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Our proposed licensing scheme will assist in ensuring that short-term lets are safe and used for lawful purposes. Police Scotland is represented on the Short Term Lets Stakeholder Working Group and has expressed concern about some short-term lets being used for criminal purposes. Residents and community groups have also raised concerns with the Scottish Government.

The SPCB is elected by the Parliament to take decisions regarding its statutory functions under section 21 of the Scotland Act 1988, which are to provide the Parliament, or ensure that the Parliament is provided, with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  As part of these functions, it is incumbent on the SPCB in terms of its legal duties and obligations, as both an employer and as the owner occupier, to provide a safe and secure parliamentary estate.  As the decision on applying to become a designated site was based on confidential security advice from Police Scotland, it would not have been appropriate to have held prior discussions with MSPs, MSP staff or other Scottish Parliament staff.

It is a matter for SPCB under its legal responsibilities to provide a safe and secure estate.  As the decision on applying to become a designated site was based on confidential security advice from Police Scotland, it would not have been appropriate to have held discussions with external organisations. The decision will have no bearing on campaign groups, trade unions and other organisations or individuals who protest in a robust but peaceful way at Holyrood. 

The SPCB received comprehensive security assessment and advice from Police Scotland recommending application for designated status for the parliamentary complex. 

On 13 September, we announced £300,000 of support for the 16th conference of youth—COY16—the UN’s official youth event for COP26. For the first time, five young people from Scotland will join participants from around the world and will help to shape the conference’s statement. We also support the Young Scot-led Scottish youth climate programme, which enables Scottish children and young people to host a climate youth summit ahead of COP26 to design the legacy that they want from the conference and to act as local champions across the country.

The recruitment and retention of teachers is a matter for local authorities.

However, I am determined that teachers have strong job opportunities. We have provided significant additional funds for the recruitment of additional teachers and I have committed to increasing teachers numbers by 3,500 during the course of this parliamentary term.

We have provided £240 million of additional investment to local authorities to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery. We have also allocated £145.5 million annually to the local government settlement which will support councils to employ additional staff on permanent contracts.

Currently, there has been no discussion with the UK and Danish Governments on the newly announced Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. However, Scottish Ministers expect to meet with the Danish Government ahead of COP26 to discuss climate change and other areas of mutual interest.

In line with the Scottish Government’s evidence based approach to policy development, we have committed to undertaking a programme of work and analysis to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how this aligns with our climate change targets.

Currently the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) access card only enables CPS members to use electric vehicle charging stations on the CPS network, but developing interoperability is a key priority for the Scottish Government. Officials are actively exploring how access to other networks for CPS members can be enabled with the ChargePlace Scotland network operator, SWARCO, and are in discussions with other UK charge point network operators.

It isn’t standard practice for Scottish Government to provide specific funding for maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations, and as such we do not hold such information. Units funded through Scottish Government schemes would have a 3/5 year warranty/maintenance pack included within the initial quote to install the unit, after this initial 3/5 year period it is the responsibility of the owner/host to maintain the unit and pay for any work that may be required to keep the unit fully operational.

Through the establishment of a Rail Recovery Task Force, attended by Transport Scotland and our rail delivery partners, the focus of the restoration of rail services has been aligning capacity with demand taking into account changing and emerging travel patterns and insight into passengers’ expectations/concerns.

We have supported bus operators throughout the pandemic, providing up to
‎ £42 million until the end of this financial year. Operators receiving our funding enter into public service contracts and are required to meet certain conditions including running services close to 100% of pre-COVID levels and consulting with local transport authorities in keeping services under review.

In addition, the Government continues to support island and remote communities, working closely with ferry operators and other stakeholders throughout all stages of the pandemic including the approach to recovery.