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Improving the accessibility of elections is a key element of the Scottish Government’s electoral reform agenda. It is our ambition to remove or reduce barriers that some voters face and to improve the accessibility of elections.

We have been working with RNIB Scotland and the Forth Valley Sensory Centre over several months to consider potential solutions and technology to assist people with sight loss to cast their votes, including testing audio devices. RNIB Scotland will also shortly undertake testing of a tactile ballot paper solution at the Centre. We will then consider feedback from these initial trials of the tactile ballots papers and, working in collaboration with our partners in Local Government, electoral administrators and the Electoral Commission, produce proposals for next steps. I anticipate we should be in a position to report progress and set out future proposals and plans to Parliament in the summer.

In addition, as part of the Government’s current consultation on electoral reform we are asking for views on how the accessibility of elections could be improved and what changes might be made in law. The consultation closes on 15 March - available at https://consult.gov.scot/constitution-and-cabinet/electoral-reform/ . I look forward to reading the responses which will help inform our work going forward.

As set out in our recent draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan the Scottish Government’s position on traditional nuclear energy has not and will not change.

Given our long-standing position on nuclear, any such analysis would not be value for money and has not been pursued. Recent examples of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell clearly demonstrate that nuclear is considerably more expensive than renewables, which is why our position is to focus on renewables, coupled with storage and flexibility options.

2020 was designated Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters, a year that would spotlight, celebrate and promote opportunities to experience and enjoy Scotland’s unrivalled coasts and waters, encouraging responsible engagement and participation. The visitor opportunity in terms of experiences and events was broadly presented across four cross cutting strands:

1. Our Natural Environment and Wildlife

2. Our Historic Environment and Cultural Heritage

3. Activities and Adventure

4. Food and Drink

Originally scheduled for 2020, as a result of the COVID pandemic, and following discussion with the events and tourism industry, Scottish Ministers agreed to extend the year into 2021.

Analysis of Outcomes

Despite the impact of COVID, the Year of Coasts and Waters exceeded the targets set by the external Steering Group, delivering activity in communities across Scotland and playing an important part in the recovery of the events, tourism and associated sectors.

VisitScotland will shortly provide an evaluation of the year, which will be available on www.visitscotland.org . Initial findings from the year report success against the five agreed key objectives for a Themed Year: Promotion, Celebration, Participation, Collaboration and Industry Engagement.

Headline outcomes include:

• Promotion : the award-winning PR campaign achieved at least 3,662 pieces of media coverage generating a world-wide media reach of circa 3.7 billion whilst the marketing campaigns reached 196.4 million.
• Celebration: 110 events were delivered across the funded and (non-funded) partner events programmes. All 32 local authorities hosted activity and all events were delivered safely within the relevant COVID guidance.
• Participation: almost 1.1 million attendances were recorded across the 28 funded events. This included 702,000 in-person attendances and 389,000 at digital events. Of those participants who responded, 79 per cent said they will appreciate Scotland’s coasts and waters more, 67 per cent said they will get out, by or on the water more and 63 per cent said they planned to take a more active role in the preservation of our coasts and waters and-or marine environment.
• Collaboration: More than 30 organisations were involved in the Steering and Working Groups and were directly involved in shaping, promoting and delivering the year. Demonstrating the level of collaboration, the campaign hashtags were used more than 122,000 times by hundreds of organisations and individuals, all co-promoting the year. Many collaborative projects were also created in response to the Year – e.g. 18 Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and partners came together to create the West Coast Waters campaign, reaching around 2 million and creating a legacy of partnership working.
• Industry Engagement : Pre 2020 69 per cent of tourism businesses were already aware of the planned Year of Coasts and Waters, 31 per cent were already engaged and 80 per cent of those not engaged were considering it. 76 industry presentations reached at least 2,000 tourism industry representatives. This resulted in over 18,000 views of the online industry toolkit and 896 logos (including 165 Gaelic versions) were downloaded to support partner promotional activity. 11 case studies and 18 interviews showcasing industry engagement were published on visitscotland.org generating 7,000+ page views.

The Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 put sustainability and responsible tourism at its heart and worked with supported events organisers to advance responsible events delivery practices. This resulted in:

• Positive Impact : 100 per cent of funded events said that being part of the Year of Coasts and Waters had a positive impact on the way they would work in future.
• Higher Prioritisation – 93 per cent were encouraged to think more about sustainable events management.
• New Processes – 68 per cent of event organisers implemented a new activity or process in managing their environmental impacts.

