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The Fair Start Scotland employability service was procured, and national contracts awarded to public, private and third sector Service Providers across Scotland. The Scottish Government does not have any staff directly employed to deliver the service. There are 4.75 full time equivalent staff assigned to manage the delivery of the contracts with the Service Providers.

The work to define a Minimum Income Guarantee for Scotland, including the role of social security, continues to be led by an independent Expert Group. the Expert Group’s Interim report which published in March 2024, contained recommendations for actions around social security elements of a Minimum Income Guarantee. The report is available at: Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group: Interim report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The Chair of the Expert Group also brought early thinking on the vision for the social security aspects of a Minimum Income Guarantee to the Steering Group meeting on 27 March this year. The minutes for that meeting can be found at Minimum Income Guarantee Steering Group minutes: March 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The Scottish Government look forward to receiving the recommendations for the Expert Group’s final report later this year and will respond in due course.

The independent Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group commissioned a public participation charity to appoint an Experts by Experience Panel to ensure the policy is developed with the voices and experiences of financial insecurity at its core. Panel members were initially recruited through a civic lottery database, additional recruitment then took place through the Expert Group member’s organisations, following an extension of the project. Further details regarding the recruitment process are available online at: Minimum Income Guarantee: Experts by Experience Panel report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to plan, develop and deliver flood protection schemes and other flood resilience actions.

Policy 3 of the National Planning Framework requires that development proposals contribute to the enhancement of biodiversity and that any potential adverse impacts will be minimised through careful planning and design. We would expect all schemes progressed by local authorities to include appropriate measures to conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity

Through the £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund, the Scottish Government has provided each Local Authority with up to £140,000 to support the cost of carrying out analysis to identify future public EV charging requirements for cars and light commercial vehicles. This analysis is being used by each Local Authority to support bids for further funding to partner with private sector charge point operators to continue to expand the network. Funding for Dundee, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland Councils has already been announced, with further announcements expected later this year.

The Scottish Government will publish a draft Vision Implementation Plan by the end of 2024 for a public charging infrastructure network that works for all. The plan is being developed with input from owners and operators of light commercial vehicles, among others, to ensure that public charging meets the needs of users of cars and vans.

Electric charging for heavy vehicles is likely to be owned and operated by the private sector. The Scottish Government is working with transport operators including the HGV sector, charge point providers, electricity networks and trade bodies to develop a shared understanding of the energy infrastructure that will be required in the future. The first iteration of this work will be published shortly. Scottish Government will convene discussions with interested parties following this research to explore how to progress.

The second phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund, announced in July 2024, will deliver more than 200 new charger guns in bus depots across Scotland before 2026. Where possible these will be made available to other road users in addition to supporting the 252 new zero-emission buses delivered through the scheme.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering medium and long term solutions to address the landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.

Delivery of a permanent and resilient solution is a priority and we will continue to seek ways to achieve that as quickly as possible. Following identification of a preferred option last year, the next step for the permanent solution, which is the detailed development and assessment of the preferred option, is progressing at pace and will conclude with the publication of draft Orders for comment, currently expected by the end of this year. As with all infrastructure projects, delivery of the scheme can only commence if approved under the relevant statutory authorisation procedures and thereafter a timetable for construction can be set.

At the same time, improvements to the existing Old Military Road (OMR) through the Glen Croe corridor are being made to make it a more resilient diversion route until the long term solution is in place.

The Scottish Government has spent the following amounts each year on the necessary design and assessment work for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful project:

The following table details annual spend on signage on the trunk road network during the period 2021 to 2024 within the Scottish Parliament Highland and Islands electoral region. These figures include spend on sign plates, sign poles and sign bases.

Signage on Local Authority roads is a matter for the relevant Local Authority.

All Scottish quota is issued in line with the requirements of the UK Fisheries Act 2020.

On 7 June 2024, the Scottish Government published the outcome of its consultation on the allocation of Additional Quota. Additional Quota is the extra quota the UK receives following EU exit.

As part of Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030, the Scottish Government committed to the maintenance of FQA system as the primary method of allocating Exiting Quota (the UK’s established share of quota prior to leaving the EU) following stakeholder feedback.

A key aim of Phase 2 of the Democracy Matters engagement process was ensuring that as many voices were involved as possible in the national conversation on the future of community decision-making. Therefore, resources were invested to remove barriers to participation, ensuring that under-represented groups, participants with protected characteristics, rural and remote communities and young people were all able to contribute.

A full breakdown of the Democracy Matters Phase 2 spend over the 2021-22 to 2024-25 financial years can be found in the following table:

The Democracy Matters 2 national conversation received over 160 responses and was informed by engagement through multiple channels including facilitated engagement events. Engagement has informed a detailed findings report which will be published later in September 2024. The publication of the findings will be accompanied by a joint statement with COSLA outlining next steps for this process. As outlined in the 24-25 Programme for Government, we will work with communities and wider stakeholders to take forward the Democracy Matters findings on the future of community decision-making.