Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government works with a variety of stakeholders, who support and shape work on rural affairs, agriculture and islands. The input from our stakeholders is invaluable and plays a vital role in helping deliver our ambitions for rural areas and islands, and agriculture.

The number and make-up of these working groups varies in line with government priorities. Examples of current working groups which fall under the remits requested are provided in the following table:

The Scottish Government undertakes monitoring and evaluation of all funded programmes once they are live. Monitoring and evaluation is used to assess progress against agreed targets so can only be done once a project has started and there is progress to assess.

For the £1.7 million worth of funded projects, and in line with standard Scottish Government grant-management practice, we hold monthly update conversations and formally assess progress on a quarterly basis based on formal progress reports. Project specific monitoring and evaluation plans are developed based on each individual grant’s objectives to determine indicators that will accurately measure progress.

Our programmes seek to empower communities to identify the priorities to be addressed through climate justice support and to build resilience to the local material and social impacts of climate change that they have identified. Fundamental in achieving that resilience is through our future programmes mainstreaming communities participation in programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This means communities, including the most marginalised within communities, participate in determining and monitoring the metrics and baselines by which a programme is deemed a success.

Our future programmes seek to mainstream communities participation in programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Our upcoming £24m Climate Just Communities programme will ensure that communities, including the most marginalised within communities, participate in determining and monitoring the metrics and baselines by which a programme is deemed a success.

At present, the Scottish Government has no immediate plans to develop a national governance portal, however, Scottish Government officials will work with the SFC, Colleges Scotland, regional strategic boards, trade unions, student associations, and the College Development network through the Good Governance Steering Group to implement changes to college governance in the best possible way.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12954 on 20 December. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx' .

The Scottish Government does not keep a record of the number of retailers currently operating return points on a voluntary basis.

We understand that a number of businesses are trialling or have already trialled the use of reverse vending machines in their premises in Scotland and welcome their commitment to ensuring their readiness for the launch of the UK’s first Deposit Return Scheme on 16 August 2023.

The Scottish Government have no plans to tender for a ferry service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge. Subsidy Control rules limit government directly funding international commercial ferry connections beyond initial start-up support. As commercial propositions, we continue to work with potential commercial operators who are interested in introducing new ferry services to the Continent.

The Scottish Government have had no discussions with David MacBrayne Ltd regarding a ferry service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge. Subsidy Control rules mean any route would have to operate on a commercial basis and this would be a matter for David MacBrayne Ltd’s Board to consider.

A list of the active groups and sub-groups within the Education and Skills portfolio is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 63776).

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13235 on 20 December 2022. The UK Animal Welfare Committee is currently considering the welfare of farmed fish at slaughter and we will explore the need for any changes to current practice or legislation once the committee publishes its findings. 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 work to replace and upgrade the security equipment across the Scottish Government estate is part of a multi-year improvement programme, and is therefore subject to the usual resourcing and prioritisation variables, common with such large-scale programmes.

It is not in the public interest to publicise details of the Scottish Government’s physical security across its estate, however I can confirm that all Hikvision CCTV cameras have been replaced at those Scottish Government buildings identified as “sensitive sites”, as described in the recent UK Government statement.

Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration. They are best placed to develop the right partnerships to deliver regeneration and to identify suitable funding for regeneration activity.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local authorities and communities to tackle persistent vacant and derelict land and we launched the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) in 2021 to support place based approaches to delivering regeneration and sustainable inclusive growth, as part of a ‘just transition’ to net-zero.

The VDLIP complements our existing investment in support of place based regeneration across Scotland, including the Place Based Investment Programme. We are keen for South Lanarkshire Council to work with its communities and other partners to develop suitable project proposals and apply to the VDLIP.

We are also providing support for town centre regeneration through the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP), which aims to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. The PBIP includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund which is providing funding for The Hamilton Hub which is transforming the formerly vacant Vogue cinema in Hamilton town centre.

Additionally South Lanarkshire Council are in receipt of an allocation of the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund. This is a ring-fenced element of the local government finance settlement which is allocated to five eligible Scottish local authorities where there is the greatest amount of long-term vacant and derelict land alongside deprivation. Each eligible local authority is responsible for developing proposals based on its local regeneration priorities in the area, and they must ensure that their proposals meet the aims and objectives of the fund.

Finally we are seeking to promote the reuse of vacant and derelict land and buildings across Scotland through revised Draft National Planning Framework 4 – which was laid in Parliament on 8 November 2022 for the Parliament to consider and approve. This sets out the priority given to the reuse of brownfield land, including vacant and derelict land and buildings, and seeks to proactively enable its reuse and limit greenfield expansion.