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As you are aware, the Scottish Government’s National Innovation Strategy included an action to publish an annual innovation scorecard allowing us to track our progress towards becoming a more innovative nation across multiple key metrics.

The first iteration of the scorecard, showing our baseline performance, was published alongside National Innovation Strategy last summer and the next iteration will be published this year.

To understand the impact of Land Reform Bill proposals on businesses, the Scottish Government conducted a Scottish firms impact test, involving engagement with landowners, land agents and representative organisations of land-based businesses.

Full detail of this assessment of anticipated impacts can be found in the .Land Reform (Scotland) Bill - Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government has carried out economic analysis of impacts of the provisions of the Land Reform Bill. This is set out in the. Land Reform (Scotland) Bill - Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government has not calculated the likely savings resulting from the provision of thrombectomy procedures. However, academic research suggests that thrombectomy is cost-effective and likely to result in long-term savings.

The Scottish Government does not currently plan to provide overall outcome information beyond mortality.

A tool for collection of empirical data relating to stroke rehabilitation provision - including time to rehabilitation assessment, creation of rehabilitation plans, commencement of rehabilitation, input from various Allied Health Professional specialities and time to commencing community rehabilitation - has been developed. Data collection with this tool is currently being trialled in two NHS Boards, with the aim of using this across Scotland and including this in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit once data collection has been assessed.

The Scottish Government has not calculated the likely savings resulting from the provision of thrombectomy procedures. However, academic research suggests that thrombectomy is cost-effective and likely to result in long-term savings.

As part of the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Board review process, Boards are expected to demonstrate rehabilitation provision in a variety of settings, and at a range of intensities, as well as outlining a robust rehab assessment process and the availability of symptom-specific rehabilitation pathways.

Boards must also demonstrate that there is a clear pathway for people who have had strokes to re-engage with stroke rehabilitation services as appropriate.

Where rehabilitation provision is found not to fully align with these criteria, the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme works with stroke services to develop action plans for improvement.

Any form of human trafficking or exploitation is completely unacceptable. Police Scotland’s National Human Trafficking Unit (NHTU) continues to work closely with partners to monitor the threat, risk and harm posed by those exploiting vulnerable workers in the fishing sector. Police Scotland have collaborated with other law enforcement partners to target those responsible for Modern Slavery in the fishing industry, with several companies subject to both criminal proceedings and also Trafficking Exploitation and Risk Orders (TERO). The first Order of this kind in Scotland related to an investigation in the fishing industry, which is closely monitored by Police Scotland to ensure compliance, mitigate risk and prevent further exploitation. Between 2022 and 2025 we have allocated £480k to the charity Justice and Care who provide specialist Victim Navigators to work alongside the NHTU. Navigators play a vital role in focusing on the victims of human trafficking operations investigations, and are able to offer strategic advice to police officers. This enables our law enforcement organisations to focus on bringing perpetrators to justice in the knowledge that immediate victim support is available. A current fishing industry police investigation is on-going, led by the NHTU, and the services of Victim Navigators are being utilised to fully support the victims.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of job vacancies by sector.

However, the Scottish Government monitors vacancies in the hospitality sector using data and intelligence from a number of sources including the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, the Employer Skills Survey and Sectoral Skills Assessments.

The latest data from the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, published by the Scottish Government, shows that 29% of businesses in the Accommodation and Food Services sector were experiencing recruitment difficulties in July 2024 and 23% were experiencing worker shortages in August 2024. The latest data is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/bics-weighted-scotland-estimates-data-to-wave-114/documents/.

The latest data from the Employer Skills Survey, published by the Scottish Government, shows that in 2022, 30% of businesses in the Hotels and Restaurants sector had at least one vacancy and 13% had at least one skills-shortage vacancy. The latest data is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/uk-employer-skills-survey-2022-scotland-report/documents/.

Sectoral Skills Assessments, published by Skills Development Scotland, provide data on the number of online job postings in the wider tourism sector, sourced from Lightcast. The latest data indicates that between January-June 2023, there were 5,000 online job postings for chefs and cooks and 2,300 job postings for waiters and waitresses. The latest sectoral skills assessment for the tourism sector can be found at: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/l55d3jqy/sectoral-skills-assessment-tourism.pdf.

The Scottish Government is taking measures within our powers to address labour and skills shortage issues. These include providing a range of employability support to help people enter the workforce alongside funding for the development of modern apprenticeships, via Skills Development Scotland, to meet the needs of the tourism and hospitality sector.

We are also working to explore solutions to staff shortages in collaboration with the sector, through our Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group and our Tourism and Hospitality Skills Group.

Fife Council have been working with the Levenmouth community since January 2024 and are now finalising their plans for their childcare ‘early adopter community’ projects in line with the First Minister’s announcement in May of £16 million investment over two years in six local authorities.