Seòmar agus comataidhean

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. The Scottish Government has no plans to establish a national pothole fund.

The overall funding package for local authorities of almost £12.7bn for 2022/23 represents a rise of £1.06bn or 9.2% in cash terms, or 6.3% in real terms compared with 2021/22.

In 2018, the Scottish Government undertook a public consultation to explore options for establishing a deposit return scheme in Scotland, to which 16 recycling and waste management organisations submitted representations. An analysis of these consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website here . The Scottish Government receives and responds to ongoing correspondence from stakeholders regarding DRS and is happy to consider any request for further information, in line with its obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

As set out in Section 14 and Section 15 of The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020, submitted applications with regards to the appointment of scheme administrators are reviewed and decisions made by Scottish Ministers. The Regulations do not provide for public funding or financial support for appointed scheme administrators. This is entirely appropriate for a scheme that has industry responsibility at its heart. As such, subsidy control matters are not relevant in the appointment of a scheme administrator.

Information regarding employment in the creative industries is publicly available on the Scottish Government’s website and can be found at Growth Sector Statistics Database . The relevant data is included in Table 2.5.

The employment data in the Growth Sector Statistics Database does not provide coverage of businesses and self-employed workers operating under the VAT threshold, which are of particular significance to creative and cultural employment, given that many work freelance or in small businesses. As part of ongoing work to develop our approach to measuring the size and performance of the sector within the National Performance Framework, we are currently undertaking work to improve our estimates of employment in the sector to include additional cultural, heritage and creative activities and to allow for better coverage of freelancers.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on future employment growth in this area.

The following information has been provided by the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) (OPG). The number of power of attorney submissions received by the OPG via electronic power of attorney registrations (EPOAR) and by post from 2018-19 to 2020-22. Full-year information is not yet available for 2022-23.

SEPA has informed Scottish Government officials they have no plans to conduct any monitoring or investigations at Arecleoch and Glen App wind farms.

As noted in my answer to question S6W-14975 on 2 March, Scottish Power Renewables have advised the Scottish Government that all spills on the sites have been of a minor nature and therefore have not required a notification to be sent to SEPA.

Local planning authorities are responsible for monitoring compliance with any conditions and other environmental commitments, or mitigations as identified as part of the Environment Impact Assessment. All cases are considered under their own granted consent.

The information below has been provided by the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) (OPG). Full-year information is not yet available for 2022-23. The average response time for the OPG to process powers of attorney, online via Electronic Power of Attorney Registrations (EPOAR) and by post, in business days (excluding those expedited where special urgency was indicated) is as follows:

a) For 2022-23, core funding for university research was increased to £299 million to maintain and strengthen Scotland’s excellent research base, with levels maintained for 2023-24. This funding is used for a range of purposes, including the provision of state of the art research facilities and lab equipment, and development opportunities for student and early career researchers who are the future of Scottish life sciences.

b) To ensure there are facilities available to support university spinouts the Scottish Government has invested in Research Pools, Innovation Centres and in the Alliance for Research Challenges. The aim is to create a critical mass of excellence, pulling together academic and industry expertise in areas of global importance, including Life Sciences.

In addition, investment through the City Region Deals is supporting a number of bespoke life sciences infrastructure projects including £10 million investment towards BioHub, an Aberdeen City Region Deal project. Located at the University of Aberdeen's Foresthill Health Campus, it will provide the support and physical infrastructure to help attract and retain life sciences spin outs in Scotland. As part of the Tay Cities Region Deal, Scottish Government agreed to provide £25 million towards facilities at the University, including £20.2 million towards an Innovation Hub to host and support spin-out and developing companies, including laboratory infrastructure.

As well as expert advice and help from our enterprise agencies to support business growth, through the Tech Scaler initiative we will provide intensive, structured commercial education to ‘start-up’ businesses in Scotland, to support them in growing and scaling-up to the full extent of their ambitions.

The Scottish Government last met with the Royal Mail Group on 13 March 2023.

The purpose of that meeting was to seek assurance that the on-going industrial action, and Royal Mail’s plans for reform, would not have an unfair impact on those living in Scotland’s communities, especially the more remote and rural ones.

We are broadly supportive of the workforce action because of the threat of reform to the Universal Service Obligation.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with UK Government counterparts at ministerial and official level on many matters concerning the space sector, including the subject of regulation. Most recently I wrote to the UK Space Agency and my counterpart at the former BEIS in February, following a meeting with them in January.

On 16 March 2023, I wrote to the Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority to ask what immediate actions are being taken to reassure government, industry and their customers and investors, that the UK regulator will not inhibit either our global competitiveness as a spacefaring nation nor our spaceports or satellite manufacturers commercial prospects.