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Transport Scotland provide funding sources, such as the Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund, to encourage people to change their behaviours to drive less and to walk or cycle as part of their everyday short journeys or to use public transport for longer journeys for which shared transport projects, including those supporting car clubs, are eligible.

The cost of motoring through vehicle excise duty, fuel duty and motor insurance is subject to legislation fully reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government continues to work to co-design a nationally-consistent, integrated social care and health record, with the public and our partners, including COSLA and the NHS. Work is underway to determine the scope, investment required and subsequent delivery times of the record.

The working groups that fall under the remit of the Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy portfolio are:

1. A trading Nation Delivery Working Group

2. All Age Employability Steering Group

3. Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill steering Group

4. Construction Leadership Forum

5. Employability in Scotland Operational Group (ESOG)

6. European Structural Funds Joint Programme Board

7. European Structural Funds Programme Monitoring Committee

8. Financial Services Growth & Development Board (FISGAD)

9. Green Freeports Programme Board

10. Green Investment Portfolio Project Assessment Panel

11. Hydrogen Industry Forum

12. Improvement Working Group

13. Industry Leadership Group Chairs Roundtable (ILG CRT)

14. International Trade Partnerships 2 Trade Missions Working Group

15. Investment Co-ordination Group

16. LENCG: Local Electricity Networks Coordination Group

17. Life Sciences Export Plan Delivery Group

18. Manufacturing Strategic Leadership Group

19. MEPG: Major Electricity Projects Group

20. National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board

21. National Strategy for Economic Transformation Portfolio Board

22. Net Zero First Minister Investor Panel

23. New Deal for Business Group (NDBG)

24. Non-domestic energy consumers working group

25. No One Left Behind Working Group

26. Onshore Wind Strategic Leadership Group

27. Offshore Renewables Short Life Working Group

28. Partnership Assurance Group

29. Regular Construction for Leadership International Group

30. Renewables Export Plan Delivery Group

31. Retail Industry Leadership Group [please note this group is economy related but chaired by the Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning]

32. Rural energy consumers working group

33. SEAB: the Scottish Energy Advisory Board

34. Scottish Taskforce Green & Sustainable Financial Services

35. Oil and Gas and Energy Transition SLG

36. Supply Chain Development Programme Steering Group

37. Tourism & Hospitality Industry Leadership Group

38. Tech Export Plan Delivery Group

39. Vulnerable energy consumers working group

40. Wellbeing Economy Expert Advisory Group (WEEAG)

41. Wellbeing Economy Governments WEGo

Please note these groups will be kept under review.

The Scottish Government has an ongoing programme of evaluation on the employability services it provides.

A programme of evaluation has been in place for Fair Start Scotland (FSS) since its inception and all evaluation reports are publicly available on www.gov.scot . The evaluations have adopted a range of methodological approaches to represent and capture the experiences of a variety of contexts, including rural, medium, or large urban areas. The Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 FSS overall evaluation reports provide information on outcomes associated with taking part in FSS for individuals with a range of socio-demographic characteristics, including participants living in rural areas.

The Year 1 report is available at: Fair Start Scotland evaluation report 2: overview of year one - November 2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Year 2 report is available at: Fair Start Scotland - evaluation report 3: year two - overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Year 3 report is available at: Fair Start Scotland: evaluation report 4 - year 3 overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

An implementation evaluation of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee was published in August 2023. The evaluation explored how effectively No One Left Behind and the Young Person's Guarantee had been implemented, the experiences of service providers and service users, and lessons from early delivery. The first stage of fieldwork included interviews with local employability stakeholders within several local authority areas, with areas selected to ensure a mix by geography (island, rural, medium / large urban), size and stage of implementation of service delivery.

The Implementation Evaluation of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee Implementation is available at: No One Left Behind and the Young Person's Guarantee: implementation evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government will continue to undertake evaluation of its employability services, and plans for further evaluation activity are under development.

We take the threat from fraud very seriously and, through the NHS counter-fraud standards, continue to work with NHS Boards to combat fraud against our NHS to ensure that health funding is used where it is needed most – treating patients.

Procurement by NHS Boards is administered independently of Scottish Ministers and it is for NHS Boards to ensure that tendering exercises are in accordance with relevant rules and guidance to ensure that all bidders are treated appropriately and best use of public funds.

The Scottish National Investment Bank published its Annual Accounts ( Annual Report and Accounts 2023 | Scottish National Investment Bank (thebank.scot) ) on 27 September 2023 and disclosed a loss before tax of £20.1 million.

Page 128 shows the Statement of Comprehensive Income and identifies the main driver for the loss was the ‘Net unrealised (losses) on revaluation of investments’. The revaluation is on a ‘fair value’ basis and considers how much the investments are currently worth – it is not a verdict on the long-term prospects of the investments.

The Bank was set up less than three years ago and is expected to address market failure and compliment, not compete, with other investors. In the Bank’s early years, as the portfolio is being built, unrealised gains and losses are expected. As stated in the Annual Report and Accounts, the current position is in line with industry and development finance expectations.

An implementation evaluation of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee was published in August 2023.

This evaluation considered progress in implementation and delivery of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee, the experiences of service providers and service users, barriers and enablers to implementation and identified lessons from early delivery. These areas are core features of process evaluations .

The Implementation Evaluation of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee is available at: No One Left Behind and the Young Person's Guarantee: implementation evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Between 24 August 2021 (when the legislation came into force) and 31 August 2023, the total number of cases reported to COPFS under section 1 of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Good and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 was 2503.

Of these 2503, 203 cases (8%), were marked for a direct measure, such as a fiscal fine, compensation orders, or diversion from prosecution.

The information is provided under the caveat that: COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland.It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis, and the information within it is structured accordingly.

Offending behaviour which contravened section 1 of the 2021 Act may have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal and prosecuted under alternative legislation (e.g., section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 – threatening or abusive behaviour) or as an offence at common law (e.g., assault or breach of the peace).

I am pleased to announce that a £500,000 pilot fund will be made available this month to support women to leave an abusive partner.

Supporting victim/survivors of domestic abuse is a priority for the Scottish Government and financial uncertainty should not be a barrier to women leaving a relationship with an abusive partner. We are piloting a fund to leave in the 5 local authority areas where there are highest number of presentations to local authorities for homelessness assistance by women due to domestic abuse. These are Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and Fife.