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No payments or funding was provided to the Royal Scottish Forestry Society in 2022.

On 24 November 2023, the First Minister represented the Scottish Government at the Summit meeting of the British-Irish Council hosted by the Government of Ireland and chaired by the Taoiseach – Leo Varadkar. The meeting was attended by Ministers from six of the eight BIC Member Administrations with Northern Ireland represented by senior officials.

The theme of the Summit focussed on Transforming Children’s Lives: Tackling Child Poverty and Improving Wellbeing. This discussion offered the opportunity to understand the challenges being faced by all of the Governments across these islands and to share and learn from the range of initiatives being taken to tackle the issue.

On the Latest Political Developments item, Ministers took the opportunity to recognise the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement and to reflect on the importance of BIC as one of the institutions established under that agreement.

The Council discussed political developments in Northern Ireland and highlighted the importance of the restoration of enduring devolved power-sharing institutions as soon as possible. It also reflected on the situation in Israel and Gaza, the conflict in Ukraine, the Cost of Living Crisis and the forthcoming COP 28.

In the margins of the summit, the First Minister took the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with the Taoiseach, the First Minister of Wales and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The Communiqué issued by the British-Irish Council after the meeting can be found on its website at: britishirishcouncil.org.

Following the Scottish Government’s announcement of the proposed solar deployment ambition for Scotland in October, we are now working with industry and community stakeholders to agree a suitable level of community benefit for large scale solar projects. As a result, we will now publish our final Solar Vision with the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan in Summer 2024.

We intend to publish the draft Bioenergy Policy Statement for consultation in the new year, and before the end of February 2024.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) policy delivery is at an early stage and early action is focusing on how policy is being interpreted and used in decision making. Scottish Government is developing a monitoring framework to support the delivery of NPF4. This monitoring framework will cover all three elements of NPF4, which are the spatial strategy, national developments and national planning policies. Policy 15, Local living and 20 minute neighbourhoods is one of the key indicator policies, and will be amongst the ones on which we will have initial focus.

On appointment, ministers are offered electronic equipment to assist them in carrying out their official duties. I have included table which outlines the devices used by each of the ministers.

Information on the allocation of CashBack for Communities (CashBack) funding and project spend is only formally collected at a local authority level, based on the geographical location of CashBack participants.

Total CashBack spend recorded for South Lanarkshire local authority area for the financial year 2022-23 was £269,129. The CashBack Fund Manager, Inspiring Scotland, has identified that £40,118 of that figure was spent in the East Kilbride constituency.

22 CashBack funded organisations have been recorded as being active in South Lanarkshire at various times since 2008. Total CashBack spend recorded for South Lanarkshire local authority area between 2008 and March 2022 was £3,289,001. Inspiring Scotland estimate that £84,549 of that figure has been spent in the East Kilbride constituency.

Information on project delivery by local authority area are available on the CashBack for Communities website: https://cashbackforcommunities.org/

The 2021-22 Programme for Government included a commitment to invest £4 million until March 2024 to support public services to consistently uphold children's rights. The financial memorandum that accompanied the original UNCRC Bill set out how that would be spent and included commitments to invest in: accessible guidance and training; awareness-raising to support children and young people to be human rights defenders; a sustainable approach to the strategic participation of children and young people in decision-making; a social marketing campaign to raise the profile and support for children’s rights across Scottish society; and support for public services and senior leaders to progressively realise the rights of children.

While the social media campaign could not be progressed due to the delay to the UNCRC Bill, all of the other support is either in place or in development.

Our investment in supporting the implementation of a children’s human rights approach has been £4,117,974 in 2021-22, £5,022,545 in 2022-23 and is currently forecast to be £5,121,064 in 2023-24. This includes the cost of:

• work to progress the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and develop supporting guidance;
• grant funding of organisations that are supporting public authorities to take a children’s human rights approach (Scottish Youth Parliament, Children’s Parliament, Together, Young Scot and the Improvement Service)
• grant funding of organisation that help children and young people to seek redress for rights issues (Clan Childlaw and Scottish Child Law Centre);
• grant funding of organisations delivering on children’s rights through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund
• national funding of Unicef’s Rights Respecting School Award;
• the development of a child-friendly complaints process in partnership with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman;
• the UNCRC innovation fund that is funding 8 local authorities and their partners to embed children’s rights; and
• the development of a national children’s rights skills and knowledge framework.

Grampian Regional Equality Council receives funding from the Scottish Government’s Equality & Human Rights Fund (EHRF). High-level EHRF outcomes are set out in Grant Offer Letters, and are as follows:

• People with protected characteristics have increased influence in decisions that affect them;

• the Scottish Government has better access to data and depth of information about the experiences of people with protected characteristics;

• the experience of people with protected characteristics is increasingly used to inform the policy and practice of public bodies; and

• public services increasingly embed equality and human rights in their strategic planning and their day-to-day functions.

Inspiring Scotland are the fund managers for the EHRF, acting on behalf of the Scottish Government. Inspiring Scotland engage with organisations directly to agree on workplans and set specific objectives and outcomes.

We routinely speak to the Scottish footballing authorities on wide a range of topics, including the behaviour of fans. It should be noted that the majority of supporters across the country go to football to support their team in a safe and responsible manner and that incidents, such as booing during commemorative events, are the actions of a minority. Nevertheless we condemn such actions.

As this match falls under the auspices of the Scottish Professional Football League, it is for them to investigate any incidents and take any appropriate actions against the clubs. Any individuals identified as engaging in criminal behaviour during these investigations will be reported to the police. We have not spoken to either Celtic FC, the Scottish FA or the SPFL about this specific incident.

Clubs are taking action when they can and we welcome the decision by Celtic to ban sections of their fans who, despite numerous requests by the club, continued to demonstrate anti-social behaviour. We would support other clubs in taking similar actions where appropriate.

Electricity and heat capacity data broken down by local authority area are publicly available on the Scottish Energy Statistics Hub. Data tables can be found at the bottom of the following pages. Local authority data can be accessed by clicking the ‘Local authority’ tab above each data table.

Electricity: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Energy/?Section=RenLowCarbon&Subsection=RenElec&Chart=RenElecCapacity

Heat: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Energy/?Section=RenLowCarbon&Subsection=RenHeat&Chart=RenHeatTech