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The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout, as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter is now giving detailed consideration to all evidence before making recommendations to the Scottish Ministers for a decision.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.

No direct funding has been provided from the Scottish Government to community organisations, third sector organisations and educational facilities with the explicit aim of promoting an understanding of Scotland’s role within the British Empire.

Following the motion passed by the Scottish Parliament showing solidarity with anti-racism in June 2020, funding was provided to Museums Galleries Scotland for the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums project, which was run by an independent steering group, and included a national consultation on attitudes to museums and racism. The Scottish Government provided £100,000 in 2020-2021, with a further £142,000 in 2021-2022 to complete the project and begin follow up work.

We will fulfil our commitment to introduce the Visitor Levy Bill in the current Parliamentary Year.

As at the end of the day 31 March 2023, there were 36,131 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme in South Lanarkshire.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

The Scottish Government is not looking to revise the GP contract to affect the ability of GP practices to charge for voluntary completion of Debt and Mental Health Evidence Forms in Scotland. This is not work that could be considered covered by general medical services funding so if GP practices are not permitted to charge, there is a risk they will not carry out the work when requested.

The Scottish Government continues to work with our delivery partners across Peatland ACTION to tackle the many barriers to upscaling peatland restoration in this relatively young sector.

Recent progress to address contractor availability and skills shortages include:

• NatureScot published a Technical Compendium in November 2022 which includes guidance on how to restore peatland; this is direct response to a call for greater standardisation which will help contractors to specify and plan works more efficiently
• A variety of skills initiatives are underway including: on-site demonstration days; a newly launched peatland restoration training course; on-the-job new entrants initiative; and targeted training on topics such as Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) tendering.
• A Peatland Skills, Capacity and Training Group has been established which brings together partners from the Peatland ACTION delivery partners, Skills Development Scotland, LANTRA, Confor, Scotland’s Rural Collage and the James Hutton Institute to develop a collaborative approach to addressing the skills shortages.

Peatland restoration is an industry in its infancy – it is only a few years old and has not yet developed significant supply capacity.

The £250 million multi-year government commitment entered into as part of the Bute House Agreement has increased confidence in the private engineering sector to invest in the people, machinery, skills and training needed to increase delivery capacity, is helping to increase capacity and output, and we expect that trajectory to continue.

The Scottish Government have no plans to remove non-native species from the Forestry Grant Scheme. We are currently consulting on the future Forestry Grant Scheme and seeking views on increasing biodiversity outcomes. Non-native fast growing species are very efficient at locking up carbon quickly, and therefore make a valuable contribution as part of a mixed portfolio, to the Scottish government commitment to reach net zero by 2045. Support is currently in place for all types of native woodland creation and opportunities to create native woodland are maximised through the Forestry Grant Scheme.

Our Sustainable Forest Management practices, ensure all woodland types need to conform to the UK Forestry Standard, and also provide a wide range of other environmental, social and economic benefits such as flood mitigation, health, recreation and biodiversity benefits. In relation to economic benefits, non-native species are the key element of Scotland’s thriving forestry sector and timber industry which contributes over £1 billion a year to the Scottish Economy and employs over 25,000 people in rural areas. Therefore it is essential that we continue to plant the right tree in the right place to deliver multiple benefits and create resilient woodlands for future generations to enjoy.

The Scottish Government records and processes correspondence addressed to Scottish Ministers on its Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence (MiCase) System. Since the start of 2023, there have been three pieces of correspondence regarding gene editing recorded and processed via the MiCase system.

Scottish Government officials are also in frequent contact with a range of stakeholders and officials in other UK administrations, where gene editing may form part of ongoing correspondence around regular liaison meetings on a range of policy topics.

Members of the public should report flytipping incidents directly to the relevant local authority.

Local authorities will involve other enforcement agencies such as SEPA and Police Scotland into relevant investigations as required, as they do currently, when reports are made through a local authority reporting system.

61 Slurry Storage applications will be considered for funding through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme for 2023.