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At the heart of our Active Travel Policy is the drive to close the mobility gap and take action against transport poverty. A truly accessible Active Travel landscape is one in which there is equal opportunity to access provision that allows people the opportunity to choose walking, cycling or wheeling as their method of transport for everyday journeys.

The Scottish budget for 2022-23 increased investment in active travel to a record £150 million as we progress towards our commitment to invest at least £320 million or 10% of the transport budget by 2024-25.

We are clear that in all of the funding which we give out in grants to active travel delivery partners, they must ensure that funded schemes promote and support equality for all. A few examples of specific schemes are:

To encourage our youngest citizens to participate in Active Travel, we are running 9 pilot projects to test mechanisms to provide free bikes for all Children of school age who cannot afford them.

In 2022-23, £3 million was allocated to the e-bike Loan Fund in order to provide interest-free loans to support individuals and businesses to purchase e-bikes, adaptive and e-cargo bikes.

In 2019 we launched the £1.3 million Social Housing Fund for improved Walking and Cycling Facilities to encourage active travel within communities, particularly those in areas of multiple deprivation. This project will receive funding of £900,000 in 2022-23.

Scotland’s Cycle Repair Scheme provides free repairs to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it, and the Access Bikes scheme is exploring ways of providing affordable bikes through a variety of different mechanisms, to those who are experiencing financial exclusion.

There are multiple routes through which local authorities and housing associations can get support and funding for the installation of residential cycle storage.

The Places for Everyone programme (PfE) includes provision for cycle storage as part of larger cycle infrastructure projects. For example, in Edinburgh, 108 secure cycle parking units providing 648 individual spaces have been installed in this way since 2019.

We also invest over £900,000 a year in the Cycling Scotland Social Housing Partnership Fund which provides funding directly to housing associations to retrofit cycle storage on their properties. And the Cycling Scotland Cycle Friendly programme provides small grants to local communities, businesses and employers to improve local conditions for cycling, including through the provision of parking and storage.

We continue to look at ways to improve access to cycle storage, taking into account this report and other feedback.

There are already well-established links between learning in the STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - subjects at school and the cross-curricular theme of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). The Scottish Government has, in collaboration with Education Scotland and other partners, supported implementation of the LfS action plan. LfS is a curriculum entitlement for all learners in Scotland.

Study of STEM in both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase includes environmental science, the living environment and Earth's resources which are crucial to delivering on learners' entitlement to LfS. Specific connections exist between STEM and LfS in areas such as engineering and technologies, in particular when considering energy production and distribution.

In relation to the North East, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is working with Aberdeen City Council as they develop the “ABZ Campus”. The courses offered within this programme are available to Senior Phase pupils and are designed to promote skills development aligned with the fastest growing industries of the North East, including renewable energy.

SDS Careers Advisers are in every state secondary school offering careers information, advice and guidance to pupils through a mixture of one-to-one and group engagements, to enable them to make informed choices about learning and career options in the renewable energy workforce for the future.

Detailed cost analysis for all of the routes included in the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan will be undertaken on a phased basis as initial plans for each route are progressively prepared. Initial development works have begun on these routes to identify the options for electrification. Sections of the route from Edinburgh to Aberdeen are further developed, with Construction work underway on the £55 million scheme for full electrification of the section of route from Haymarket to Dalmeny.

The Scottish Government has already been taking action to improve business cash flow and annual farm payment dates are to be brought forward to September. Subject to the approval of the Scottish Parliament, farmers and crofters will receive their advance payment for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening around a month earlier than originally planned, and we remain committed to delivering over 70% of payments by the end of December and over 95.24% of payments by the end of February 2023.

In October 2021 the Scottish Government piloted a fund of up to £10,000 for organisations across Scotland to support additional activity to tackle inequalities and prejudice in line with the goals and outcomes of Black History Month. Organisations could apply for small grants in an open competition.

The Scottish Government received six applications to this fund, and following assessment of the bids against the aims and criteria for the fund, made two grants totalling £2,000 to Scoutable United and Economic Lead for projects to provide and promote opportunities for people from minority ethnic communities to participate in sport, and for women to participate in decision-making at Board level, increasing diversity in decision-making.

The rest of the funding was subsequently allocated to other organisations and projects working to tackle discrimination and advance race equality, such as supporting staff training and development (Intercultural Youth Scotland), and work with young people in the Gypsy/Traveller community to develop skills for life, training and work (Article 12).

Two applications met the aims and criteria of the fund.

Scoutable United received £1,000 to provide and promote equal opportunities for people from minority ethnic communities to participate in football. The funding was utilised to secure training facilities and organise games, and to invest in equipment such as training bibs, cones and footballs. This aimed to increase the number of people participating in the sport and to provide a platform to demonstrate talent, increasing representation and encouraging active lifestyles.

Economic Lead received £1,000 to organise workshops for minority ethnic women to increase their ability and confidence to participate on Boards and in strategic groups, and to establish a peer support network. This aimed to support an increase in representation by minority ethnic women and boost diversity in decision-making within the public and third sectors.

We are currently reviewing all of our budgets for promoting Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights, in the light of the constraints imposed by the Resource Spending Review. We have no current plans to provide a Black History Month Fund for 2022, but across Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights we have a budget allocation of £46.9m. A significant portion of this will be dedicated to promoting race equality through a range of means, including supporting the capacity of race equality organisations, which are well placed to mark and celebrate BHM in a range of ways.

A series of meetings to explore the issues and options available were held between officials on 30 June, 13 July and 1 August.

Following these meetings, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and myself met with a delegation of COSLA’s political leadership on 3 August and held a further meeting with their Resources Spokesperson on 8 August.

Those discussions resulted in the Scottish Government committing an extra £140m on a recurring basis to support councils and COSLA with the local government pay negotiations.

We again met with representatives of COSLA’s political leadership on 17 August.

All Ukrainian refugees living in Scotland are entitled to access free NHS dental care. The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards explaining this policy, a copy of which can be found at: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/nhs-scotland-services-ukraine.pdf .