Chamber and committees

Under the Business Ventilation Fund, the limit of any reimbursement claim was £2500 for each eligible premise. Where a business operates multiple premises, it was able to apply for a grant for each eligible premise. An upper limit of £50,000 in total was applied to any eligible business operating multiple premises.

Further information on the capped value of claims for each improvement item can be found here: What businesses can claim - Coronavirus (COVID-19): Business Ventilation Fund - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Data from the Business Ventilation Fund has not yet been published. In line with all previous funds, the Scottish Government will publish data on the Business Ventilation Fund. This is planned for May.

Through our £290 million Cost of Living support package, we will give 1.85 million (73%) of Scottish households £150 of extra support via the Council Tax. We have also allocated a further £10 million to continue our Fuel Insecurity Fund, which is aimed at those in greatest need.

The Fuel Insecurity Fund is delivered through trusted third sector partner organisations, providing direct support to people at risk of severely self-rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely, due to the cost of their fuel bills. Assistance can be accessed by households on any tariff type and using any fuel source.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living in Scotland with Huntington’s Disease is able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

The Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) submitted an application to the latest round of funding provided via the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action , to support the recruitment of a Peripatetic Huntington’s Disease Specialist.

Applications for funding were assessed and scored by a panel however, unfortunately, the SHA’s application was not successful.

Despite the application being unsuccessful, we want to better understand the need for further provisions and service development across neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease, and Scottish Government officials plan to meet with SHA to further explore the issue.

Pay is an ongoing issue for Agenda for Change trade unions and the position for 2022-23 has been discussed regularly in the meetings I have had with health trade unions, as well as at the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee, and in meetings involving Scottish Government officials.

Local authorities are responsible for determining how they deliver education in their schools. Decisions relating to the provision of digital technology are taken locally. As such, we do not hold this information centrally.

The Scottish Government is not a reporting agency for cyber attacks in Scotland. When notified of a cyber incident under the Scottish Public Sector Notifiable Cyber Incident Procedure and Policy, the Scottish Government together with other relevant partners supports organisations with immediate cyber incident management and response, rather than their long-term recovery.

Public sector bodies generally manage their recovery processes themselves, dependant on their own circumstances. The Scottish Government does not collate information on the costs to the Scottish public bodies incurred as a result of cyber attacks.

The identification, assessment and management of people with long-term effects of COVID-19 in Scotland is guided by the UK-wide clinical guideline developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of GPs.

This guideline is clear that there is no requirement to prove previous COVID infection via a positive test in order to access an assessment or be considered for referral for further investigations or specialist input.

The Scottish Government is actively supporting the implementation of the clinical guideline in Scotland, including through our long COVID ‘Implementation Support Note’ and our collaboration with SIGN on its online ‘Decision Support Tool’ on managing the long term effects of COVID-19.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. The data we receive from Police Scotland for production of the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up in each financial year. We do not receive further details on the characteristics and circumstances of individual crimes, including the age of any victim(s).

We introduced temporary Special Leave measures at the beginning of the pandemic to support our NHS colleagues and help the service manage infection levels.

Since March 2020, NHS Staff who have been absent due to COVID have been paid in full as if they had been at work.

Prior to any changes made in the future as we move towards living with Covid, we will engage with both NHS Scotland Employers and Staff Side representatives to ensure an effective and smooth transition back to standard Sickness Absence terms and conditions .