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The low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) has invested £6,258,299 into projects which include new low carbon affordable housing as part of their project proposal. This is 23% of the total £26.7 million of funding which has been allocated to date.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to the appeal process for land designations, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

There is information available on the Historic Environment Scotland website regarding the designations process, however I have also asked Historic Environment Scotland to write directly to the member with a response to his question.

Scottish Women’s Aid is administering the pilot on behalf of the Scottish Government. The information requested is being collected by individual Women’s Aid groups involved in the pilot and will be provided to Scottish Women’s Aid to support administration.

We will work closely with the delivery partners to evaluate the pilot once all funds are spent with a view to evidencing the impact that providing this intervention has on women and to understand how effective it is at preventing their homelessness as a result of domestic abuse.

We will publish the evaluation, along with available data, after the pilot ends.

The Innovative Finance Steering Group last met in December 2022. There are no formal meetings of the Group currently planned. The further operation of the group will be reviewed following the budget.

Digitised ride-share schemes were included in some of the projects successful in obtaining grants from our £2M Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Investment Fund, which aims to test the viability of one-stop digital journey planning, booking and payment services for Scotland. With all projects due to complete by the end of this year, the results of these will then be analysed to determine next steps for these digital mobility services across Scotland.

Looking at the longer term, the Scottish Government published the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2), in December 2022. It recommends future funding support for pilot schemes and demonstration projects to establish how Demand Responsive Transport and Community Transport services can provide improved public transport connectivity and integration without increasing the need for revenue support.

Part of this recommendation, includes the potential to better inform people on journey options through the use of MaaS. The supporting transport appraisal noted that smart technology, where appropriate – can be used to provide improved public transport connectivity. This is important in addressing the differences in service provision between and within regions.

Operational decisions about the provision of childcare services within Scotland’s colleges are the responsibility of each individual college. Colleges must determine how best to secure their own sustainability, for instance through providing childcare services, while continuing to deliver provision to meet regional needs.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to deliver 1140 hours of high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) to all eligible children. Our ELC delivery model is provider neutral, recognising that decisions about ELC service delivery remain for local authorities to make based on their understanding of local demand. Under this model, college childcare services can apply to deliver funded ELC provided they meet the conditions set out in the National Standard for funded ELC and meet the usual requirements.

The Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Strategy sets out our commitment to No Compulsory Redundancies.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to the National Fraud Initiative and looks forward to hearing the results of the data pilot currently being run with local councils in London on this issue. The Scottish Government will await confirmation from Audit Scotland who run the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland if it intends to undertake a similar pilot exercise in Scotland.

I visited China between 22 – 29 November. The programme concentrated on the three pillars of the Scottish Government’s focus with China: tackling climate change and biodiversity loss; encouraging people-to-people links in areas such as education, culture and tourism; and promoting trade and investment links where mutually beneficial and in keeping with our values and national security interests.

As part of the visit, I met with senior government representatives, where I discussed the importance of human rights, emphasising the Scottish Government’s values and the importance of applying them to what we do, including in our relationship with China.

A constructive relationship with China is mutually beneficial, where consistent with our values and overall national security. This includes raising human rights, where appropriate, as I did during my visit.

The Health and Social Care system continues to face a number of pressures across finance, performance and workforce coming out of the pandemic and meeting high levels of demand across all parts of the system.

The NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework is one of the key elements of evidence-based approach to monitoring performance and managing risk across the NHS in Scotland .

All NHS Boards have recently been reviewed against the framework for finance purposes. Four of the 22 NHS Boards now sit at level three of this framework which is the first formal escalation stage. Those Boards are NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Highland and NHS Orkney.

We will discuss the specific support required for these Boards, as well as across all NHS Boards to support financial sustainability across the system.

We continue to prioritise investment in frontline services, supporting services in the immediate and the essential reform required to deliver sustainable services, providing an increase of £730m (6%) for NHS Boards in 2023-24.