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The National Care Service will allow us to improve standards across the whole of the social care sector. The current model of securing care services will be replaced by a model of ethical commissioning and ethical procurement.

As part of this the entire adult social care workforce experience fair work, introducing national pay bargaining to deliver more equitable terms and conditions. The National Care Service will design its services locally to ensure individual needs and local circumstances are taken into account. This will include continuing to work with specialist charity and third sector providers of care services.

The Scottish Government has no plans to widen the statutory remit of the Care Inspectorate to include working with other public bodies to take assets into public ownership. However, we intend to strengthen the Care Inspectorate’s enforcement powers. This will include the introduction of enhanced fitness of provider requirements and financial sustainability monitoring to act as an early warning system for the deterioration of service quality or failure. These will enable the regulator to more quickly take action on poor performing services, and drive up the consistency and quality of care expected across all social care services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government introduced the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament on 20th June 2022. As part of the approach to the National Care Service, ethical commissioning and ethical procurement will be used to shape all commissioning and procurement decision making.

Local bodies will be required to have a strategic plan, setting out their arrangements and vision for how services will be provided, this will include an ethical commissioning strategy in relation to those services.

Company law and corporation tax are reserved to the UK Government. This means the Scottish Government has no powers to legislate in these areas or to discriminate against firms who take tax avoidance measures that UK rules allow.

The Scottish Government supports measures to ensure that businesses pay a fair amount of tax, such as the development of international, multilateral measures to combat tax avoidance and protect national tax bases. We believe that businesses have an ethical obligation to deal openly with their tax affairs and to avoid engaging in artificial arrangements simply to reduce their tax liabilities.

NHS Employer and Staff Side representatives discussed the temporary increase at a meeting on 7 July and agreed to extend the enhanced rates for a further 4 months, until 30 November 2022. This was confirmed to the service on 12 July.

The developing Scottish Seabird Conservation Strategy will play an important role in identifying effective actions to help optimise the conservation prospects of seabirds in Scotland from existing and emerging threats, including disease threats, such as avian influenza. We aim to consult on the strategy in 2022, and to implement in 2023.

The Scottish Government recognises the emerging seaweed cultivation industry as an important part of the Scottish aquaculture sector. We are committed to taking action on aquaculture regulatory reform, which will include the seaweed sector. I have welcomed Professor Griggs’ independent report and accepted his recommendations in principle. His report recognises the unique challenges and opportunities of the seaweed sector and recommends that a separate regulatory framework is developed for the sector alongside frameworks for finfish and shellfish. It also stresses the need for these regulatory solutions to be informed by a government-led Vision for aquaculture, which is in progress and due to be published at the end of this year.

We are committed to bringing forward an ambitious new Land Reform Bill in 2023, which will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically unequal patterns of land ownership. The public consultation on the Bill, “Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation” , launched on 4 July, and will be open until the 25 September.

The consultation includes measures to regulate the market in transfers of large-scale landholdings, including through the introduction of a Public Interest Test. This measure will ensure that the public interest is considered on transfers of large-scale landholdings and is pursuant to recommendations made in this regard by the Scottish Land Commission.

We will work with all stakeholders to develop the proposals outlined in the consultation document, and welcome views on the proposals. The public consultation will play an important role in building the evidence base to support the development of our proposals.

We are committed to taking action on aquaculture regulatory reform, which will include the seaweed sector. A consenting task group is being set up by officials that will examine possible improvements in processes and procedures including consultation mechanisms for all aquaculture consenting, while maintaining current roles and responsibilities.

We are committed to bringing forward an ambitious new Land Reform Bill in 2023, which will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically unequal patterns of land ownership. The public consultation on the Bill, “Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation” , launched on 4 July, and will be open until 25 September.

The consultation includes measures to regulate the market in transfers of large-scale landholdings, including through the introduction of a Public Interest Test. This measure will ensure that the public interest is considered on transfers of large-scale landholdings.

As we develop the proposals for the Land Reform Bill, we will consider measures regarding the acquisition, use and management of land in place in other European countries, taking into account the rationale and legal basis for these measures, and consider other sources of evidence.

We will work with all stakeholders to develop the proposals outlined in consultation document, and welcome views on the proposals. The public consultation will play an important role in building the evidence base to support the development of our proposals.

Our proposals will be fully compliant with the ECHR, including the right to private property, and the terms of the current devolution settlement. But they will also be ambitious, and designed to ensure that land plays it full part in delivering the vision set out by the Just Transition Commission - a fairer, greener future for all. This reflects the principled position of the Scottish Government, and our explicit commitment to respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights for every member of society.

As Scotland’s seaweed cultivation industry grows, we must ensure we manage this in a sustainable manner, addressing and mitigating any impact on the natural environment. Research will be key to better understanding the sustainability aspects of growing seaweed cultivation, and as part of our next steps of the aquaculture regulatory review, I have approached the Scottish Science Advisory Council to examine the use and communication of science in aquaculture consenting.