Seòmar agus comataidhean

It is the responsibility of local authorities to develop and deliver flood protection schemes in Scotland. Since 2008, the Scottish Government has provided £42million/ yr through the general capital grant to support the delivery of flood risk management actions. The 2020 PfG also committed an additional £150 million over the course of this parliament.

Flood Risk Management Plans have been developed to reduce the devastating and costly impact of flooding in Scotland. The plans coordinate the efforts of all organisations that tackle flooding and concentrate the work to where the risk of flooding and benefits of investment are greatest. The 2015-2021 Plans included a number of flood protection schemes in the South Scotland region including in Hawick and Whitesands.

Flood Risk Management Plans for the period 2022-2028 were approved by Scottish Ministers in December 2021 and published by SEPA in January 2022. A COSLA/ Scottish Government Funding Working Group has been set up to discuss funding arrangements for flood risk management actions including those set out in the
‎ 2022-2028 plans. This group will put recommendations to the joint Scottish Government/COSLA officers’ Settlement Distribution Group. Ministers and Council Leaders’ will subsequently be provided with advice in 2023.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) provide funding for Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) each financial year. There were 3,231 MA starts within the Construction & Related occupational grouping up to the end of quarter 2 in 2022-23, with MA year-end statistics for 2022-23 expected to be published in May 2023.

SDS recently undertook a reallocation process for MA starts as part of their usual contract management processes and several hundred starts have now been allocated to providers who requested additional starts and met the eligibility criteria, a proportion of which have gone to construction.

It is standard practice for SDS to review changing demand for apprenticeship starts in-year and adjust the number of starts allocated to respond as appropriate within budgets available. SDS will continue to follow this process and keep under review whether any additional starts can be allocated to providers within this financial year.

While we can be confident that the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics publication for 2021 will be published by early June 2023, we can not provide a precise date at this time. The reason being that the publication date is agreed by officials in the four Nations of the UK following initial quality assurance of the draft greenhouse gas inventory dataset.

The publication date will be pre-announced on the Scottish Government website during the month before publication.

Due to an absence of Scottish Government landholdings (i.e. presence of Scotland’s national forests and land) in East Lothian and/or Midlothian, Forestry and Land Scotland have not conducted any tree planting (either restocking or new planting) in the two local authority areas in the period of 2007 to 2022.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) makes clear that we encourage developers to offer community benefit and shared ownership opportunities as standard on all renewable energy projects.

As set out within the ESJTP, the Scottish Government is reviewing its Good Practice Principles for community benefits from offshore renewable energy developments.

As part of the development process, we are currently holding a series of stakeholder engagement sessions to raise awareness of the work and gather initial input, with a view to consulting on the draft guidance later this year.

The Scottish Government regularly meets with the university sector, through the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group and the Equally safe in Colleges and Universities Core Leadership Group on issues relating to student well-being and safety where these issues are considered.

Modern Apprenticeship (MA) statistics are publicly available on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website at Modern Apprenticeships | Skills Development Scotland .

Registered starts by year are detailed in the table below . Figures for 2022-23 are available until the end of Quarter 2, with year-end statistics expected to be published in May 2023.

We are still considering the next steps on how to address the responses to our engagement with people affected by historical adoption practices.

In the meantime, we have commissioned a scoping study of the support services available in Scotland for people affected by historical adoption practices. This will help us understand where we need to improve, introduce or enhance the services to better meet the needs and expectations of those affected by historical adoption. The research started on 9 January and will take approximately 8 months.

We have also agreed to fund a proposal to establish specialist peer support groups for those affected, in partnership with Health in Mind The planning and implementation of this support service has already begun and been influenced by a working group of people affected by historical adoption.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding the national thrombectomy service, and the appropriate timescales to achieve this. This includes seeking input from National Services Division, to ensure that regional plans are cohesive and maximise access to thrombectomy procedures nationwide.

The budget for thrombectomy and development of a refreshed stroke improvement plan has been increased from £8.6 million for 2022-23 to £12.5 million in 2023-24. Prior to the 2023/24 budget announcement, the delivery of a national thrombectomy service had already received over £16 million of investment.

Our NHS Recovery Plan also invests £1 billion of targeted funding over five years to increase NHS capacity, deliver reform, and ensure everyone has the treatment they need at the right time, in the right place, and as quickly as possible, all in aid of our recovery from the global pandemic, the biggest shock our NHS has faced in its 74 year existence.

All local authorities will consider and monitor the impact of the scheme on glass collection after the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

Zero Waste Scotland’s advice to local authorities is not to make service changes in advance of Scotland’s DRS launching and it is currently undertaking modelling of different options for local authorities to provide efficient kerbside glass recycling services and will share this with local authorities in due course.

We are supporting local authorities to modernise recycling services, align with our forthcoming deposit return scheme, and make it easier for households to recycle and increase local recycling rates.