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Taxis and private hire cars (PHCs) are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

While the Scottish Government has responsibility for the overarching legislation, the day to day administration of the licensing regime is devolved to independent licensing authorities – in effect the 32 Scottish local authorities.

All licensing authorities have wide discretion to determine appropriate licensing arrangements according to local needs and circumstances and their own legal advice.

Within this context, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. These are operational matters for individual taxi drivers and/or operators, in conjunction with licensing authorities.

In May 2023 the Scottish Government published updated best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and PHC operators on the licensing of taxis and PHCs and their drivers.

The guidance was updated with the assistance of a working group that consisted of representatives from the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, various local licensing authorities, taxi and PHC trade representatives and UNITE the Union.

The guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/taxi-private-hire-car-licensing-best-practice-licensing-authorities-taxi-private-hire-car-operators-3rd-edition/

Chapter 5 (vehicles) of the guidance provides examples of best practice that independent licensing authorities may wish to consider in relation to security in vehicles, such as the use of CCTV.

Our Fisheries Management and Conservation group, including its subgroups, already includes representation covering environmental, recreational and commercial interests. In addition, we currently have an open Call for Evidence to inform the development of the Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement Programme. This asks a range of questions about our current and future framework for inshore fisheries management in Scotland, including on Governance and co-management. Responses to the Call for Evidence will help to inform the development of this framework.

This information is not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-33200 on 21 January 2025 and S6W-33202 on 17 January 2025 which set out the information we do hold on how the carcasses of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season were processed. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

This information is not held centrally.

The terms and conditions of all GB-wide railcards are set by National Rail, part of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) under UK Government rail industry rules. There have been no recent specific discussions concerning changes to railcard terms. ScotRail has confirmed with officials at Transport Scotland that National Railcards can be used to buy tickets online, via the app, or at TVMs. Where ticket purchasing facilities are not available at a station, passengers can use their National Rail card when purchasing a ticket from a member of staff on-board of ScotRail trains.

There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of their redundancy figures, therefore we do not hold this information centrally. However, the Scottish Government engages regularly with the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions and monitors company announcements.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

Offshore wind offers a significant opportunity to create thousands of good jobs in Scotland, and the Scottish Government will drive forward skills development for the sector, including supporting the transition of workers from oil and gas.

We are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million for 2025-26, year two of our five-year commitment to invest up to £500 million in critical infrastructure and manufacturing and fabrication facilities to support the growth of the offshore wind sector. Our Offshore Wind Focus paper sets out the priorities for investment, underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities that will have a catalytic effect and maximise the economic value to Scotland.

In addition, we remain committed to our ten-year Just Transition Fund, which has allocated £75 million to date supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. This involves a dedicated package of skills interventions, including £4.5 million over 5 years for the Energy Skills Transition Hub which aims to support 1,000 people into energy transition roles, £3.7 million for the development of the Energy Skills Passport (an initial version of which was launched by industry partners on 22 January) and £1 million for a National Energy Skills Accelerator pilot scheme to better understand future energy skills needs and deliver workforce training.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work in partnership with business and industry to plan for a multi-skilled energy workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across sectors as the transition to net zero progresses. This includes exploring opportunities for mutual recognition of qualifications between different energy sectors including funding support from the Just Transition Fund to support the industry-led Energy Skills Passport which is now being piloted.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the offshore oil and gas industry on a range of topics, including workforce planning. For example, the First Minister last met with Offshore Energies UK along with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in September 2024 and this included discussion of jobs in the context of the energy transition.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) does not hold a formal economic impact assessment relating to building its own facilities for processing venison. FLS experience of deer management over many decades, and working with professional meat processing business around Scotland, has provided a well-informed understanding of the significant specialist infrastructure costs, practicalities and ongoing running costs for such facilities. FLS is keen to meet with any stakeholders that wish to contact them to explore any new ideas and viable models for processing venison as part of Scotland’s high quality food and drink sector.