Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have engaged with a wide breadth of stakeholders in the offshore energy sector during this period, in the North East of Scotland and across Scotland. Regarding formal meetings with companies in the North East Scotland region I had the following formal meetings:

12 October 2022 - St Fergus Terminal /Segal Terminal Site Tour which included meeting with St Fergus field visit with North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP), Storegga and Shell attending 26 October 2022 - OEUK UK1 March 2023 - Decom North Sea meeting.

This list is not exhaustive of all the engagement I have with offshore energy companies, I speak with companies and stakeholders at all the events that I attend and take part in. Some of the stakeholder events I attended in this time period include:

2 November 2022 - Speaking at Supporting Scotland's Renewable Energy Supply Chain, Scottish Renewables 22 November 2022 – Speaking at the event International Scotland Report, Fraser of Allander Institute and CMS Partners Event 22 November 2022 – Visit to NESCOL Altens 30 November 2022 – Meeting with the North Sea Transition Forum 10 October 2022 – SEE - Maximising Scotland’s Energy Potential: Achieving a Just Transition Conference 8 December 2022 – OEUK Awards Ceremony

Where there is a product recall, we would expect current procedures to apply with the product being recovered intact to the producer who would manage the destruction as production waste or recycling.

Deposits and product costs would be reimbursed by the producer to the retailer and the producer will adjust their 'placed on market' report to Circularity Scotland Limited (CSL) by reporting the volume of product they have ‘placed on market’ via a self service portal. This allows CSL to calculate deposits and producer fees resulting in a refund of deposits and producer fees to the producer.

The evaluation of the Deferral pilots will be published in May 2023. The report has been slightly delayed to allow for an extended recruitment and data collection phase of the research, as the response rate was lower than expected during the original phase.

Interim reporting from the pilot local authorities on the number of ELC places needed for children deferring entry to P1 has been used to inform budget settlement decisions for 2023-24. The final evaluation report will be published in May 2023 and will provide information about implementation in pilot areas and explore the impact of the pilot on parental awareness and perceptions of the entitlement.

The Scottish Government will agree the date of the first meeting in due course, following confirmation of representatives and proposed structure.

Meeting frequency will be determined by the Taskforce when it meets. We envisage that there will be a series of meetings and separate subgroup meetings focusing on the key themes within the terms of reference, and the frequency will vary by workstream, and as work progresses.

The Investing in Communities Fund will support over 100 organisations receiving a share of £27 million over the three years 2023-24 to 2025-26.

There was significant interest in the fund, with a total of 801 applications submitted which were assessed in line with the process that was set out in the fund’s published guidance, concluding with the Independent Assessment Panel.

The assessment process fully allocates the available budget and as such the fund’s guidance made clear that the Panel decision was final and there is no appeals process.

We recognise the current pressure on the third sector, and understandably there are calls being made on the Scottish Government every day for more support.

SCVO estimate that the public sector as a whole invests around £1.4 billion each year to support the work of charities and social enterprises. Of that, around £500m comes from Scottish Government via a broad range of programmes including those supporting community empowerment, mental health and wellbeing, children and families and health and social care.

We will continue to invest widely in the third sector from across the Government and have committed to increase multi-year funding wherever possible. This includes investing £21.9m in Third Sector infrastructure and programmes that provide the ‘backbone’ support and development to the wider sector.

A range of resources and advice can be accessed through the Find Business Support service which Families Like Us that support the Juniors Play Café may find helpful. These can be accessed at the following link: Find Business Support .

Due to the scale and significance of this project, in addition to the NHS Capital Investment Group, the Executive Team in Investment Mode, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, will also review the Outline Business Case at their meeting on 11 April 2023. A decision on next steps will be made after that meeting.

While some detailed financial and legal information between investors and project land managers will be confidential between those parties, NatureScot’s agreement with partners will remain subject to normal information management obligations, including Freedom of Information. NatureScot will disclose all information in line with those requirements.