³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

A planning application has been submitted by Stonepack Ltd to Scottish Borders Council for a proposed Sand and Gravel Quarry at Slipperfield, West Linton. It is understood that the Health and Safety Executive does not advise, on safety grounds, against the granting of planning permission in this case. As this is a live application it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of the case.

The financial support we have made available to businesses has, in the main, been predicated on the restrictions in place on specific businesses through legislation agreed by the Scottish Parliament rather than on sectoral classifications. Businesses were grouped by sectoral classification for the purposes of distributing the January Top up Grant and the Business Restart Grant but these grants were similarly awarded based on the impact of Regulations.

Eligibility for support can be found on the Scottish Government’s website including those businesses classified as Retail, Hospitality and Leisure businesses for the purposes of determining these top up payments. As Kennels and Catteries were not required to close or subject to any specific legislative restrictions on their operations, they were not eligible for support through the Strategic Framework Business Fund or associated schemes.

We did, however, set up the £120 million Local Authority Discretionary Fund specifically to support those businesses which were financially impacted due to COVID but did not qualify for other forms of financial support.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The data is collected by individual NHS Health Boards and would require permissions from each to be obtained in order to conduct appropriate data linkage analysis by Public Health Scotland.

We welcome the publication of The Change Programme, which sets out what needs to happen over the next year to ensure Scotland keeps its Promise to improve the lives of children and young people in or on the edges of care.

I wrote an open letter to Fiona Duncan, Chair of The Promise Scotland, setting out the Scottish Government’s response to the publication of The Change Programme. A copy of the letter can be found .

We recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure full implementation of The Promise by 2030 and we will continue to work with The Promise Scotland, Local Authorities, partners, families, children and young people to deliver the ambition of making Scotland the best place to grow up where every child feels loved, safe, respected and able to reach their full potential. We will #KeepThePromise.

Rollout of mobile telecommunications infrastructure is predominantly led by commercial operators. The Scottish Government neither holds nor receives data on how many commercial mobile telephony masts have been installed..

Through the Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) Programme, the Scottish Government is investing £28.75 million (including £11.27 million of ERDF funding) to create future-proofed 4G mobile infrastructure at up to 55 mobile “notspots”, areas with no coverage from any commercial mobile network operator (MNO).

As of 28 June 2021, a total of 15 S4GI masts are currently providing 4G service to communities is as follows:

The Scottish Government is aware of the vast challenges in attempting to ensure pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy is offered to every patient at the point of diagnosis.

Pancreatic cancer patients can present as asymptomatic despite pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, while patients can also be diagnosed through many different pathways.

This can result in clinicians not always having the specialist knowledge and experience to know about the importance of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.

The Scottish Governments National Cancer Recovery Plan will help address this knowledge gap by working to review Cancer Clinical Management Guidelines in liaison with relevant parties.

Under the National Cancer Recovery Plan, we have funded the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Cancer Network (SHPBN) which is reviewing guidelines to address this issue.

There are some circumstances where there are legitimate reasons for not prescribing pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, such as palliative patients or due to patient’s cultural preference. However, we understand more can be done around education and monitoring to ensure our clinicians are aware of the treatment.

As part of The Scottish Governments National Cancer Recovery Plan , published in December 2020, funding has been made available to ensure equitable access to treatments across the whole of Scotland.

This includes our funded work being led by The Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network which will be directly addressing guidance on the use of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.

Full details of Scottish Government budget allocations, including those to Local Government can found in the Scottish Government annually published Scottish Budget at

Ferguson Marine have strong links with the local college and have a thriving apprentice community. The yard currently have five apprentices who will complete their training this summer, and a further twenty four who will shortly be moving up into their second year.

The 2021 apprentice recruitment process is also underway, aimed at recruiting fifteen new apprentices for September 2021. The yard are also considering a Foundation Apprentice programme, and potentially taking apprentices into non-technical disciplines such as Finance and Human Resources.

The Scottish Government are in contact with Ferguson Marine on a regular basis. The Ferguson Marine Board of Directors visited the yard on 3 June to discuss the Turnaround Directors update to the Scottish Parliament. The Board subsequently signed off the revised schedule in early June and this information was then shared with the Scottish Government.