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I have written to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to highlight that the Scottish Government should be fully consulted on any proposed material changes to the Equality Act 2010, including on the current definition of ‘sex’, if there would be any impact on devolved matters. Any proposed changes to the 2010 Act must be fully consulted on with the public and stakeholders before being legislated on.

We are currently reflecting on the wide-ranging feedback we received from stakeholders during the recent stakeholder roundtables and are working with an independent contractor to analyse the public consultation responses to understand the views and perspectives of those that responded.

We will publish both the roundtable notes and the consultation findings later this year, which will inform the potential content and scope of any policy proposals and our consideration of appropriate next steps for this work.

We continue to invest in our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, of which public education and empowerment is a key work-stream. We launched a new campaign – Be the Early Bird – in March 2023 to empower those with possible symptoms to act early.

We will continue to work with the Scottish Cancer Coalition, as well as the primary care community, to raise awareness of possible symptoms. Work is also underway to redesign DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) – this will reflect brain tumour content moving forward, including signposting to The Brain Tumour Charity.

The Ministerial-led working group last convened on 26 th October 2022 and the minutes of this meeting will be published within the coming weeks. The working group was formed to consider short, medium and long term actions to address anti-abortion activities which take place outside of healthcare facilities providing abortion services.

A significant proportion of the group’s work was to consider the use of Local Authority bye-laws to potentially deliver the zones. The Scottish Government was committed to supporting councils to use bye-laws to implement safe access zones, but Local Authorities concluded that national legislation would be a more appropriate route, and the work to consider bye-laws has now concluded.

We are now clear that delivering national legislation is the best and most secure route to ensure buffer zones are delivered and sustained. We are therefore fully focused on supporting the drafting and development of Gillian Mackay MSP’s national Abortion Service Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill. We will continue to take forward discussions with stakeholders to ensure that robust and effective legislation is introduced as soon as possible.

Although there are no plans for a final report of the working group’s findings to be published, the group agreed that the Scottish Government should commission research into the impact of protests and vigils in Scotland. This research is ongoing, and a final report on this will be published following its completion.

The Scottish Government has no plans to establish an independent review of governance of its portfolio of strategic commercial assets.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Ltd to review the Framework Document, which sets out governance arrangements between the parties.

As the Bank is a non-departmental public body, ministers meet with the Chair and senior officials on a regular basis. These meetings address the Bank’s progress against its strategic aims and how its investment activity across its three missions can support government priorities.

The First Minister met Chair Willie Watt and new CEO Al Denholm on 2 May This was an introductory meeting.

A full list of all ministerial engagements and when they have met the Bank can be found here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

As part of our New Deal for Local Government, we are working with COSLA to agree a Fiscal Framework for Local Government, with the aim of delivering greater flexibility over financial arrangements, improving accountability for the delivery of national priorities, including net zero objectives, whilst ensuring maximum value for money. We anticipate the new Fiscal Framework will facilitate opportunities for greater local fiscal empowerment in the future, and aim to give councils more flexibility with greater scope for discretionary local revenue-raising. This will include exploring new ways to raise revenue and reviewing existing local taxes and powers, to make best use of all available and potential sources of local funding.

The Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme will invest, as a minimum, capital funding of £30 million in 2023-24 to enable the delivery of heat decarbonisation projects across the public sector, including the NHS, and £1.5 million of resource funding to enable the building of a pipeline of investment ready, strategic heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects across the public sector. Since the scheme was relaunched in 2022-23, Health Boards have successfully applied for over £13 million.

In addition, the Scottish Government has funded Health Boards to prepare initial net-zero route maps which will be used as a basis for planning the decarbonisation of the NHS estate.

More information on NHS Scotland’s approach to decarbonisation is set out in the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 which is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-climate-emergency-sustainability-strategy-2022-2026/

Local Authorities have a duty to investigate light pollution complaints under the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA). The Scottish Government engages with local authorities through the Environmental Health Officers network and relevant working groups, where any emerging issues on light pollution could be raised.

Last year the Scottish Government announced the £60 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund that aims to draw commercial investment in the public charging network across all parts of Scotland. Transport Scotland has already provided funding to Scotland’s local authorities to help them to work together to establish electric vehicle charging strategies and infrastructure expansion plans. These plans are identifying local and regional charge point needs and locations, the investment requirements, as well as the best approaches to delivering collaborative investments with commercial charge point operators. Opportunities to consider the installation of lamppost charge points, or other appropriate solutions, as part of their approach, will fall to local authorities.