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Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic. These duties include the making of Traffic Regulation Orders for such things as restricting access on roads to certain types of vehicles as they see fit, such as bus gates.

It is therefore for local authorities to determine what vehicles should be permitted depending on the local specific circumstances and not an area where Scottish Ministers would intervene. Notwithstanding this, Aberdeen City Council has confirmed that the recently opened bus gates in Aberdeen City Centre, supported by Transport Scotland’s Bus Partnership Fund, do permit coaches.

A Mortality Special Interest Group (SIG) currently exists with a remit to monitor and analyse mortality trends in Scotland. This is a collaborative group chaired by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and includes representation from key organisations including the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland and representation from Directors of Public Health.

More information on the Mortality SIG can be found on the PHS website .

There are currently no plans for the Scottish Government to set up any further committees or groups on excess deaths.

No payments have been made to Lombard, Hampdens or Palladium from Forestry and Land Scotland or Scottish Water over the last two years. Both Cairngorms National Park Authority and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority have made payments to Palladium during this period.

Your question regarding what contracts are in place, their value, duration and procurement processes is on operational matters so I have asked the Chief Executives of the National Park Authorities to write to you addressing these points .

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the hospitality and night-time industry, having been the hardest hit of all sectors from the Covid-19 pandemic and cost crises.

The Scottish Budget 2023-24 ensures the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row and supports a package of rates relief worth an estimated £749 million, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme. Around half of properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are eligible for 100% relief this financial year. Decisions on non-domestic rates for 2024-25 will be made as part of the Scottish Budget, which will be published on 19 December.

The Scottish Government is also supporting the sector through the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group and through the New Deal for Business Group. In addition, the Town Centre Action Plan aims to revitalise our towns and town centres, which contributes to supporting the night-time economy.

Our recent request of the UK Government for a reduced rate of VAT for the hospitality sector was rejected.

As with the current Rail services Decarbonisation Action Plan, the refreshed plan will consider the decarbonisation of all rail routes in Scotland.

We are developing a new palliative care strategy to achieve the very highest standards of care right up to the end of life, and to ensure high-quality palliative care wherever and whenever it is needed.

As part of work being undertaken to develop the strategy, we are working with Public Health Scotland to get a better understanding of population-level palliative care needs, now and in the future. This includes consideration of the research that has been carried out by Marie Curie.

The consultation paper Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation sought views on several proposals for inclusion in a new Land Reform Bill. It included proposals for a Public Interest Test on certain land transfers, and set out the criteria for the type of landholdings that would be in scope for such a test. The consultation opened on 4 July 2022 and closed on 30 October 2022, asking a total of 51 questions. It also invited respondents to give us views on other ideas and proposals. Our proposals for the Public Interest Test were set out in Parts 4 and 7.

The consultation sought to gather views from a range of stakeholders and from members of the public across Scotland. As part of this we also undertook five in-person engagement events across Scotland with a further event taking place online.

Further information about the analysis of responses to the consultation, and the responses themselves, may be found here: Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space

The proposals for the Public Interest Test were developed in the light of a series of reports on the scale and concentration of land ownership in Scotland published by the Scottish Land Commission, which led to their discussion paper, Legislative proposals to address the impact of Scotland’s concentration of land ownership (February 2021).

Since the consultation we have commissioned analysis of the responses to it: these included a range of views and suggestions for the parameters of the Test. We have considered these responses carefully as we develop our proposals. We have also engaged, and will continue to engage, with a range of internal and external stakeholders over the Test, along with the other measures proposed for the Bill.

Medical training establishment is determined by the need for future trained doctor output, and modelling for supply takes into account a number of factors, including age of retirement. 153 additional trainee doctor posts were recently agreed for recruitment in 2024. These posts will be spread across 24 different specialties, including core psychiatry, which will gain an additional 12 posts.

Islamophobia has no place in our society. The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of Islamophobia, wherever it may take place.

All policy and delivery is subject to an impact assessment process which would include consideration of intersectional factors such as the intersection of faith and gender.

The number of Expansion Posts created in 2023 was not impacted by the reprofiling of the Health Workforce Expansion Posts budget line, as set out in the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to the Finance and Public Administration Committee of 21 November 2023. The number of postgraduate specialty training expansion posts to be added in 2023 was set by Scottish Ministers in late 2022, on the basis of recommendations from the Scottish Shape of Training Transitions Group.

The Expansion Posts budget line was reprofiled in 2023, following the budget setting process for the 2023-24 financial year. The number of specialty training expansion posts being recruited to was not amended as a result of the reprofiling of this budget line. The budget was reprofiled in accordance with the application of directorate savings targets in the 2023-24 financial year; £3 million was the savings target for Health Workforce, with the saving being applied to the Expansion Posts line for budgeting and accounting purposes. The savings target was applied to this line as historically the forecast budget for Expansion Posts has exceeded actual costs incurred in year.