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The consultation paper on restricting promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt will be published on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781804356241 and on the Citizen Space portal at https://consult.gov.scot/population-health/restricting-price-and-location-promotions-on-foods on 1 July 2022 at 10am.

The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on 23 September 2022.

I met with Solar Energy Scotland (SES) in February, with the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth meeting with them in May. In addition to ministerial meetings, officials have also been meeting with SES regularly, and they have been invited to join the Renewable Energy Strategic Leadership Group (RESLG). Continued official engagement is planned over the summer as the solar vision develops. The solar vision will form part of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which will be published later this year.

The following table details SDS’ budget for Employability Fund for each year of the programme since its inception in 2013-14:

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of energy generated from solar PV in contributing to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s energy supply, and helping us meet our targets for a net zero emissions society by 2045.

In support of this, the Scottish Government will, in consultation with the solar sector, establish a vision for the future of solar energy in the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which will be published later this year. We expect this vision to act as a signal for the solar industry going forward and it is important that we take the time to ensure that the vision is fully considered in context of the whole energy system.

The clinical assessment of someone presenting at accident and emergency (A&E) with suicidal intentions includes an assessment of risk. Clinical assessments involve a clinician interviewing the patient, often using risk assessment tools (which are selected by individual Health Boards), as well as considering any recent, similar presentations at A&E. Repeated A&E presentations will indicate a higher risk.

Each Health Board has arrangements in place to ensure patients presenting at A&E with suicidal intentions are properly assessed and cared for. In practice, this generally involves specialist mental health clinical staff working alongside A&E teams to ensure the individuals are assessed and that tailored care plans are put in place. Those care plans may include accessing support from crisis support organisations or local mental health services; or, where necessary, admission to hospital.

Scotland’s biotechnology sector is developing at a remarkable rate. In fact, last year the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre reported that we were on track to meet the targets in the 2019 National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology ahead of 2025.

As such, the final refresh of the National Plan, launched on 6 June 2022, increased the 2025 targets even further to: over 220 active companies, increasing associated turnover to £1.2 billion and over 4,000 direct employees in Industrial Biotechnology in Scotland.

The sector, and its strength, is also recognised in our National Strategy for Economic Transformation as a current and future key industry for Scotland, that will contribute to us delivering our Net Zero targets by 2045.

We know that the cost-of-living crisis is having a huge impact on individuals and families across the country, and we continue to have conversations across the range of challenges faced. We are using our regular engagement with the UK Government to ask that more sustainable support is provided to those in greatest need, given that most of the levers currently remain reserved. Just last week my colleague Ms Forbes raised cost-of-living with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and urged the UK Government to do more to address the root cause of increasing fuel costs. We will continue to press the UK Government to use all of the powers and fiscal headroom at their disposal to address the cost-of-living crisis.

Since the integration of health and social care, Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for the planning and delivery of adaptations using budget created by delegation. They are also responsible for reviewing and developing services to improve outcomes for people who require adaptations.

We also provide an additional £11m (2022-23) to registered social landlords to provide adaptations for their tenants.

However, we know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally. As set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy, we are taking forward a review of the current housing adaptations system to consider how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations. As part of this we intend to engage with COSLA to ensure we continue to spread good practice on waiting times, across the local authorities.

Scotland’s Zero Emissions Mobility Industry Advisory Group have today published their report on the growth of this important sector for Scotland.

Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (ZEM IAG) was established in 2019 to bring together industry stakeholders to advise on shaping a collective approach to the development of the zero emission mobility sector.

The purpose of the group was to explore and advise on the strategic interventions, collaborations and investments required to substantially grow Scotland’s automotive sector, with emphasis on sustainable, zero (CO2) emission technologies and business models.

The IAG set a vision in 2019 for Scotland to become:

• a global player in supply chains for zero emission mobility for heavier and niche vehicles
• an international centre of expertise in energy-transport system integration
• a global destination for innovation in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

The report is informed by research carried out by Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise on key strengths and opportunities in zero emission mobility in Scotland as well as supporting studies by consultants KPMG commissioned for the group.

The report sets out the group’s vision for a decarbonised sector under 8 key themes:

• Innovation ecosystem development
• Skills
• Inward investment and capital investment
• Trade and export
• Public procurement for innovation
• Supply chain opportunities
• Collaboration
• Infrastructure

The report also recommends some key actions required to progress towards this vision.

One of these recommendations is that an innovation fund should be considered to provide support for innovators to scale up their manufacturing capability in Scotland and bring the development and testing of new technologies to Scotland, with a particular focus on batteries, fuel cells and zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

Today the Scottish Government is launching the Zero Emission Mobility Fund. This will provide £28 million across the next four years to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of heavy duty zero emission vehicles.

The Zero Emission Mobility Innovation Fund, administered through Scottish Enterprise, links to other national funding programmes for manufacturing and supports Scotland’s Mission Zero for transport.

The new Fund has been developed in consultation with industry leaders through Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group. This new funding approach responds to their call for innovative funding models to drive net zero transformation across Scotland’s heavy duty vehicle supply chains.

The vast majority of funding from the Scottish Government is provided by means of a block grant to local authorities. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them.

The 2022-23 Local Government Finance Settlement of almost £12.7 billion provides local government with a cash increase of over £1 billion or 9.2 per cent which is the equivalent of a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent.

It is for each individual local authority to decide how best to allocate this money, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including towards home adaptations for disabled people.