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The following table shows how many SMEs have applied to the Scottish Governments SME Loan and Cashback scheme since its inception in 2008.

Scottish Government collects information on whether any member of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority (in Scotland) slept rough a) during the 3 months preceding and b) the night before the application.

Data broken down by financial year and local authority is published in the annual Homelessness in Scotland publication, with the most recent providing data up to 2021-22. Tables 2 & 3 of the Main Tables associated with the latest publication contain data related to rough sleeping.

Data is not available prior to 2002-03 as this is the year data collection began.

The data collection defines rough sleeping as any member of the applicant household who has slept outside, in the open air (such as on the streets, or in doorways, parks or bus shelters) or slept in a building or other place not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations etc.).

Data is not gathered for any household rough sleeping who does not make a homelessness application to a local authority in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has today published the new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, which is available at: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805251545 .

The Strategy sets out a refreshed approach to tackling litter and flytipping in order to protect and enhance Scotland’s environment, ensure safer and cleaner communities and contribute to a thriving circular economy for Scotland. It sets out how national and local government, business, third sector, communities and individuals can work together to support behaviour change, improve infrastructure and strengthen enforcement.

The strategy is accompanied by an action plan outlining priority activity for the first year of implementation. Actions for 2023-24 include measures to strengthen enforcement (including raising fixed penalty notices for flytipping to £500), support private landowners, improve data collection, engage communities and influence behaviours.

Actions will be reviewed and refreshed on an annual basis over the six-year lifespan of the Strategy to ensure these are adapted to suit a changing external environment and are informed by emerging insights and wider action to accelerate Scotland’s transition to a circular economy.

There is no minimum distance as such in relation to turbines of specified sizes. Development proposals and any potential impacts are considered on a case-by-case basis. All planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted in February this year, forms part of the statutory development plan alongside the relevant Local Development Plan.

Part 2 of NPF4 sets out the policy framework for use in the determination of planning applications. Matters concerning project design and mitigation are set out in policy 11(e).

Work has commenced on all 20 of the short term actions in the plan, with 12 now considered to be ‘complete’.

As set out in the Report on Progress, it is the case that a number of the short term actions will necessarily continue beyond their short-term timescales and will be ongoing throughout the life of the plan.

Work continues apace on the final eight actions, where it is considered that work needs to continue to augment the outputs achieved in the one year timeline set out in the Plan.

The Plan’s medium term actions are for delivery within one to three years. Work has commenced on the majority of these actions, with two already completed and the remainder progressing well and on track for completion by August 2024.

Work is ongoing with partners across Scotland to deliver the aims, priorities and actions in the Plan.

Scotland’s research base has a global reputation for excellence which is strengthened by the extensive collaborations the sector undertakes both across the UK and worldwide. The research base delivers wide ranging benefits, including economic impact.

We monitor data available on economic impact data through the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey on collaboration and knowledge exchange activities. This includes information on collaborative research with non-academic organisations, employment numbers, the number of active spin-offs founded at Scottish HEIs and the turnover generated at these spin-offs. This data showed that in 2021/22, over 1,200 active university spin-off businesses founded at Scottish HEIs generated an estimated turnover of £489 million. We do not hold information on the economic impact of research and development collaborations between Scottish universities and UK HEIs specifically.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS now anticipate the publication of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy to be completed by end of October 2023.

Competing priorities impacted stakeholder capacity to contribute within the planned timeframe, and a need to divert SPS resources to support several acute cases of mentally unwell people in SPS care have contributed to a delay in publication. The revised date now reflects the impact of those delays, whilst ensuring sufficient time is allocated in order to analyse the critical evidence gleaned from mental health experts and those in our care with lived experiences.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 will consolidate, modernise and extend existing hate crime legislation in Scotland. We are working closely with justice partners to ensure effective implementation of the Hate Crime Act..

We continue to work towards a commencement period of early 2024 in order to provide sufficient time to allow justice partners to complete a number of IT change programmes which will support implementation.

Officials and Ministers are continuing to engage regularly with justice partners with a view to ensuring the necessary IT changes are delivered in time for implementation by our early 2024 deadline.

Hate crimes will continue to be dealt with under existing hate crime legislation until such time as the Act comes into force.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16521 on 27 April 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) operate a bespoke planned maintenance system which was introduced a number of years ago on the Major Vessel Fleet. A project is underway to replace the system with a modern off the shelf established, marine system, however this project is dependent on funding being secured. The new system would allow standardisation of planned maintenance across the whole fleet as well as bringing efficiencies to the preventative maintenance, data and record keeping and drive efficiencies in the dry-docking process.