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I slanders who are eligible for a Young Scot National Entitlement Card currently receive two free return journeys to the mainland each year.

The introduction of the Road Equivalent Tariff on CalMac ferry services delivered an estimated average 34% reduction in passenger fares and 40% for cars and it continues to save passengers around £25m a year.

The young persons’ free bus travel scheme applies to all young people across the country, including those who live on Scotland’s islands. However, it is important that Government reflects on policy implementation in rural areas and in our island communities. To that end, ferry fares policy and specifically the issue of young people’s access to public transport, will be considered as part of the Fair Fares review.

The Sectoral Marine plan for Offshore Wind Energy was subject to a Sustainability Appraisal that included a plan-level Social and Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA). This SEIA assessed and estimated the levels of positive and negative impact of Plan Options and the plan, as a whole. The SMP-OWE did not specify the number of projects that could progress in each Plan Option and as such, the SEIA assessed the Plan Option under various development scenarios. The SEIA was published for consultation alongside the draft plan and can be found at the following link.https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-sectoral-marine-plan-social-econimic-impact-assessment/

This refers to the level of fines for some short-term let licensing offences. When we were developing the short-term let licensing legislation in 2020 we consulted on the maximum level of fines for operating without a licence; breaching a licence condition; and for providing false information. Provisions for this will be included in a forthcoming Housing Bill.

In the development phase of the Scottish 4G Infill Programme, we analysed future predicted coverage data supplied by mobile network operators. These indicated plans for commercial deployment on Barra. State Aid regulations then in force precluded S4GI deployment where there was planned commercial investment. On that basis, it was not possible to include candidate locations on Barra within the scope of the programme, and as consulted on as part of public consultations conducted by the programme in 2017 and in 2018.

SG commissioned Scottish Agriculture Organisation Society (SAOS) to undertake market research to establish demand for a new food and drink brand, and possible options. This research was based on branding that would be available to Scottish based producers, manufacturers and suppliers who can satisfy stringent criteria on provenance and low carbon operations.

The final report is expected soon. This research will be used to inform approaches that will allow businesses to capitalise on the provenance and quality that Scotland’s produce is synonymous with.

The Regulations underpinning Scotland’s DRS state what factors need to be considered when developing the retailer handling fee. The Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd, followed a robust, independent process that considered these factors to set handling fee structure.

There are no current plans to implement a Primary Authority system for devolved regulation. However, as part of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation we have set out that we are working with stakeholders to consider how regulation can be used to support economic and societal aims and use this work to continuously improve the approach to regulation in the future. This will include reviewing existing powers and processes to identify where changes could be made to support both businesses and regulators in achieving our strategic aims.

The Scottish Government have purchased the following laptops since 1st March 2020 for use on the SCOTS network.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments can help generate lasting social and economic benefit for communities across Scotland.

Our longstanding Good Practice Principles for Community Benefit from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments (2019) set national standards, which we encourage all renewable energy developers and communities to utilise, regardless of technology type.

We are keen to see the number of solar installations offering community benefit increase and, as we work with the solar sector towards solutions for its future in our forthcoming draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Strategy, will continue to encourage the sector to consider what packages of community benefit it can offer.

I understand the frustration of local communities and users of the A77 and the difficulties and delays they cause, but these works are essential to maintain the safety and resilience of this section of the A77. Work at Carlock Wall commenced in February 2020 and was due to be completed by the end of that year. However, unforeseen adverse ground conditions were identified during construction. This included bed rock to support the new wall being much deeper than anticipated and significant volumes of unstable material on the existing slope face requiring additional stabilisation. Work started immediately to tackle both of these issues. Good progress has been made despite impacts associated with Covid-19. Carriageway re-opening to two way traffic is currently programmed to be completed by late Autumn 2022. Further landscaping and finishing works to areas remote from the carriageway will be complete in Spring 2023.