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As part of the Scottish Government approach to growing the Scottish economy, the New Deal for Business Group will continue to support this through the implementation of its key actions to improve collaborative working between business and government that will create a mutually beneficial business environment and contribute to improvements in commercial confidence and investment, fostering a stable business environment which will increase Scotland’s attractiveness as a location for inward investment.

Scotland has a strong record in attracting inward investment and Shaping Scotland’s Economy: Inward Investment Plan (IIP) is key to supporting Scotland’s growth clusters including opportunities in emerging scientific and technological sectors.

While faced with one of the most difficult financial settlements since devolution, the Scottish Government is making the most of every resource available in the Scottish Budget 2024-2025 to continue to grow and transform the economy through investment of more than £5 billion across government.

Spending is targeted at measures that will support our long-term ambitions for a wellbeing economy that is fair, green and growing. The Scottish Government and its associated agencies are committed to creating opportunities for advanced scientific industries in Scotland, helping to deliver on our ambitions in the Innovation Strategy.

The Scottish Government has identified Industrial Biotechnology as a key sector in our National Strategy for Economic Transformation and HealthTech is identified as one of the nine priority areas in our Inward Investment Plan.

Scottish Enterprise's international arm, Scottish Development International, routinely engages with potential investors. Scotland has a strong track record of attracting inward investment, with the latest EY Annual Attractiveness Survey showing Scotland maintaining its position as the top performing part of the UK outside of London for the eighth year. Recent examples of support for international companies in the biotech and life sciences sectors includes Merck, Össur, DSM and ReproCell.

The City Centre Recovery Task Force published a report of their findings ( At the Heart of Economic Transformation: Report of the City Centre Recovery Task Force, 2021-22 (wpengine.com) ) in March 2022 which identified a number of priority outcomes to work towards over a five year period. The Scottish Government is currently working with Scottish cities, via the Scottish Cities Alliance ( Scottish Cities Alliance ) to progress work in two of these key areas:

• Priority area 1: Increased residential capacity and occupancy and
• Priority area 3: Reducing the amount of vacant and derelict land and property.

Scottish Government’s low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme is investing nearly £10m in 2023-24 and over £8m in 2024-25 supporting projects that will bring vacant and derelict land back into positive use to benefit communities and help tackle climate change. This is in addition to the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund which will see the five eligible local authorities receive a share of £5m investment in 2024-25.

The Scottish Cities Alliance have recently launched a Peer-to-Peer network built around the strategic objectives in the City Centre Recovery Taskforce Report, with the aim of:

• Sharing knowledge and best practice from Scottish and international cities drawing on expertise from academia and the private and third sectors; and
• Identifying and agreeing opportunities for future collaborative action.

The programme of knowledge exchange activity has been co-developed by the Alliance partners with Innovate UK, the Built Environment-Smarter Transformation Innovation Centre and the Connected Places Catapult to leverage in experience from wider UK and Irish Cities as well as research and knowledge exchange networks.

From Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd March Glasgow hosted the World Athletics Indoor Championships for the first time in Scotland and only the third time in the United Kingdom. A total of 586 athletes from 128 countries across all six continental areas competed in Glasgow, watched by more than 22,000 ticketed spectators from 37 countries, and the event produced two world records, five championship records, ten area records and 54 national records.

The World Athletics Indoor Championships provided yet another opportunity to further enhance Scotland's reputation not only as The Perfect Stage for hosting Major Events but also as a welcoming place to live and work, study, visit and do business.

Given these excellent opportunities for engagement with key stakeholders, the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport and the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care attended separate athletics sessions in the Emirates Arena. In addition the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development attended the Welcome Reception hosted jointly by the World Athletics President and the Glasgow City Council Provost. A senior Scottish Government Official also attended two civic receptions and sporting activity.

The Emirates Arena was also the venue for a meeting of the UK Inter-Ministerial Group for Sport, chaired by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport. This was attended by Ministers from all home nations.

The Scottish Government is keenly aware of the importance of increasing digital access for all people in Scotland. Through programmes such as Connecting Scotland, the Scottish Government is taking action to improve digital access for multiple priority groups, including older people and people who are living with a long-term illness or disability.

In August 2023, the Connecting Scotland programme launched two projects to provide kit and connectivity through Device Libraries and Social Housing organisations. Over £204,000 was awarded across both projects to a range of organisations across Scotland. This funding is helping Device Libraries to expand their range of devices, to extend the number of devices available for loan and to replace devices that are coming to the end of their lives. The funding is also supporting Social Housing providers to support connectivity infrastructure projects that benefit their residents, as our research has shown that Social Housing tenants are a group particularly impacted by digital exclusion.

Social tariffs can additionally provide the means for people in need of digital access to get online by providing reduced broadband tariff rates. Connecting Scotland is working with Ofcom to improve information about social tariffs for people in Scotland. In April 2023, based on dialogue with officials, Ofcom updated their webpage to show which tariffs are available to which regions of the UK. Officials will continue dialogue with Ofcom to ensure that social tariffs are widely understood as a potential option for older people and people living with long-term illness or disability to get online.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information that may be available from each Health Board as employer.

The NHSScotland workforce policies and their supporting documents set the standard for employment practice for all NHS Boards in Scotland. They have been developed with full consideration of equality and diversity impacts and to reflect fair work principles. Our expectation is that these policies are applied with a person centred approach to positively impact on eliminating discrimination and to advance equality of opportunity across all protected characteristics.

The Scottish Government is keenly aware of the importance of increasing digital access for all people in Scotland. Through programmes such as Connecting Scotland, the Scottish Government is taking action to improve digital access for multiple priority groups, including people who are living in low-income households.

In August 2023, the Connecting Scotland programme launched two projects to provide kit and connectivity through Device Libraries and Social Housing organisations. Over £204,000 was awarded across both projects to a range of organisations across Scotland. This funding is helping Device Libraries to expand their range of devices, to extend the number of devices available for loan and to replace devices that are coming to the end of their lives. The funding is also supporting Social Housing providers to support connectivity infrastructure projects that benefit their residents, as our research has shown that Social Housing tenants are a group particularly impacted by digital exclusion.

Social tariffs can additionally provide the means for people in need of digital access to get online by providing reduced broadband tariff rates. Connecting Scotland is working with Ofcom to improve information about social tariffs for people in Scotland. In April 2023, based on dialogue with officials, Ofcom updated their webpage to show which tariffs are available to which regions of the UK. Officials will continue dialogue with Ofcom to ensure that social tariffs are widely understood as a potential option for people living in low-income households to get online.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Table: The spend on employing temporary staff each year since 2012. To note, these figures relate to both agency staff and contractors.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

There are 13 staffing vacancies currently unfilled within Disclosure Scotland.