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The Scottish Government launched the Young Person’s Guarantee in November 2020, with the aim of protecting young people against the immediate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guarantee was set up to ensure every young person between 16 and 24 had the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training or volunteering. Between November 2020 and March 2023 we invested over £175m in additional support from Covid-related funding to support young people in Scotland towards employment, training and apprenticeships.

We have now mainstreamed this work across Government, with activity across education, skills and employability supporting young people into opportunities.

A local authority can introduce a visitor levy scheme where the statutory guidance produced under section 23 of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 has not been published.

Following the decision by the Court of Session the appeal has been returned to DPEA to be re-determined by another reporter. As the appeal is still live it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of the case at this stage.

Designation is devolved to Historic Environment Scotland as our lead public body for the historic environment. Historic Environment Scotland will shortly be reviewing the principles and priorities of the designations policy, including the approach to listed buildings. There will be an opportunity for the public to submit their views on these matters to ensure our built heritage can continue to be protected for current and future generations.

National Planning Framework (NPF4) aims to protect and enhance historic environment assets and places and enables positive change as a catalyst for the regeneration of places. It provides that historic buildings are brought back into use, and recognises the social, environmental and economic value of the historic environment to our economy and cultural identity.

The Scottish Government launched the Young Person’s Guarantee in November 2020, with the aim of protecting young people against the immediate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guarantee was set up to ensure every young person between 16 and 24 had the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training or volunteering. Between November 2020 and March 2023 we invested over £175m in additional support from Covid-related funding. 

We have now mainstreamed this work across Government, with activity across education, skills and employability supporting young people into opportunities. This includes support for lower income households and to advance equality and inclusion. For example, specialist support continues to be provided to young people from lower income households to enable them to move towards a positive destination through third sector partners such as the Young Person’s Consortium (Barnardo’s, Princes Trust and Action for Children).

Launched in 2017, No Wrong Path is an initiative led by Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), designed to provide inspiration and reassurance to young people receiving their exam results. DYW facilitates the engagement between employers and schools to support young people transition into the world of work. 

In the decade since the DYW programme started we have seen a significant increase in the numbers of young people achieving vocational and technical qualifications, recognising the breadth of young people’s talents and skills.

We must ensure that people have the skills they need at every stage of life to have rewarding careers and meet the demands of an ever-changing economy. DYW and its no wrong path initiative is continuing to support this ambition, playing an important role in preparing young people for the world of work and working with industry to match the needs of employers with the needs of young people.

Our plans to open an office in Warsaw will be considered as part of the wider review of government spending. It is necessary to ensure resources are used economically, efficiently and effectively, and high levels of scrutiny are applied to expenditure.

I have asked Janet Egdell, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS are currently publishing topic data from Scotland’s Census 2022. Later in 2024, we will publish multivariate data. This means we will publish tables which include more than one census topic variable.

An evaluation of Scotland’s Census 2022, with a focus on lessons learned for any future census and other complex programmes, will be laid before the Scottish Parliament by the end of 2024.

The Scottish Government, through its various public bodies is increasing woodland cover on the land that they own and manage and are looking for further opportunities. This includes the landscape scale native woodland creation work being explored by Forestry and Land Scotland at Glen Prosen, and the delivery of significant new woodland by Scottish Water at Loch Katrine. At this time there are no plans to amend the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 with regards to this policy area.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) should be read and applied as a whole. A plan-led approach is central to supporting its delivery and it is a legislative requirement that planning decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Annex A to NPF4 outlines how to use the document, It states that it is for the decision maker to determine what weight to give to individual policies in the circumstances of each case.