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Exchange Only (EO) lines are not excluded from the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme. Over 267,000 premises previously served by EO lines can now access fibre broadband as a result of our DSSB investment, with further connections to follow.

Premises served by Exchange Only (EO) lines require considerably more complex engineering work in order to deliver fibre broadband to them. Despite this, the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has connected a significant number of premises served by EO lines.

Latest figures show that over 780,000 premises have been connected through the DSSB programme. Of these, over 267,000 of these premises were Exchange Only (EO) lines that are now fibre enabled.

Despite telecoms being reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government has committed to build on the success of our initial investment and ensure that every premise in Scotland, including those served by EO lines, can access superfast broadband by 2021. This is the only commitment of its kind in the UK and demonstrates the extent of our ambition in this area.

The Scottish Government has given a commitment to examining the case for an extension of the Borders Railway, along with potential improvements to the A1, A7 and A68. This work is currently being taken forward by Transport Scotland through the Borders Transport Corridors – Pre-Appraisal study. This study will provide a sound evidence base to be taken forward for further assessment within the Strategic Transport Projects Review which will be delivered during the lifetime of this Parliament.

Our education system, and employability and training opportunities such as Individual Training Accounts, Modern Apprenticeships and the Scottish Union Learning Fund, aim to ensure that all of our people are equipped with the skills to contribute to our economy.

We invest £1.6 billion a year in Scotland's further and higher education sectors to support skills development. The Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland along with Scottish Enterprise develop Regional Skills Assessments to provide a single, agreed evidence base on which to base future investment in skills.

As part of the Scottish Government commitment to expand Scottish Apprenticeships, we are increasing the number of Graduate Level Apprenticeships (GLAs) available. GLAs are developed through employer engagement with the higher education sector and offer an opportunity for employees to work and achieve a degree level qualification at the same time.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to Creative Scotland’s Production Growth Fund which incentivises productions to base themselves in Scotland and requires them to spend at least six times any grant received here, encouraging them to use Scottish facilities and crew. Recent projects to receive awards, shot in part in the south of Scotland, include Keepers, Churchill and Calibre. Creative Scotland's Screen Commission actively promote all areas of Scotland as filming locations.

In the Programme for Government we made a commitment to double investment for film and TV to £20m next year, to continue support for Gaelic TV production through MG Alba, and to create a dedicated Screen Unit to encourage further growth in the film and TV sector. We have also given financial support to the National Film and Television School’s plans to establish a base in Scotland.

We have also consistently argued for the BBC and other broadcasters to increase their support for the creative industries, most recently in our responses to consultations on the BBC and Channel 4 where we urged that these broadcasters are set higher quotas for the amount of network TV programming they make in Scotland.

The Scottish Government welcomes all discussion on how to improve conditions for teachers in Scotland, and we will give this report full consideration. We want to create a world-class education system that helps all of our children to succeed, and of course highly skilled, motivated and appropriately rewarded teaching professionals are an integral part of that. The Scottish Government has been working with teachers, teacher unions, local authorities and other partners to address concerns around workload levels, and this will continue to be a key theme of our education reforms as we take forward our governance review.

The Cloich wind farm consent issued on 8 July 2016 is subject to conditions. Condition 5 Implementation in accordance with approved plans and requirements of this consent states:

"Except as otherwise required by the terms of this consent and deemed planning permission, the Development shall be undertaken in accordance with the Application including the approved drawings listed at Note 1 at the end of the conditions (as supplemented or amended by any further or additional environmental information) and other documentation lodged in support of the application."

Reason: to ensure that the Development is carried out in accordance with the approved details

The decision letter for Cloich can be viewed at: www.energyconsents.scot

Should the developer seek to vary the consent which has been issued, the proposed amendment will be subject to a separate application to the Scottish Ministers, and full assessment of environmental effects and public consultation will be undertaken before any decision is taken on whether to authorise the amendment.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of actions to help recruit teachers. We are spending £88 million this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers, we have increased student teacher intake targets for the sixth year in a row and we are setting targets to train teachers in the subjects where they are needed most. We are also supporting innovative new routes into teaching, some of which will be particularly beneficial to rural areas such as distance learning programmes.

Through the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group we are also reviewing the teacher workforce planning process so that it takes into account more local information.

We also launched the next phase of our 'Teaching Makes People' recruitment campaign in August. This builds on the success of previous campaigns which have helped drive increases in PGDE applications to Scottish universities.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of actions to help recruit teachers. We are spending £88 million this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers, we have increased student teacher intake targets for the sixth year in a row and we are setting targets to train teachers in the subjects where they are needed most. We are also supporting innovative new routes into teaching, some of which will be particularly beneficial to rural areas such as distance learning programmes.

We also launched the next phase of our 'Teaching Makes People' recruitment campaign in August. This builds on the success of previous campaigns which have helped drive increases in PGDE applications to Scottish universities.

The Scottish Government is taking forward a number of new measures to tackle wildlife crime throughout Scotland. These include working with Police Scotland to implement additional resources for the detection and investigation of wildlife crime and a commitment to increase the maximum penalties for wildlife offences during the current Parliament.

The Police Scotland Lothians and Scottish Borders Division has a dedicated full-time Wildlife Crime Liaison Officer who works closely with local communities to raise awareness, promote best practice and enforce legislation.

All wild birds are protected under law, and it is an offence to kill a wild bird unless under licence. The investigation of suspected wildlife crime incidents is a matter for Police Scotland, who are aware of the reported shooting of a goosander on the River Tweed in August 2017, and have opened an investigation.