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The Scottish Government did not allocate any finance for the Young Islanders Challenge in 2021-22. However, £28,500 was allocated to our delivery partner, Youth Scotland, to support the Young Islanders Challenge in 2020-21.

The specific information requested is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10892 on 20 September 2022 which provides information on funding for extra-curricular activities for young people and activities for young carers. 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 Active Scotland Delivery Group last met on 21 July 2021, with partners rightly focussing on Covid management and recovery in the interim period. Meetings have recently been undertaken with individual partners with a view to reconvening the group by the end of the year and refreshing the Active Scotland Delivery plan post Covid.

The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly developed and published the response to the independent report ‘A New future for Scotland’s Town Centres’. The ‘Town Centre Action Plan Review – Joint response from Scottish Government and COSLA’ sets out a new vision for town centres that ‘Towns and town centres are for the wellbeing of people, planet and economy’. The response outlines actions directed to better embed a ‘Town Centre First approach’ to ensure the economic, social and environmental health of town centres is at the heart of investment decision making. The response was agreed by all Council Leaders.

In addition, we have established the Place-Based Investment Programme to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. Investments are also expected to contribute to net zero, inclusive economic development, wellbeing, tackling inequality, and community involvement and ownership. Local government is a key partner in delivering this Programme and receive a funding allocation. All Council Leaders agreed to support the aims and objectives of the Programme.

We have set out Scottish Government’s and COSLA’s commitment to implementing the key recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation report, which are essential to achieving our aim to significantly reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for adults with learning disabilities and complex care needs by March 2024.

Scottish Government are committed to working with local Health and Social Care Partnerships to achieving this aim and the National Support Panel will be established as soon as possible.

Work to develop an Islands Energy Strategy was delayed during the pandemic. In the interim period there have been significant changes to the policy landscape, including the commitments to take forward an Energy Strategy Just Transition Plan for Scotland and the Carbon Neutral Islands Project. An Islands Energy Strategy will follow and build on these pieces of work in 2023 allowing alignment with Scotland's national plans. Stakeholder engagement is ongoing.

The Scottish Government and senior officials engage regularly with business leaders, representative organisations and industry bodies. During those conversations business have called for measures relating to the cost crisis including: energy price cap for business, VAT reduction, improvements to the occupation shortage list to tackle staff shortages and support in handling business debt.

As the powers to act on these requests fall within reserved responsibilities, I wrote to the UK Government on 8 August to urge it to act in response to these business concerns. I also called for the introduction of an energy price cap for SMEs and support for businesses to prevent closures, as well as investment in economic stimulus to minimise the scale of the projected recession.

The First Minister also wrote to the new Prime Minister in similar terms.

Business organisations have also suggested ways in which Scottish Government can help, including an easing of regulatory burdens; affordability of commercial rent; encouraging continuation of prompt payment; incentivising investment in renewable technologies coupled with improvements to the planning process to accelerate that investment; a freeze on non-domestic rates; capital investment for those businesses who are able to invest for the future; and a resilience fund to support the most extreme cases of hardship and where the business has a viable future.

We will set out the outcome of our Emergency Budget Review to Parliament in due course

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01331 on 7 September 2022. The answer to the Oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at:

https://archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13875

The Scottish Government does not hold the details of ScotRail expenditure broken down by the categories you have requested.

The Scottish Government budget for Rail Passenger Services, which covers both ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper, has been published as :

2016  £266m

2017  £311m

2018  £183m

2019  £150m

2020  £239m

2021  £370m

2022  £407m

We are greatly concerned by reports of children and under-age young people obtaining vaping products.

There is an increase in reports from schools, stakeholders and the media of young people vaping. Initial findings from the Growing Up in Scotland study for 2019-20 when participants were 14 years old suggest that 21.5% had vaped, which is of concern.

The Scottish Government has a precautionary approach to vapes. Vapes and other nicotine products are part of a range of cessation tools available to existing smokers to help stop tobacco use. They should not be used by non-smokers, in particular by children and young people. They should not been used or promoted as a lifestyle accessory.

Our recent Vaping consultation, which closed at the end of April, sought views on tightening rules on advertising and promoting vaping products. The results of this consultation will be published soon and will inform our Tobacco Action Plan refresh.

We are working with a range of stakeholders to ensure that our Tobacco Action Plan discourages and reduces the use and visibility of vaping products by all non-smokers, including children and young people.