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There are an estimated 930,000 people eligible for the Young Person’s Free Bus Travel Scheme. This refers to the number of people aged 5-21 who have become eligible for concessionary travel as a result of the Young Person’s Scheme.

(b) Transport Scotland does not hold application information. The Improvement Service are in charge of applications made through getyournec.scot and parentsportal.scot, and all other applications are managed by the individual local authorities.

(c) As of end of day 19th December 2022, there were 561,623 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

As I said in my answer to Donald Lumsden (S6O-01659), policing is and will continue to be a priority for the Scottish Government. Scotland has a higher number of officers than at any time during the last administration – and more per head of population than England and Wales (30 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland, compared to 24 officers per 10,000 population in England and Wales (at 31 March).

Officer numbers fluctuate due to the cycle of recruitment and retirement, and this was further impacted by last year’s police pension changes. However, I was pleased to see that Police Scotland welcomed around 900 new recruits in 2022.

Our officers are the best paid in the UK, which recognises the hard work and dedication of the police workforce across Scotland. Basic starting salary for a constable in Scotland is around £5,000 more than in England and Wales and the maximum salary is also higher.

I represented the Scottish Government at the Open Government Partnership Europe Regional Meeting, held in Rome in October 2022. The Minister travelled to and from Rome by train.

Scottish Government officials also in attendance were the Head of Open Government and a Private Secretary.

The total cost of attendance at the Open Government Partnership Europe Regional Meeting was £5,332.55.

Where an offence has been committed the enforcement options remain the same for retailers based outside Scotland as they are for those in Scotland. These include:

• provision of advice and guidance;
• fixed monetary penalties (FMP);
• variable monetary penalties (VMP);
• report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) recommending prosecution.

SEPA’s enforcement response would reflect the nature of the offence and be designed to be the most effective way of restoring compliance. SEPA holds a number of investigatory powers which will support evidence gathering across the UK.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations require all retailers who sell in-scope products into Scotland, regardless of where they are based, to apply the 20p deposit. Therefore, retailers based in Scotland will not be disadvantaged by those based elsewhere.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13244 on 17 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 total spend on administration of the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is £433,886.88.

Admin costs 2020-21 = £240,217.20 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2021-22 = £162,210.30 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2022-23 (until October 2022) = £31,459.38 inclusive of VAT

This is the administration costs for loan fund awards with a total value of £733,894.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund was one part of a range of support and interventions put in place to help people who were struggling with rent because of changes to their finances caused by the Pandemic.

To enable the loan fund to be delivered quickly given the infra-structure and resource requirements, an existing contract with Energy Savings Trust for administration of the loan was extended.

Administration costs for the fund are based on a contractually agreed annual management fee, dependant on whether the scheme is open or closed, combined with a cost per application, regardless of whether the application resulted in a successful award or not.

The loan fund was demand led and affordability and ability to repay a loan was a key part of the assessment of all applications to protect applicants from unsustainable borrowing.

There have been 263 Tenant Hardship Loan Fund awards, with a total value of £733,894. Currently none have been repaid in full, none have been written off and the balance remaining is £663,965 as of November 2022.

Local authorities have reported that in 2021-22 103 play park renewals were completed with a further 82 renewals in progress. The following table shows how many play parks were renewed in each local authority in 2021-22. Local authorities will report at the end of the financial year on the number of play parks renewed in 2022-23.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-17054 on 16 January 2015 for costs between 2010 and 2013. 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 .

All Ministerial engagements for this time period, including Bute House costs for 2007-8, are available here Ministerial Events (webarchive.org.uk) and Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Please see the following table showing the number of events and total costs for 2015 to 2022. Complete financial records are only held by Scottish Government for 7 years therefore total costs are only available from 2015.