Direct Cost

Direct cost incurred by the Scottish Government for the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 was the budget of £1.14 million over FY 2019-20 and 2020-21. Of this, £1.09 million was allocated to VisitScotland and £50,000 via a grant to YouthLink Scotland to support the Micro Local Area Grant (MoLAG) programme.

Other public bodies and partners including VisitScotland also supported the year through their own resources, with a wide range of projects and campaigns created or aligned to take advantage of the collaborative platform created by the Year of Coasts and Waters.

Indirect Costs

In terms of indirect costs, within the Scottish Government, work on the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 was coordinated by the then Major Events and Themed Years Unit. With 2.6 FTE members of staff incorporating this as part of their existing roles: the overall resource allocation for the year was less than 2.6 FTE as the team also worked on other projects. In addition, a small number of other civil servants in different teams across a range of portfolios contributed to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities. In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks associated with the year carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this.

Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 Events

Across the Funded and Partner event programmes 110 events were delivered with activity taking place across all 32 local authorities. Of the 36 events initially awarded funding support through the Year of Coasts and Waters Open Events Fund, some were unable to progress due to COVID. 28 were eventually able to progress and were delivered across 26 local authority areas.

Alongside the Funded events, unfunded Partner events were still supported through the free marketing and media resources offered by VisitScotland. 174 events initially registered as Partner Events across 30 local authorities, with 82 events of these unfunded events eventually able to go ahead when COVID conditions allowed.

The following table therefore shows the locations (including across multiple local authority areas), grant awards and final dates for the 28 events funded through the Year of Coasts and Waters Open Fund administered by VisitScotland.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

63% of respondents for whom health was a relevant concern told us that their ability to access health services was much better or a little better after receiving support from Connecting Scotland. 36% of respondents told us that their ability to access health services hadn’t changed and 1.4% said that access was worse or much worse.

If this result was reflected across the entire Connecting Scotland cohort of over 60000 people receiving devices, we could estimate that around 38,000 of those would have experienced some improvement in accessing healthcare services.

Overall this result indicates a positive impact of Connecting Scotland support on people’s ability to access the health services they need. It may be that respondents who felt there had been ‘no change’ in this respect already had a routine means of accessing the healthcare services non-digital channels (e.g. ordering repeat prescriptions over the phone). With more and more digitisation of healthcare service touchpoints being implemented in order to create efficiencies and save money it is likely that the numbers of people using their Connecting Scotland device and internet connection for this purpose will show an increase with time.

Here are some of the things that Connecting Scotland users have told us about how it has benefited them to use their device and internet connection to access health services:

“Allowing very important near me medical calls”

“Being able to access health services much easier, including managing appointments and medicines.”

“It has allowed us to do more things and stayed connected to appointments within the NHS, so I've been able to attend my hospital appointments via the tablet and it allows me to see things on a bigger screen than a small mobile phone (I have bad vision).”

(Aggregated survey data for phases 1 and 2 of Connecting Scotland. There were 1174 responses overall for whom access to health services was relevant.)

I refer the member to the answers to question S6W-13542 on 20 January 2023 and S6W-13509 on 24 January 2023. 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 Scottish Government wants to encourage more women into crofting, ensuring they are empowered to develop skills and access opportunities, creating equality of opportunity and prosperity, as well as supporting business innovation. That is why we are increasing the support provided to women in agriculture to £600,000 per year, during this Parliament, to deliver practical solutions to improve the lives of women living or working in Scottish agriculture.

The recent Economic Condition of Crofting Report states that the number of female crofters has more than doubled from 13% in 2014 to 30% in 2022 and since 2020, just under half of the new entrants recorded by the Crofting Commission were female.

The Scottish Government’s Directorate for International Trade and Investment directly manages the Trade and Investment Envoy Network.

We also work closely with the GlobalScot Network managed by the Scottish Enterprise to advance our trade and investment ambitions. Through GlobalScots, we engage with individual Scottish University alumni overseas to maintain good relations with Scotland and also offer a route for appropriate alumni to join the network, thereby adding to its diversity and reach.

The Directorate of International Trade and Investment has also worked with Scottish Government colleagues to develop the Scottish Government connections strategy, which is focused on developing stronger links with diaspora groups.

The Connecting Scotland programme aims to ensure that people in Scotland have access to digital services by providing them with opportunities to access and utilise devices, connectivity, skills, and support effectively. To date, the Scottish Government has committed over £48m to Connecting Scotland, through the Programme for Government and Winter Package for Social Support.

Responsibility for the management of the police estate sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland has advised that while they have no plans to build any new police stations in 2023, a new police station will be opened in spring 2023 at Newton House in Ayr, which is owned by South Ayrshire Council. This will provide a new, modern replacement for the existing Ayr police station.