

It is essential to ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are able to access the right care at the right time. We are taking a multi-disciplinary approach across health, homelessness and frontline services in order to strengthen partnerships and to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness, particularly for those with more complex needs.

The joint Scottish Government /COSLA ‘Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan’, includes plans for a ‘no wrong door’ approach to accessing support and services for those experiencing homelessness, as well as plans for a new duty for public bodies, including health services, to help prevent homelessness. We are also taking steps to break down the silos between homelessness and health services, including through funding and supporting the development of the Housing First model for those with more complex needs, and through funding a Healthcare Improvement Scotland project to identify the learning from the joint working across homelessness and addictions services that has been adopted during the pandemic.

Whilst the UK Government (UKG) are the principle contract owners and managers of the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) and its suppliers; the Scottish Government acts as officiate of these contracts with the service providers.

The Scottish Government has close working relationships with the services providers, including the hotel teams directly in Scotland. This enables issues to be raised locally, solutions agreed quickly and, where practical, special measures for guests being put in place at short notice.

Travellers who feel their needs are not being adequately met by the hotel; or where they wish to offer feedback on their experience; such as the things mentioned, food quality and noise disturbance; are encouraged to get in touch with the Scottish Government. We do all that we can in liaising with the hotel to ensure that the traveller’s needs are met and that their stay is as comfortable as possible. This can include liaising with Corporate Travel Management directly on behalf of the traveller and signposting the traveller to the range of health care support resources and services that are available through NHS Scotland, including out of hours services.

The latest annual statistics from Public Health Scotland show that uptake of cervical screening is still lower in the most deprived areas of Scotland, compared to the least deprived areas. We recognise that there is further work required to tackle this issue, and that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the importance of this work. We have therefore committed £2 million over the next two years to build a programme of evidence-based, sustainable and scalable projects that tackle inequalities in a systemic way.

The Scottish Government is also supporting work to explore the potential introduction of self-sampling into the screening programme, which could be an important tool to widen access to the programme and tackle inequalities. Allowing people to take the test in their own home could overcome some of the barriers that prevent people taking up screening, such as accessibility issues, embarrassment or previous trauma. The UK National Screening Committee is evaluating research ahead of making a recommendation on its use, and we have established a working group to contribute evidence and plan for implementation so that we can act quickly following any recommendation.

In the first six months of this parliament we will deliver a new 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation, setting out the steps we will take to deliver a green economic recovery and support new, good, green jobs, businesses and industries for the future.

We are making investments in key net zero markets including buildings, energy and transport, that will drive demand for good green jobs and increasingly aligning our skills policy, including through the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan published in December, to support reskilling and retraining to access green jobs now and in the future.

For example we are investing in the transition of our energy sector, including £62m through the Energy Transition Fund to provide a package that will support our energy sector to transition and grow, supporting jobs and regional growth. We are also investing £180m in the Emerging Energy Technology Fund to support innovation in key energy technologies like Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage and Hydrogen. We are also working with industry to explore the opportunities and challenges for marine energy and to build on the sector’s achievements to date, which have been made possible by the Scottish Government’s substantial level of investment in wave and tidal energy.

We have also published and consulted on a draft Heat in Buildings Strategy which includes a £1.6bn investment over the lifetime of this Parliament to kickstart the transition of Scotland’s buildings towards net-zero. This is a transition which will support jobs and economic opportunity. Overall, we estimate that as investment ramps up towards the late 2020s, as many as 24,000 jobs could be supported each year in Scotland by the roll out of zero emissions heat

Looking forward, the Scottish Government intends to publish a draft refresh of the 2017 Scottish Energy Strategy in Spring 2022, outlining a coordinated vision for Scotland’s energy system including renewables as we move towards net zero by supporting the delivery of a just transition and a green economic recovery from Covid-19.