To date, there have been no cash settlements awarded to defenders in any civil or criminal cases regarding Low Emission Zones.

In 2021-22, the Scottish Government made a Programme for Government commitment to “ensure provision of high quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7m per year through Children’s Hospices Across Scotland”.

In addition, the Scottish Government provides £143,115 annual funding to Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention (CYPFEI) fund. This funding supports CHAS to deliver their services and offer full family support for babies, children and young people with life-shortening conditions.

This information is not held centrally.

The Single Use Carrier Bags Charge (Scotland) Regulations 2014 (legislation.gov.uk) sets out the record-keeping requirements in respect of bags charged for. There is no requirement to report the data to a third party, only to produce the data, if required by the enforcement authority. The overall purpose of the charge is to reduce carrier bag usage rather than generate funds.

As pay negotiations are a matter for local authorities as the employer and trade unions representing the local government workforce, the Scottish Government has no role in negotiations in relation to equal pay claims.

Whilst the Scottish Government remains committed to working in partnership with local government to ensure equal pay policies apply across the public sector, the information requested is not routinely gathered or held centrally by the Scottish Government. Information of this nature can be obtained by approaching individual local authorities or COSLA accordingly.

As referred to in answer to question S6W-21174 on 15 September 2023, the Scottish Government continue to keep the Fire (Scotland) Act (2005), related Fire Safety (Scotland) regulations (2006) and all relevant fire safety guidance under continuous review. 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 continues to keep the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, Fire Safety (Scotland) regulations 2006 and all relevant fire safety guidance under continuous review.

The legislative regime relative to fire safety in Scotland is different to that in England and Wales and Scottish Government officials have regular discussions with colleagues across the UK to understand any regulatory or guidance changes made.

There are currently no plans to exempt mid-market rent (MMR) properties from the requirements in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022.

As MMR properties are delivered through Registered Social Landlord subsidiary companies and are therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the Scottish Housing Regulator, they require to be offered as a Private Residential Tenancy, meaning households benefit from all of the rights and protections flowing from that tenancy. This includes the current temporary rent cap measures, in place to support tenants during this time of economic uncertainty.

While the focus of the emergency measures is on protecting tenants, the Scottish Government fully recognise that the ongoing impacts of the cost crisis may also be impacting some private landlords. Therefore, MMR providers are able to apply to Rent Service Scotland to increase the rent for a property, by up to 6%, in order to partially take account of increases in certain prescribed property costs.

Earlier this year the emergency rent cap was expired in relation to the social sector, after discussions led by COSLA, in respect of local authorities, and SFHA and GWSF for Registered Social Landlords, reached an agreed position with their members that would see increases of 6.4% and 6.1% respectively, as an average across Scotland. This voluntary approach to rent setting is intended to equate to an approximate average rent increase of less than £5 per week. Due to rents in the private rented sector being approximately twice as high as in the social sector, a 3% increase in the average rent of a two-bedroom private rented property (the most common size) is broadly comparable in monetary value to the average increase in the social sector.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund has awarded grant for the retrofit of 11,662 homes since its creation in August 2020 and March 31st 2023. The breakdown across financial years and by local authority can be found in the following table:

Since its creation in August 2020 and 31st March 2023 the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has awarded £52,188,302 in grant funding. The breakdown across financial years can be found in the following table:

No adoption records have been made available via ScotlandsPeople Centre, nor the ScotlandsPeople website.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to provide further reassurance following the removal of index entries to the Adopted Children Register from the ScotlandsPeople website. Relevant entries were removed as a precautionary measure while NRS reviews the way this information was made available.