³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2007 gave local authorities the discretion to charge a fee not exceeding £20 for the issue or re-issue of a blue badge. A charge may only be made only when an application is successful and a blue badge is issued. We have no plans to review this grant of discretion to local authorities.

The Scottish Government has no plans to create specific funding schemes for Brain Tumour research.

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

CSO provides funding support through NHS Research Scotland (NRS) for infrastructure to support the running of clinical trials in the NHS here. this includes the NRS Cancer Research Network whose role is to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care in Scotland

The NRS Cancer Research Network is currently supporting 13 Brain Tumour Clinical studies with over 190 patients recruited.

Through UK-wide funding agreements, researchers based in Scotland are able to access research funding programmes administered by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR). Within their individual remits, these programmes can consider applications for research in Brain Tumours. CSO is working with the health research community in Scotland to ensure awareness of these opportunities and to maximise the number of high quality applications from Scotland to the NIHR research funding programmes going forward.

In our cancer strategy published in June last year, the Scottish Government committed to focus on cancer types that are the largest burden and have worse outcomes. These include brain and the other cancers categorised as less-survivable such as oesophagus, pancreas, and stomach.

We are continuing to invest in 12 pilot single point of contact (SPOC) sites and will evaluate the impact of the programme and expand its reach. We are also rolling out our final Improving the Cancer Journey (ICJ) service, in partnership with Macmillan, giving everyone diagnosed with cancer in Scotland access to a key support worker.

The Scottish Government’s 10-year vision for cancer provides for a compassionate and consistent cancer service which provides excellent treatment and support for all people affected by cancer. Our action plan describes specific steps towards this, including investing in our capital radiotherapy replacement programme and delivery of an Oncology Transformation Programme.

The current licensing regime already encourages developers to use unexploded ordnance clearance methods which will produce the least underwater noise. The UK Government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs is in the process of updating the existing Joint Interim Position Statement on UXO clearance which sets out an expectation that low noise methods will be prioritised by developers. The current statement is co-signed by the Scottish Government, other UK regulators, and Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies. Following updated advice to be received from NatureScot, we will determine whether Scotland will remain a co-signatory to any updated position statement, or produce our own unilateral statement.

Protecting Scotland's marine environment is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government. We are moving towards low order techniques being the default method for unexploded ordnance removal in Scottish waters, unless there are extenuating circumstances in which low order cannot be used.

The Scottish Government has discussed the Red Sea shipping crisis with the Department for Business and Trade and we will continue to monitor the situation, as it develops.

This is an international concern, and we're aware of the potential challenges Scottish businesses and consumers might face due to the delays and rising logistical and insurance costs. This is a direct outcome of the security threat and commercial decisions to reroute vessels from the Red Sea to a safer but longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.

We expect a short period of adjustment for supply chains, with potentially some delays due to additional sailing times, but there will still be very regular vessel arrivals, and continual supply of goods arriving into the UK and Scotland. Operators are working to mitigate any potential impact on consumers, and the shipping and supply chain sectors are well practiced at putting contingencies in place to continue to meet their customer needs.

The combination of additional costs to the operators and changed market conditions (e.g. capacity) is seeing rate rises for container pricing. To what extent these cost increases are absorbed or passed on is a commercial decision.

The number of properties that have provided annual deer cull data to NatureScot in each of the past five years is as follows:

Scottish Ministers have advised the Operators of both the Northern Isles and Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Service contracts that bookings can be opened beyond the end of March 2024. Operators are now working to open bookings as quickly as possible.

A national marketing campaign raising awareness and encouraging uptake for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was undertaken in autumn 2022. PR and marketing activity was also undertaken during COP26 to promote the scheme ahead of its launch.

The following table provides the spend as at 13 December 2023 (inclusive of VAT where applicable) for both campaigns.

Messaging to promote the scheme was included in our Choose the Bus campaign, co-funded by the bus industry, however it is not possible to provide specific costs as under 22s was not the campaign’s primary focus.

As of the end of day 31 October 2023, there were 701,696 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

Transport Scotland officials have worked to improve and develop reporting processes since the scheme launched, and as such now report on cardholders rather than cards issued.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office, who support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

Transport Scotland does not hold application information as the Improvement Service are in charge of applications made through getyournec.scot and all other applications are managed by local authorities.