Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government first established firm annual peatland restoration targets in 2018 in its report Climate Change Plan: third report on proposals and policies 2018-2032 (RPP3) .

Based on a 1990 baseline, this set a commitment to restore 50,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2020 (including 10,000 hectares in 2017-18 and 20,000 hectares per year thereafter) as the first phase of a longer target to restore 250,000 hectares by 2030.

This implies a total restoration target of 70,000 hectares between 1990 and April 2021. Against this target, around 60,000 hectares of degraded peatland have been put on the road to recovery since 1990 as shown in the following table. Annual restoration totals are only available from 2012-13 when the Scottish Government began funding Peatland ACTION, the national peatland restoration programme delivered by NatureScot.

Business births, deaths and survival rates - based on VAT/PAYE registrations and de-registrations - are produced by the Office for National Statistics within their Business Demography publications. Data are not published for parliamentary regions, however data are available by local authority area. Data are not available on a monthly basis, only on a calendar year basis. Tables 2.1(a), (b) and (c) at the link below provide the business deaths by local authority areas, in Scotland, for 2015 to 2020.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/businessdemographyreferencetable

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04721 on 8 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04721 on 8 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04721 on 8 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 Scottish Government intends to publish the 2019-2020 liquor licensing statistics by mid-December 2021. Work is also currently underway to ingather the relevant information for the 2020-2021 liquor licensing statistics from individual independent Licensing Boards with the intention of publishing this data in early March 2022.

The following table displays the number of applications to the New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme from women which were approved in each year of the scheme :

A full and accurate report of numbers of people registered as sight impaired and severely sight impaired cannot be produced at this time, but the latest data received shows a snapshot of people registered across 16 local partnerships. In 2020 (1 January to 31 December), 405 people were registered as sight impaired and 382 people were registered as severely sight impaired. In 2021 (1 January to 25 November), 449 people were registered as sight impaired and 456 people were registered as severely sight impaired.

This information is kept by each local authority, but a number of issues have been experienced, including GDPR problems and under-utilisation of the web platform designed to capture this information.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to provide accurate diagnostic and registration data, in order to enable better access to services, support and care for people with sight loss. The GDPR issues relating to the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) (Scotland) form has been resolved, and we are currently working with PHS on the development of a data collection solution that will replace the current web platform.

Once they have completed breast cancer treatment and follow-up with the symptomatic breast service, women aged 71 and over are ordinarily able to self-refer into the Scottish Breast Screening Programme for screening every three years. However, self-referrals for women in this age-group are currently suspended due to capacity challenges in the programme associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important to stress that any woman, regardless of their age, who is concerned about possible symptoms of breast cancer should consult their GP straight away so these can be investigated, rather than wait for their next screening appointment.