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Provisional data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure estimate for Scotland in 2021 was £3.12bn. Note that the ONS has recently changed their measurement of BERD. The BERD statistics methodology has been improved to better capture data from smaller businesses, which has led to significant uplift revisions to BERD expenditure estimates. More work is required to further quality assure the new methodology and we will continue to work with the ONS on that. The Scottish Government and its agencies invested an additional £45m to support the increase of BERD between 2018 and 2021.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

I welcome the recent refurbishment of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall earlier this year. The refurbishment upgraded the Main Auditorium seats and the stage lifts and allowed for important accessibility improvements.

There have been no discussions between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life regarding the future of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17454 on 12 May 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 .

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, and Zero Waste Scotland have regularly engaged with businesses on the Deposit Return Scheme.

The new launch date of 1 st of March 2024 provides an additional six and a half months preparation time for businesses and the scheme administrator. This includes time for end to end testing.

Working with partners we have refreshed the system-wide governance for the implementation stage of the programme. This now includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group which will meet for the first time during May 2023 and sectoral groups representing producers, retailers, hospitality and the public sector, most of which have already had their first meeting.

The HMP Glasgow project was advertised to the market in March 2022 to commence procurement of pre-construction services as part of a two-stage procurement process in order to progress the overall delivery of the programme. The Scottish Prison Service awarded the pre-construction services contract in July 2022. Timescales for the delivery of the prison will be confirmed once the design phase is concluded.

Apprenticeships are a vital resource for employers to invest in their workforce and for people to develop their skills. Investing in skills across people’s lifetimes is critical to our future productivity and success, underlining our commitment to a skilled workforce set out within the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is responsible for managing the modern apprenticeship programme in line with Ministerial expectations, and taking into account industry demand. The Modern Apprenticeship demand assessment includes consultation with industry to inform the contracting strategy .

It is standard practice for SDS to work with employers and review changing employer demand for apprenticeship starts in-year, and they adjust the number of starts allocated to respond as appropriate within their budget.

This month, SDS concluded a reallocation process and will issue updated contract awards for over 2,000 new Modern Apprenticeship starts to providers with strong evidence of employer demand and where there is a need to support critical skills in the economy. SDS will continue to follow this process this financial year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17864 on 23 May 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

As of Sunday 30 April 2023, there were 619,900 cardholders under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. The following table shows the number of cardholders broken down to local authority level.

The Scottish Government is determined to ensure that buildings with unsafe cladding are remediated and that developers meet their responsibilities. The Scottish Government has been working closely with Homes for Scotland and the 10 largest developers who work across the UK (wave one developers) to agree a Scottish Safer Buildings Accord.

We have now reached an in-principle agreement with Homes for Scotland and a number of those wave one developers on the Accord. This is an important step in the process. We will now move to agree the long form legally-binding contract to support the remediation of developer linked buildings with unsafe cladding. We will continue to engage with the remaining wave one developers to address outstanding technical questions and open discussions with the smaller and medium sized developers on their responsibilities. We are continuing to explore legislative options to safeguard residents and homeowners.