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Hydrogen policy officials met recently with several of the academics from Manchester University to discuss the findings in the On Hydrogen report and we will take these papers into consideration as part of our ongoing studies of the broader research landscape in the hydrogen sector.

Our industrial clusters will play an important role in achieving our vision of a decarbonised, successful, industrial sector. In some cases, decarbonisation will mean adoption of a range of new technologies, including low carbon hydrogen.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position of no support for coal extraction in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements. The first step in this process was the launch of a call for evidence which ran from 21 June to 2 August 2022, which invited stakeholders’ views and expanded our evidence base in this policy area.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position of no support for onshore conventional oil and gas in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements. The first step in this process was the launch of a call for evidence which ran from 21 June to 2 August 2022, which invited stakeholders’ views and expanded our evidence base in this policy area.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position of no support for coal extraction in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements. The first step in this process was the launch of a call for evidence which ran from 21 June to 02 August 2022, which invited stakeholders’ views and expanded our evidence base in this policy area.

The public sector provides a range of digital public services and it is critical that these are secure and resilient.

The Scottish Government has been encouraging public sector organisations to adopt a proactive, risk based governance approach, with board-level accountability to build their cyber resilience.

To support the sector’s ability to prevent, detect and manage cyber threats, the Scottish Government has set out a framework that provides an approach for public bodies to follow. It includes guidance on how to:

Assess their cyber resilience maturity

Align with minimum security standards

Benchmark performance, and

Prioritise investment based on risk.

It is supported by practical tools such as self-assessment templates and critical systems mapping resources which enables organisations to identify needs, engage leadership and prioritise budget and support.

The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (the SC3) provides:

24/7 national incident response coordination

Daily threat intelligence and early warning notifications

Cyber exercising and preparedness programmes, and

Guidance on standards and best practice.

This national support is helping to equip our public bodies with the tools, intelligence and skills needed to build and maintain strong cyber resilience.

Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to implement and deliver the national Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) audit.

As part of the implementation, PHS is consulting with all NHS Boards to review services currently in place across Scotland and to consider how local examples of good practice feed into a national audit and are shared across the country.

PHS is collaborating with NHS Glasgow and Greater Clyde’s (NHS GGC) South Sector team and have met with the external provider of the digital solution technology for patient identification use in their service to understand the results achieved.

NHS Boards are responsible for the services they deliver. The decision to implement an external IT system to support service delivery is therefore the responsibility of NHS Boards.

The FLS audit has been commissioned to drive improvements and support clinical decision-making in effectively evaluating gaps in osteoporosis care. This will reduce health inequalities for the people of Scotland, especially for those most at risk of fractures.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is responsible for delivering and implementing the Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) audit. While they identified some initial recruitment-related delays, these have been addressed and completed.

PHS do not anticipate any further impact following this initial delay and progress is continuing at pace, on track and within the guidance set out by Scottish National Audit Programme (SNAP).

Supporting cyber resilience in local authorities is a priority for the Scottish Government. We provide a range of measures to support both immediate incidents as well as helping strengthen local authorities’ cyber resilience in the longer term.

The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre’s (SC3) core function is to work with the Scottish public sector to help them improve their preparedness, reduce vulnerabilities and learn from best practice. SC3 has 24/7 on-call arrangements to immediately engage multi-agency response, where necessary, for any public sector organisation who is subject to a cyber attack. When the cyber incidents occurred in Glasgow City and West Lothian councils, the SC3 quickly stood up a multi-agency response to support the councils.

SC3 provides several important services including:

• sharing of relevant threat intelligence and early warnings,
• liaising with partners such as NCSC and Police Scotland,
• advising on consequence and data leak management, and
• guiding on Cyber Incident Response support options.

Specific post-incident lessons learned are shared in appropriate channels. These continue to feed into scenario-based exercising through the Exercising Workstream to improve organisational preparedness. The SC3 has worked with the Digital Office CISO to deliver strategic level cyber exercising to several local authorities with more planned for later this year. Under the Standards & Insights Workstream, SC3 has also initiated two pieces of research targeted at the most common lessons from ransomware incidents, to provide additional guidance for organisations on legacy technology and multi-factor authentication.

We recognise the crucial role that councils and their employees play in communities across Scotland. That’s why the Scottish Government has made a record £15.1 billion available for local authorities for 2025-26, a real terms increase of 5.5% compared with last year.

It should be noted that local authorities are entirely separate entities from the Scottish Government. Their powers are set out in statute, and it is up to each local authority to manage its day-to-day business, including the management of its IT systems. The Verity House Agreement reinforces this principle of local autonomy, while also encouraging collaboration and shared learning across the sector.

The Scottish Government remain committed to addressing anti-social behaviour in partnership with COSLA and Police Scotland who have statutory responsibility for developing strategies to tackle antisocial behaviour at local level.

Recent actions of the Scottish Government contribute to a number of recommendations. For example, we recently announced a £26 million investment in the next phase of the CashBack for Communities programme. The programme’s focus on supporting projects that divert young people from anti-social behaviour and towards positive opportunities is closely aligned with the report’s findings and overall direction.

Further actions from the report are currently under active consideration, and we will provide a full update on implementation plans and timelines in due course. A formal response to the report is expected to be published later this summer.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is responsible for implementing and delivering the Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) audit. They are working with NHS Boards across Scotland, to provide the necessary support as they develop the audit in line with Scottish National Audit Programme (SNAP) governance.

Scottish Government expects that everyone with a long-term condition to be able to access the care and support they need to be able to live well. As such, we expect that all NHS Boards have monitoring procedures in place to manage the performance and effectiveness of their services.