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The Scottish Government has made significant funding commitments to protect and restore our biodiversity and is committed to invest an additional £500 million in our natural economy over the course of this parliament. Our recent funding package of £2.9 million for biodiversity projects comes on top of a £65 million commitment for nature restoration. This additional funding includes £1.3m for Atlantic rainforest restoration to fund the first phase of a rainforest restoration programme; £0.5m for ‘Species on the Edge’; and £200,000 to expand nature networks.

As set out in the new draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy we are committed to developing a Biodiversity Investment Plan, to mobilise public, private and philanthropic finance, closing the estimated £20 billion finance gap for nature this coming decade.

We are not delaying the implementation of commercial short-term let licensing. Licensing schemes opened in October 2022, and new hosts must now apply for, and obtain, a licence before accepting bookings or receiving guests. Local authorities continue to receive applications from new and existing hosts

In recognition of the wider cost of living crisis that is placing pressure on existing short-term let hosts and businesses, we have announced that we will introduce legislation in January 2023 to extend the deadline for existing hosts to apply for a licence from 1 April 2023 to 1 October 2023.

This is not a pause and we encourage hosts to keep applying throughout.

The Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2022 make it clear that the Board should reach its decision having taken into account all the matters before it including, where applicable, failure to disclose the location of a victims remains. The decision to refuse parole is at the discretion of the Parole Board.

The Scottish Government accepted the independent Barclay Review’s recommendation that the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) be evaluated and commissioned the Fraser of Allander Institute to do so. After the publication of the evaluation on 8 March 2022, the Scottish Government set up a short-term working group, which included business organisations, to consider in particular the recommendation “that the Scottish Government begins to collect new information that will make a more robust assessment of the SBBS (and potentially other reliefs) possible in the future”. The group concluded that the financial support which SBBS relief offers benefits many small businesses, but concerns were raised that collecting more information would place an additional burden on business which would not be welcomed at this time.

The Scottish Government also engages regularly with business and sectoral organisations including in a number of stakeholder roundtables ahead of the budget to help understand tax priorities for all the taxes that the Scottish Government has control over, including non-domestic rates.

Responding to the main ask from 19 business organisations, the Budget announced a freeze to the poundage, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row, and continues to support our businesses and communities with a generous non-domestic rates relief package. The Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK, and will continue to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.

The Scottish Government does not hold the data requested.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for issuing Victim Notification Scheme packs. They have advised that the number of packs issued to eligible victims for 2021-2022 and from April 2022 to 16 Jan 2023 – the information held to date - is as follows:

• 2021-2022 - Total 1674
• 2022 to 16 January 2023 – Total 1788

Eligible victims can register for the scheme at any time. The Scottish Prison Service has advised that the numbers of victims who have opted to register for the scheme in the financial year 2021-22 and from 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022 – the information held to date - are as follows:

• 2021-2022 – Total 400
• 1 April 2022 until 31 December 2022 – Total 356

The Scottish Government has two streams of funding available to local authorities to help support Gaelic medium and Gaelic learner education across Scotland. These are the Scheme of Gaelic Specific Grant, £4.482m, and the Gaelic Schools Capital Fund, £4m. In 2022-23, 26 local authorities applied and were supported from the Scheme of Gaelic Specific Grant and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Highland received support for projects that expanded Gaelic Medium Education educational settings.

We continue to work closely with the steering group, made up of Disabled People’s Organisations, to co-design the new Disability Equality strategy. The group met several times in 2022 and are focused on listening to the challenges and obstacles disabled people face and finding the solutions that can be delivered.

The group last met in November 2022 and a further meeting is planned for the end of February 2023. It is anticipated that the strategy will be published in Spring 2023 subject to the conclusion of the co-design process.

The Scottish Government has discussed the use of the term Minor Attracted Person with Police Scotland following recent media coverage. Police Scotland has confirmed that it does not use the term and it is not used by its partners. The Scottish Government does not use this term and it is not used by Scottish public bodies.

Police Scotland has issued a statement which confirms that it does not use this term and explains the context to it being referred to in a June 2022 Police Scotland performance report.

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. We also know that social workers face significant challenges and have taken steps to ensure they have the right support.

The Scottish Association of Social Work has been given £200,000 in 2021-2023 to provide a peer support service covering a range of issues including wellbeing and resilience.