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Scottish Ministers remain committed to supporting Scotland’s fishing sector, which plays such a key role in contributing to our economic prosperity - especially in remote, rural and island communities.

Our Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) Network is our main vehicle for delivering stakeholder-led fisheries management projects, as well as providing a forum for inshore commercial fishers and offering them a strong voice in matters that affect them.

Prior to the launch of our initial consultation, on 12 December 2022, Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) were discussed at a number of RIFG meetings –

• 7 October 2021 – All Chairs
• 4 November 2021 – All Chairs
• 5 November 2021 – West Coast
• 3 December 2021 – Outer Hebrides
• 13 December 2021 – North & East Coast
• 24 January 2022 – All Chairs
• 9 May 2022 – All Chairs
• 16 May 2022 – Outer Hebrides
• 17 May 2022 – Outer Hebrides
• 12 July 2022 – All Chairs
• 2 August 2022 – All Chairs
• 11 November 2022 – North and East Coast
• 29 November 2022 – West Coast

Officials also had regular ongoing discussions throughout 2022 with both the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) and the Scottish White Fish Producers Association (SWFPA) to hear their views as we developed our proposed approach to HPMAs. Meetings were held on –

• 11 October 2021
• 4 November 2021
• 10 December 2021
• 14 January 2022
• 4 March 2022
• 1 April 2022
• 29 April 2022
• 20 May 2022
• 24 June 2022
• 22 July 2022
• 26 August 2022
• 14 October 2022
• 11 November 2022
• 9 December 2022

Additionally, officials also had discussions specifically regarding HPMAs with the Communities Inshore Fisheries Alliance (CIFA) on 10 March 2022 and the Scottish Creel Fishermen's Federation (SCFF) on 29 March 2022.

At the moment, we are at the very early stages of developing HPMAs and are yet to consider where they might be located as part of a separate process. There will be further opportunities for those involved in the fishing industry to have their say on where and how we enhance our marine protection.

The Scottish Government has not assessed the impact of case by case assessment of patients with essential tremor on inequity of access to treatment.

The Scottish Government have hosted a number of stakeholder meetings to explore options to help facilitate a growth of shipping traffic and cargo across ports in Scotland.

Scottish Government Trade and Transport Scotland officials are working closely with industry to identify barriers and unlock opportunities to increase volumes of exports leaving Scottish ports and airports. We have also analysed export data on routes which key Scottish exports take to market, and the underlying drivers of these route choices. We are continuing to explore how to support trade including ensuring that Scotland’s transport network is able to accommodate our export growth ambitions.

Spend on our trunk road improvement projects is managed within the Capital Land and Works allocation of £121.9 million as part of the Motorway and Trunk Roads Spending Plans set out in the Scottish Budget: 2023-24. This covers preparation and delivery of a range of projects and programmes including A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness, the A83 Rest and Be Thankful medium and long options and improvements to the A96 corridor as well as a number of other projects and programmes. Spend on each individual project is managed with the Capital Land and Works allocation budget line which reflects the scope of work anticipated to be taken forward within the financial year.

In 2022-23, £6.554m was spent on the continuing maintenance and short-term measures for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, and £3.913m was spent progressing the design and development of the both the medium and long term solutions to the landslip risks at the Rest and Be Thankful.

£4,346 was allocated during 2022-2023 to NHS Health Boards for the provision of small hot food appliances for all doctors in training. Health Boards were invited to liaise with their local British Medical Association representative with regards to the number required and location of appliances.

Transport Scotland’s trunk road maintenance budget is not allocated on a route or part-route basis. It is distributed based upon need and prioritisation of schemes developed from regular inspections and condition surveys.

For financial year 2023-24, the current programmes identify a maintenance investment total of £5.22M for the A9 between Inverness and Scrabster, for schemes delivered through our North West Network Management Contract . Programmes across the contract will remain under review depending on new or emerging pressures.

The schemes include investment in Active Travel measures, road and bridge maintenance, road safety schemes and works to improve network resilience under emerging climate challenges (e.g. earthworks, larger drainage schemes)

This is in addition to ‘core operations’ (e.g. weekly inspections, incident response, winter treatments) which the contractor delivers across the whole of the North West unit throughout the life of the contract. These are paid through a tendered monthly rate that cannot be disaggregated for specific locations or extents.

The Cladding Stakeholder Group is an official level meeting. Issues raised by stakeholders are fed back to Ministers and considered as part of the Cladding Remediation Programme. The group has met on the following occasions:

Scotland is in a global competition to attract talent. By taking us out of the EU and ending free movement, the UK Government has recklessly hindered our ability to attract people to Scotland. We want to build Scotland’s reputation as a career destination, promoting our growth sectors to students and workers across the UK and beyond.

The Scottish Government will launch a Talent Attraction and Migration Service in 2023. The service will support people who are thinking of moving to Scotland or who have just moved here. It will provide good quality information and advice to help people and their dependents settle into their communities. The service will also support employers based in Scotland to use the immigration system to help meet their skills needs. We are conducting research to understand users' needs and the barriers they face. Once we have concluded this discovery work, we will identify suppliers to deliver the service.

Furthermore, our Rural Visa Pilot proposal, published in September 2022, offers settlement support to migrants to promote integration within pilot communities.

While the operation of transport links across the Corran Narrows is the responsibility of The Highland Council and any decisions on maintenance, upgrades, or options to replace ferries the I recently met with them to hear more about the Council’s plans for the route.