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

The Management of Transgender People in Custody Policy 2023 is in place for managing transgender people in prisons who may need access to additional property to assist them to live in their affirmed gender.

The procurement of these items is subject to the same level of assurance and approval processes as it is for all items requested by individuals living in prisons.

The Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court. Work has already begun on implementation.

The Permanent Secretary was asked to stand up a Short Life Working Group to ensure support and consistency across Government.

Following publication of the EHRC’s update, we wrote to the EHRC to confirm that no public body, service provider or other association should issue specific guidance before the EHRC Code of Practice and guidance is finalised.

As the enforcer and regulator of the Equality Act all organisations must consider and comply with the EHRC revised Code of Practice and guidance to ensure there is a consistent and clear understanding of the correct application of the law for all involved in this complex area.

The Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) as proposed by the council, is exceptional in terms of scale and financial cost and requires careful consideration to ensure that it delivers for the local community.

The Scottish Government must weigh up any investment decision both in terms of the impact to the individual project, but also to the impact any individual project has on its ability to invest in other areas. As such, in 2023, Ministers and Falkirk Council agreed that the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme would be removed from consideration as part of the existing national funding agreement with local authorities for flood protection schemes because its size had a distorting effect on the affordability of the overall programme.

A Task Force approach has instead been used to examine how to take forward improved and affordable flood resilience for Falkirk and Grangemouth residents and local communities.

Employment tribunal matters are independent and administered by HM Courts and Tribunal Service. It is for the Employment Tribunal to determine whether it is appropriate to restrict public scrutiny of a tribunal involving matters of significant public interest. Accordingly, it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment.

The maintenance of the valuation roll, including the collection of evidence, valuation of properties, and decisions on the removal of properties, are the responsibility of the independent Scottish Assessors, in accordance with the legislative framework established by the Scottish Government.

Table 1 shows the number of self-catering properties removed from the non-domestic rates valuation roll since 2020-2021, by the financial year from which the decision was made effective. The Scottish Government does not have information relating to how many operators were the ratepayers for these subjects.

Decisions to remove a property from the valuation roll are generally retrospective, and the financial year from which a property is retrospectively removed from the valuation roll may precede the year in which this decision is made.

This table may also include some properties which were later reinstated to the valuation roll, and may count them more than once, for example if a property was removed, re-added, and removed again.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Self-catering properties removed from the valuation roll, by year for which the deletion was effective

The development and delivery of flood protection schemes is a local authority responsibility. As such, the business case for Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) was prepared by Falkirk Council. This included an economic assessment of the costs and benefits of their proposed scheme.

SEPA carried out a prioritisation process for all the flood protection schemes put forward in the 2015 Flood Risk Management Plans. This prioritisation was largely based on the cost benefit ratios supplied by the relevant local authorities.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

No retired police officers have died before receiving pension payments.

From 1 October 2023, officers who had retired before that date became entitled to make a choice of pension scheme provision in respect of their pensionable service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, or their date of retirement if earlier.

This choice could be made after the provision of a remediable service statement, which were to be issued by 31 March 2025 or by such later day as the scheme manager considers reasonable in all the circumstances in the case of a particular member or a particular class of member.

In the last five years, three retired officers entitled to receive a remediable service statement died before making their choice. All three officers retired under the terms of their legacy final salary scheme.

The Scottish Government expects all Boards, to comply with the legislative requirements, and in their role as employers to meet the standards set out in the national workforce policies. All guidance regarding patient health, health care delivery and workforce policies and updates, are communicated to key stakeholders in Boards for dissemination.

These are all published publicly on the NHS Scotland Publications website.

As set out in Scotland’s Beaver Strategy 2022-2045 published by NatureScot. we will support the identification of opportunities to expand beaver populations, and support the expansion of beaver populations through translocations.

Section 16A of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 allows Scottish Ministers to delegate their functions in relation to licenses under section 16 of that Act to NatureScot.

The Scottish Ministers delegated their species licensing functions to NatureScot in June 2011 via written direction. Assessment of licence applications is therefore the responsibility of NatureScot. Scottish Ministers retain the power to modify or revoke a direction. As part of this delegation, NatureScot is also asked to inform Scottish Ministers of any novel or contentious issues that may arise.

The information requested is not routinely gathered or held centrally by the Scottish Government. Any outstanding liabilities to settle equal pay claims will be reflected in a public body's annual accounts. Information of this nature can be obtained by approaching individual public bodies.