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We welcome the recent Circularity Gap Report which clearly sets out the size of the challenge ahead. The Scottish Government is clear that transitioning to a circular economy is key if we are to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis, and this means reducing our demand for raw material, increasing reuse and repair, and recycling more.

The Scottish Government has not provided any funding support to Red Rock Power in relation to its offshore wind activities in Scotland. Officials last met with Red Rock Power in November 2022 to discuss progress on their development of the Inch Cape Offshore Wind farm off the coast of Angus.

Scottish Ministers are committed to protecting the natural environment which is demonstrated across a wide range of policy areas including biodiversity. A new global biodiversity framework was agreed at the UN CBD COP15 meeting in Montreal, in December 2022, with the aim of protecting and restoring biodiversity across the world. This framework includes a ‘whole of government’ approach – which we were successful in advocating for through the Edinburgh Process for biodiversity - and ‘whole of society’ approach.

We recognise the importance of biodiversity and the urgent need for action at all levels to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, to ensure a nature-positive world. In Scotland we will continue to work to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and reversing declines by 2045, through our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery Plan.

The groups and sub-groups named in response to question S6W-12170 that have an allocated budget are:

• Scottish Science Advisory Council £32,000
• Youth Work Strategy Review Group - £3,500
• National Bairns’ Hoose Governance Group - £14,400
• Race Equality & Anti-Racism in Education Programme Board - £350,000
• Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning - £50,000

The other groups and sub-groups named in the previous response do not have allocated budgets. Any incidental costs associated with the running of these groups are covered by the relevant departments’ budgets.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Enterprise, who administer the GlobalScot network. I have asked their Chief Executive to respond.

The Risk Management Committee last met on 6 December 2022. It concluded that the suspension should remain in place; however we are examining a range of other options to accommodate public and third sector bodies who do not currently use the energy frameworks.

The National Induction Framework was created as a resource for providers and staff as a good practice example. It was developed in conjunction with the sector, to enhance and support an employer’s own induction processes. It should complement existing induction processes but it is not mandatory. The framework has been widely promoted to the sector by stakeholders to encourage its use.

The previous HOSF casework management system was built between 2008-2010 using legacy software that could no longer be supported.

The impact on existing and new applications to HOSF has been minimal as this was a stand-alone system that was not integrated into the application process.

In the interim period prior to the rollout of a new digital system, all cases have been moved to an alternative temporary solution. There is some additional work involved with the drafting of offer letters using the contingency process, however this is balanced with the improvements we have been able to make in other areas, such as better visibility of workflow and performance reporting. The new digital system is being designed to build on the process improvements already made.

Work on the new system is ongoing and the cost will depend on the final solution which will be chosen after the testing of prototypes.

The heavy impact of the pandemic and subsequent court closures on reconvictions data must be balanced against user needs for information with the provision of meaningful and informative statistics that carry minimal risk of misinterpretation. We are currently investigating what information we could helpfully provide users in respect of reconvictions statistics. We will communicate the outcome of this investigation to users as soon as possible.

Scottish Government officials engaged with the Met Office during the initial development of Winter Heating Payment policy. This was prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and included discussions about how cold weather events are identified for Cold Weather Payment and the location of weather stations. Further engagement took place at official level in 2021 and 2022.

Scottish Government officials have engaged regularly with the Department for Work and Pensions throughout the development of Winter Heating Payment. This engagement has covered discussion about policy as well as data requirements, system design and delivery of Winter Heating Payment. Regular engagement continues.