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The external costs associated with the production and publication of the paper ‘Independence in the Modern World. Wealthier, Happier, Fairer: Why not Scotland?’ were published in the answer to question S6W-11001 on 23 September 2022. Additionally, there were launch costs for travel, for staff and external attendees, a BSL interpreter and audio visual equipment which totalled £1647.80. 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 .

We do not hold data on how many places were available in STEM subjects at College in each of the last 10 years.

Funded places are not allocated to specific subjects, it is within the remit of colleges to distribute places to the set of subjects they each offer.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collect and publish data each year on College enrolments. This included providing college enrolment data for 2014-15 to 2020-21 for the ‘STEM education and training strategy - refresh: annual report’. This is available in the background data at the following link:

STEM education and training strategy - refresh: annual report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

It is not possible to provide information on staffing costs for this work because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do that.

Our analytics tool logs only record 13 months of data for PDF downloads, so we do not have the data for the easy read and translations of this paper as they were published out with this period.

We have previously answered two FOIs on website visits to the Building a New Scotland Papers:

• Unique online visitor statistics: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Building a New Scotland webpage visitors: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Paper title : Independence in the Modern World. Wealthier, Happier, Fairer: Why Not Scotland?

Main paper URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/

Main paper publish date : 14-6-2022

Main paper views in first month (all pages): 82,675

Easy read URL : https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/research-and-analysis/2022/06/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/documents/easy-read/easy-read/govscot%3Adocument/easy-read.pdf

Easy read publish date: 21-8-2022

Easy read views or download link clicks in first month: Historic data not available for this period for downloads

Audio URL: https://youtu.be/oOiOYMYOLYI

Audio publish date : 29-8-2022

Audio link clicks in first month: 13

Community language landing page URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/documents/

Translation publish date: 14-6-2022

Translation downloads in first month: Historic data not available for this period for downloads

BSL YouTube Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKT9Qqg_j-0

Date BSL Version Published: 13-6-2022

Views in first 30 days: 120

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the paper ‘ Social Security in an independent Scotland’ were published in the answer to question S6W-23643 on 20 December 2023. Additionally, there were launch costs for travel, for staff and external attendees, which totalled £114.27. 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 .

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed.

Lochgelly Medical Centre was not included within the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26, which identified the priority health capital projects for funding within that period. A revised Infrastructure Investment Plan is being considered for publication in Spring 2024 and all due consideration will be given to what projects can be included within that revised Plan.

No funding was offered through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) for the repair of small scale wind turbines in 2022 and 2023.

In 2022 and 2023, CARES funding has mainly focussed on decarbonising community buildings and supporting off-electricity grid communities to upgrade their energy systems and decarbonise their energy supplies.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a reply to his question in writing.

Special advisors are regularly in attendance at Ministerial and government meetings, including weekly Cabinet meetings. They were also in attendance at the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Emergency on 6 December 2022, 31 January 2023, 14 March 2023 and on 20 June 2023; the cross-party and stakeholder Climate Change Plan Advisory Group on 23 February 2023, 23 March 2023, 18 May 2023, 29 June 2023, 31 August 2023 and 5 October 2023. They were also in attendance at the liaison meetings between the Deputy First Minister and the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group on 2 February 2023, 19 July 2023, 28 September 2023 and 23 November 2023.

We want to put fair work principles at the heart of the retail sector. This is a key theme of the Retail Strategy, and the ongoing work of the Fair Work Working Group.

Were employment powers devolved, we could do more to protect and enhance workers’ rights, tackle poverty and increase fairness through legislation. In the absence of these powers we are committed to promoting a fair work strategy produced in collaboration with the retail sector and trade unions.

I would like to reiterate what my predecessor, Tom Arthur, stated on this matter and affirm that the Scottish Government is receptive to any suggestions for non-legislative routes that could be explored. We would be willing to consider any proposal from USDAW that could progress this endeavour.

The Scottish Government deeply values ongoing collaboration with USDAW and we view our continued engagement through the Retail Industrial Leadership Group and Fair Work Working Group as essential in ensuring we reach our ambition for fair work to drive success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society.