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The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland continue to regularly engage directly with businesses on matters which are within our control to ensure all involved are ready for successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Organisations from across the UK frustrated by the UK Government’s position have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exemption to the Internal Markets Act. Many more have privately expressed their concern that the lack of an Internal Market Act exemption is creating uncertainty and confusion for all the businesses that have worked so hard to prepare for the scheme.

The use of hydrogen for the provision of domestic heat using the gas network will be demonstrated over the next few years in Scotland as part of the SGN H100 Fife ‘neighbourhood trial’ and in the UK as part of the larger village and town trials. The H100 Fife project is currently under construction, with aims to fit 100% hydrogen boilers into 300 homes in Leven. The project is scheduled to go live in 2024, and operate until March 2027. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to the project.

The length of closures (in hours / minutes) of the A9 between Inverness and Perth due to an accident between 2018 and 2023 (to date), month by month are detailed in the following table:

I, and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, are always open to meeting with stakeholders to hear their views and understand their concerns. Any organisation or individual who wishes to meet on any issue that falls under our respective portfolios should contact the relevant Private Office to request whether a meeting can be arranged.

Official statistics covering processing times for Adult Disability Payment are published as a part of the regularly scheduled quarterly publication. The latest Adult Disability Payment statistical publication was published on 14 March 2023, covering up to end January 2023. Information on the median average processing time by month is included in table 9.

https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#benefitsforcarersanddisabilityassistance .

The next publication will be published on 13 June 2023, and will cover up to end April 2023.

Processing time is the number of working days from part 2 of the application being received to a decision being made or the application being withdrawn.

Our systems and processes record the time taken to a decision, rather than only approvals, and as such we are unable to provide the longest time taken between a successful application for Adult Disability Payment being received and the first payment being made.

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland continue to regularly engage directly with businesses on matters which are within our control to ensure all involved are ready for successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Organisations from across the UK frustrated by the UK Government’s position have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exemption to the Internal Markets Act. Many more have privately expressed their concern that the lack of an Internal Market Act exemption is creating uncertainty and confusion for all the businesses that have worked so hard to prepare for the scheme.

Social Security Scotland are committed to ensuring personal data is shared in a safe, secure, and lawful manner. The data sharing agreement between Social Security Scotland and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport for the purpose of National Entitlement Cards will be in place from September 2023.

The Ministerial Population Taskforce has committed to publishing the Addressing Depopulation Action Plan in Autumn 2023, which will include a place-based focus on a mixture of rural, island, and select urban locations across Scotland which are experiencing depopulation.

The Scottish Government is committed to taking a genuine partnership approach to the development of the Action Plan, and will continue to engage closely with local authorities, COSLA, agencies and local communities throughout summer 2023, prior to its publication.

The Ministerial Population Taskforce continues to meet quarterly to provide oversight and cross-portfolio focus to the addressing of Scotland’s long term demographic challenges, set out in the 2021 Population Strategy.

As Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for population and the new Chair, I will be convening a meeting of the Taskforce with a new ministerial membership in June.

A number of key policy commitments are being taken forward by the Taskforce in 2023, including the commitment to launch a Talent Attraction and Migration Service and to publish an Addressing Depopulation Action Plan.

The UK Government Apprenticeship Levy is a reserved tax on employers which was implemented by the UK Government. Scotland receives a proportionate share of tax revenues via the block grant as per the Fiscal Framework agreement with UK Treasury.

On 14 November 2016, the UK Government announced the Scottish Government’s settlement from the UK Apprenticeship Levy based on a population share of projected revenue for the first three years only. From 2020-21, the normal operation of the Barnett Formula has applied. As a result, the Scottish Government has no direct control or responsibility for its operation and we have not had a breakdown of Levy funding for Scotland since 2020-21.

SDS fund Modern and Foundation apprenticeships through their core grant in-aid budget. Audited spend for 2022-23 will be published in the SDS annual accounts later in the year, which will be available on the SDS website.

The Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) does not fund apprenticeships. It is designed to provide employers across Scotland with flexible training to upskill their current workforce.