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The Scottish Government has worked jointly with the food and drink industry on the development of a Food & Drink Recovery Plan which has over 50 actions to help the sector recover from the effects of Covid and Brexit. The plan, which has been supported by £15m of Scottish Government funding over 2020-2023, includes ongoing work to assess the current capabilities and development opportunities for all parts of the food and drink industry (including food processing). We are working with the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership during 2022 to build on this work through the refresh of the “Ambition 2030” food and drink industry strategy, which was the industry’s main focus pre-Covid. We expect more information on a revised strategy to become available later in 2022.

A new £7.3m funding round for the Food Processing and Marketing Cooperation (FPMC) grant scheme also ran in late 2021 to support food processors in developing local supply chains and transitioning to net zero operations. All applications have been assessed and 29 businesses were successful in receiving a share of the funding. A further £10.2m round was launched on 9 May 2022 and closed for applications on 19 June 2022. Applications are now in the process of being assessed, with decisions expected later in the summer.

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.

Over the last six months, a Short Life Working Group has been helping the Scottish Government to develop draft principles to underpin a framework (originally defined as a Model) for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution, and encourages better access to support for those involved in prostitution. This work is being supported by research being progressed on International Comparisons and Lived Experience. Over the summer period we will undertake further targeted stakeholder engagement on the draft, before looking to publish.

There are a number of measures in place to ensure that ancient and veteran trees are protected, including as protected areas for nature, which engage statutory mechanisms to protect sites of ecological interest, such as ancient woodlands.

Protection for woodland is also in place via felling regulations under the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018. It is only in exceptional circumstances that a felling permission would be granted for an ancient woodland, such as public safety or improving woodland condition. Where felling permission is not applicable, the Control of Woodland Removal Policy only permits removal of existing woodland where it would achieve significant and clearly defined additional public benefits.

Scottish Planning Policy 2014 (SPP) seeks to protect and enhance ancient semi natural woodland as an important and irreplaceable resource, together with individual trees. SPP states that Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) can be used to protect individual trees and groups of trees considered important for amenity or their cultural or historic interest. Draft NPF4 is currently considering how to strengthen protection.

We recognise the important role ancient and veteran trees play in our ecosystems, which is why we have committed to support work to restore and expand Scotland’s precious Rainforest habitat.

The Scottish Ancient Woodland Inventory records the location of ancient and other long established semi-natural woodlands, and local authorities record TPO’s for protection purposes. We know this Inventory has an important role to play in ensuring we can identify where protection is needed, which is why we have committed to establish a new National Register of Ancient Woodlands, building on the existing inventory.

Since the launch of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme around 390,000 National Entitlement Cards (NEC) have been issued to young people across Scotland. The scheme aims to embed sustainable travel behaviours, open social, education, employment and leisure opportunities and reduce household outgoings to aid young people and their families, particularly those living in poverty.

71% (approx. 277,000) of cards have been used at least once to access free bus travel. In comparison to 56% of older and disabled cardholders over the same period, more young cardholders are choosing to use free bus when they travel.
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62% (approx. 170,000) NECs have been used more than 10 times, and 16% (approx. 61,000) of NECs have been used to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions within at least one week.

149 NECs have been used by young people to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions every week since the scheme launched.

The figures have been produced using the data on number of journeys per National Entitlement Card and come from the secure ITSO messages (alerts from ticket machines when National Entitlement Cards are scanned) that come into Transport Scotland’s reimbursement system, which are used to pay operators.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings . Additionally, in February 2020, to assist those with responsibilities for providing personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs), the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises . This guidance provides information on the formulation of PEEPs in appropriate settings. The guidance also provides links to the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for the Evacuation of Disabled Persons from Buildings .

Retail sector turnover figures are available from surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. There are no retail SIC codes specific to fireworks which means it is not possible to estimate figures on the number of F2 and F3 fireworks sold in Scotland from official statistics.

However, in their report published on 3 November 2020 the Firework Review Group, established by myself in 2019, estimated that there are around 250,000 sales of fireworks every year in Scotland.

Deposit Return Scheme applications for exemptions and voluntary return points have been open since 1 January 2021. The following table provides a breakdown of applications received so far.

Susan Davies FRSB, Chief Executive of The Scottish Seabird Centre was appointed to lead the taskforce on 15 June 2022.

Susan will work with representatives from Police Scotland, Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Government policy officials. The taskforce will consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the Scottish SPCA) should be given additional powers to investigate wildlife crime. We expect to receive the report from the taskforce in time to take forward any recommendations that require legislation in a bill during the course of this Parliament.

Evacuation alert systems for high rise domestic buildings with a storey more than 18 metres above ground level was introduced in the 2019 building standards technical handbooks (domestic and non-domestic) published on 12 July 2019.

The government also published Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings. The guidance promotes using a risk based approach to determine the fire safety measures required. Therefore, upgrading existing high rise domestic buildings with evacuation alert systems may be implemented where the level of fire risk is justified, taking into account the time, cost and disruption to building occupants involved.