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The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme (SMHSS) expands and improves on the UK Nursery Milk Scheme, which it replaced in August 2021. It is the only Scheme in the UK offering children a healthy snack of fruit or vegetables, in addition to milk, promoting better health outcomes for children through a nutritious and varied diet. For those children who cannot drink cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk for medical, ethical or religious reasons, the SMHSS offers a specified non-dairy alternative.

Most recent data from local authority partners (April 2023) shows uptake of around 3,300 registered childcare settings and around 140,000 children. Spend on delivering the SMHSS amounted to £6.9 Million in financial year 2021-22 and £13.8 Million in financial year 2022-23.

The Scottish Government fully recognise the seriousness of the ongoing cost of living crisis and, through the emergency Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act, are helping tenants, who we know are at risk of being financially vulnerable and less able to absorb the impacts of the current cost of living crisis. The emergency measures include a 3% cap on applicable in-tenancy rent increases and stronger protections against eviction.

Annex F of the Statement of Reasons for the 2nd proposed extension of the Act provides analysis of mortgage rate rises for private sector landlords in the context of this emergency legislation. While this does not correlate to increases in rents, it does reflect the potential increases in costs that some landlords may be facing which could influence how landlords with Buy to Let mortgages set rents.

The emergency Act is giving important support to tenants, providing them with much-needed stability in their housing costs. It has gone further than anywhere else in the UK in helping protect tenants across the rental sector.

While the focus of the emergency legislation is to protect tenants, the Scottish Government recognises that some landlords may also be facing pressures from this cost crisis. That is why the Scottish Government has built in a number of safeguards that allow for consideration of landlords’ circumstances. The measures will be kept under review and the Scottish Government will work with the private rented sector to understand the impact.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether all employees of Community Justice Scotland have been directed to receive training on trauma-informed justice, or how many employees have received this training to date. This is a matter for Community Justice Scotland.

There has been no change to the number of planned carriages on peak services on the North Berwick to Edinburgh line, with the majority of peak trains planned to run with six carriages.

From time to time operational difficulties do arise, for example disruption caused by late running cross border services, which may affect delivery of ScotRail plans on this route. This is an operational matter for ScotRail Trains Ltd. to manage, who may be contacted at Contact us | ScotRail for further information.

The Scottish Government do not routinely hold data on ChargePlace Scotland charge points per square kilometre.

The latest figures from the Department For Transport show that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from over 70 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to 60 in England (excluding London), over 50 in Wales and 20 in Northern Ireland. Scotland has the highest rate of rapid charging provision anywhere in the UK, with 18.4 per one hundred thousand people while the UK average is 11.4.

I meet local authority representatives on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of issues which I am responsible for as the Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning. The Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council 2023 raised third party rights of appeal with me at a meeting on 11 May. Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council officials met on 30 May 2023 to discuss planning appeal procedures – the matter of third party rights of appeal was briefly raised during that discussion.

A summary of available information on each project is provided in the following table, based on information provided by Zero Waste Scotland.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) is provided by Zero Waste Scotland in order to build capacity, raise the profile of circular economy models and accelerate their adoption. Through CEBS Zero Waste Scotland provide technical support and advice to businesses, not funding, and businesses are under no obligation to report to Zero Waste Scotland. Up to date information on projects’ status is reliant on engagement from businesses, and recipients of previous support do occasionally cease contact. It is therefore not possible to provide a detailed status update for all of the referenced projects.

As this support is primarily provided to early stage or start-up businesses, any impact in terms of job creation and on the environment, including carbon reduction, is dependent on the scale and replication of the supported business model or circular innovation.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). SCTS is an independent body corporate and does not answer directly to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government typically meets OPG once every 3 - 6 months to discuss ongoing business matters, including registration of powers of attorney. The most recent meeting was in May 2023, where the introduction of a new IT system at OPG was discussed, which is expected to reduce processing times for power of attorney applications.

We will meet again over the course of the year to discuss what progress has been made with regard to power of attorney processing times.

The Scottish Government has not had any meetings with Scotia Arts since May 2021.

In 2023-24, the average household charge in Scotland is £411 (estimated by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS)). This compares to the average charge of £448 in England and Wales as published by Discover Water.