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There has been no call on the Lochaber guarantee and therefore no public expenditure has been incurred. The Scottish Government securities are valued at more than the outstanding amount Guaranteed.

The Lochaber businesses continue to perform well and support jobs in the region – underlining just how important our intervention was.GFG has created 40 new jobs in Lochaber since 2016 – increasing direct employment in the complex to 200 jobs and supporting a valuable supply chain with hundreds of associated jobs.

We remain committed to the expansion of universal free school meals in primary schools. In the Scottish budget for 2023-24, we announced additional investment of £16 million in revenue funding and £80 million in capital funding for free school meals expansion. This will continue to fund the next phase of our expansion, which will be targeted to Primary 6 and 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, which is the next step in fulfilling our commitment to universal provision of free school meals in primary schools.

We recognise that a number of local authorities have indicated they face challenges in planning for the substantial expansion of free school meals. It is right that we work in partnership with local government to deliver our shared commitment. We will continue to engage with COSLA and other key delivery partners to undertake planning for further expansion.

I’m very much looking forward to meeting with police officers and staff across Scotland as the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs.

My predecessor met with police officers at Wester Hailes Police Station on 14 December 2023 and was pleased to attend the Chief Constable’s Bravery and Excellence Awards at Tulliallan Police College on 10 February.

Crown Estate Scotland are responsible for the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing process.

INTOG developers will be required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) before they enter an Option Agreement, as set out in the Crown Estate Scotland Offer document (August 2022). As with ScotWind, the SCDS will outline the nature and location of any intended supply chain activity, including details on people and skills linked to their proposed project.Option Agreements will be signed following adoption of the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan for INTOG in 2024. Projects which then meet all the requirements of the Option Agreement, including consents, will be offered a full seabed lease.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with Scottish Water on these matters. In partnership with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Water is carrying out the Chemical Investigation Programme (CIP) Scotland which involves sampling for priority substances of emerging concern. Pharmaceuticals are considered to be contaminants of emerging concern, and monitoring and assessing the risk to the water environment for many such substances is still in the development phase. Following action on source control for a range of pharmaceuticals agreed with SEPA under the second phase of the CIP, the third phase of the research sees further sampling and process optimisation trials at Wastewater Treatment Works that aims to help improve our understanding of whether better treatment can achieved at Scottish Water’s assets. In terms of drinking water, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator monitors Scottish Water’s performance. Regulation 4 of the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014 as amended requires Scottish Water to ensure drinking water does not contain any substance at a concentration that could constitute a danger to human health.

Scottish Water is also a member of the One Health Breakthrough Partnership (OHBP), which is funded by the Scottish Government and brings together key stakeholders across the water, environment, and healthcare sectors who are committed to addressing pharmaceutical pollution in the environment through source control.

Parliamentary question S6W-15763 asked “how many patients under 18 have been admitted to an NHS facility for vaping-related illnesses or disorders in each year since 2019”. At that time (March 2023) Public Health Scotland (PHS) responded that these data were not currently held. However, PHS are now carrying out work to identify the number of individuals with vaping related illness in Scotland and will publish figures in July 2023.

The results of the Health and Wellbeing Census Scotland 2021-22, and reports from schools and parents about young people vaping, are of great concern to the Scottish Government.

Vapes are an age restricted product and should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18. In October 2022 we wrote to all registered retailers of these products to remind them of their duty of sale and we regularly meet with Trading Standards on enforcement.

Our recent consultation proposed restrictions on vaping products and we are aiming to bring forward new regulations in 2023. Any action we seek to take will build on the regulations already in place to restrict the marketing, promotion and sale of vaping products to under 18s.

We will publish our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan this year, which will include actions to reduce vaping among young people.

We are reviewing vaping education for young people in schools and have also funded ASH Scotland to work with a range of youth organisations on the risks associated with vaping.

The following table shows the number of contributory factors in injury road accidents where road surface was poor or defective in Highlands and Islands police division, broken down by council area. In addition to the Highlands and Islands, the North command area also covers Grampian and Tayside. These areas have therefore not been included.

ScotRail has confirmed that 422 train carriages across the fleet have the capacity to store bicycles which equates to 1,506 spaces for bikes available on ScotRail trains.

There are 343 stations across the network that have cycle storage facilities available.