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The Scottish Government has prepared a draft Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

To ensure that the draft Code is fair and workable for all users we will seek views from consumer facing bodies and land owning land maintenance companies before we progress to publication.

Plans for engaging are underway.

It has been heart-warming to see the groundswell of support from our communities, pubic services, third sector and partners for people fleeing Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We have worked closely and collaboratively with partners to stand up our Warm Scots Welcome response, ensuring that all those arriving from Ukraine are accommodated and supported as soon as they arrive in Scotland.

In collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council, we have delivered three public webinar sessions for hosts. Scottish Government officials regularly engage with community groups working to support people fleeing the war in Ukraine, and those who have volunteered to host displaced people in their homes.

Scotland’s Zero Emissions Mobility Industry Advisory Group have today published their report on the growth of this important sector for Scotland.

Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (ZEM IAG) was established in 2019 to bring together industry stakeholders to advise on shaping a collective approach to the development of the zero emission mobility sector.

The purpose of the group was to explore and advise on the strategic interventions, collaborations and investments required to substantially grow Scotland’s automotive sector, with emphasis on sustainable, zero (CO2) emission technologies and business models.

The IAG set a vision in 2019 for Scotland to become:

• a global player in supply chains for zero emission mobility for heavier and niche vehicles
• an international centre of expertise in energy-transport system integration
• a global destination for innovation in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

The report is informed by research carried out by Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise on key strengths and opportunities in zero emission mobility in Scotland as well as supporting studies by consultants KPMG commissioned for the group.

The report sets out the group’s vision for a decarbonised sector under 8 key themes:

• Innovation ecosystem development
• Skills
• Inward investment and capital investment
• Trade and export
• Public procurement for innovation
• Supply chain opportunities
• Collaboration
• Infrastructure

The report also recommends some key actions required to progress towards this vision.

One of these recommendations is that an innovation fund should be considered to provide support for innovators to scale up their manufacturing capability in Scotland and bring the development and testing of new technologies to Scotland, with a particular focus on batteries, fuel cells and zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

Today the Scottish Government is launching the Zero Emission Mobility Fund. This will provide £28 million across the next four years to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of heavy duty zero emission vehicles.

The Zero Emission Mobility Innovation Fund, administered through Scottish Enterprise, links to other national funding programmes for manufacturing and supports Scotland’s Mission Zero for transport.

The new Fund has been developed in consultation with industry leaders through Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group. This new funding approach responds to their call for innovative funding models to drive net zero transformation across Scotland’s heavy duty vehicle supply chains.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings . Additionally, in February 2020, to assist those with responsibilities for providing personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs), the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises . This guidance provides information on the formulation of PEEPs in appropriate settings. The guidance also provides links to the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for the Evacuation of Disabled Persons from Buildings .

Retail sector turnover figures are available from surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. There are no retail SIC codes specific to fireworks which means it is not possible to estimate figures on the number of F2 and F3 fireworks sold in Scotland from official statistics.

However, in their report published on 3 November 2020 the Firework Review Group, established by myself in 2019, estimated that there are around 250,000 sales of fireworks every year in Scotland.

Evacuation alert systems for high rise domestic buildings with a storey more than 18 metres above ground level was introduced in the 2019 building standards technical handbooks (domestic and non-domestic) published on 12 July 2019.

The government also published Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings. The guidance promotes using a risk based approach to determine the fire safety measures required. Therefore, upgrading existing high rise domestic buildings with evacuation alert systems may be implemented where the level of fire risk is justified, taking into account the time, cost and disruption to building occupants involved.

Deposit Return Scheme applications for exemptions and voluntary return points have been open since 1 January 2021. The following table provides a breakdown of applications received so far.

Susan Davies FRSB, Chief Executive of The Scottish Seabird Centre was appointed to lead the taskforce on 15 June 2022.

Susan will work with representatives from Police Scotland, Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Government policy officials. The taskforce will consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the Scottish SPCA) should be given additional powers to investigate wildlife crime. We expect to receive the report from the taskforce in time to take forward any recommendations that require legislation in a bill during the course of this Parliament.

Scottish Government Strategies are published and can be found at Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Information about strategies produced by local authorities is not held by Scottish Government.

Since the launch of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme around 390,000 National Entitlement Cards (NEC) have been issued to young people across Scotland. The scheme aims to embed sustainable travel behaviours, open social, education, employment and leisure opportunities and reduce household outgoings to aid young people and their families, particularly those living in poverty.

71% (approx. 277,000) of cards have been used at least once to access free bus travel. In comparison to 56% of older and disabled cardholders over the same period, more young cardholders are choosing to use free bus when they travel.
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62% (approx. 170,000) NECs have been used more than 10 times, and 16% (approx. 61,000) of NECs have been used to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions within at least one week.

149 NECs have been used by young people to make smart journeys on more than ten occasions every week since the scheme launched.

The figures have been produced using the data on number of journeys per National Entitlement Card and come from the secure ITSO messages (alerts from ticket machines when National Entitlement Cards are scanned) that come into Transport Scotland’s reimbursement system, which are used to pay operators.