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Transport Scotland officials meet bus stakeholders, including both Stagecoach and First, on a fortnightly basis. This has recently included discussion on the impact of driver shortages on service provision. Bus operators receiving emergency COVID-19 funding are contractually obliged to run a range of pre COVID mileage, any deviation from which has to be agreed with Transport Scotland. They are also required to consult and cooperate with local transport authorities as to their service plans. These terms are set out in public service contracts with operators and a model contract is available on the Transport Scotland website at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/covid-19-support-grant/

COP26 presents a unique opportunity to empower and support individuals across Scotland to take collective action towards our net zero target.

In Glasgow, we have awarded £18,000 to support the COP26 Pop Up Climate Café Programme. Our funding will enable Climate Café and Climate Reality to host 18-22 events from 1 to 12 November. These will create informal and welcoming spaces in communities, workplaces and campuses to talk and act on climate. To extend the reach of the cafés, some events will be held virtually.

We have also provided up to £198,000 to Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver the Scotland’s Climate Festival initiative, which Glasgow communities can apply to. This initiative will support communities across the country to plan and deliver their own local climate festivals. Between 35-40 festivals will be held, as well as a number of virtual online events, launching during COP26 and running to March 2022.

Furthermore, we have allocated almost £950,000 to support children and young people to engage at COP26. This includes funding events and initiatives that will be open to children and young people within Glasgow.

To enable greater access, we have provided around £8,000 funding for a digital platform which will allow the live-streaming of all Scottish Government events at Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone and at Atlantic Quay. In addition, our fully-funded climate change website – Net Zero Nation – will be open to the general public enabling them to access live-streams of Blue Zone and other online events.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role that co-operative business models play in our economy and there is a significant and increasing interest in co-operative business models in Scotland.

Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise to support company growth through collaborative, co-operative and employee ownership business models. CDS raises awareness of the value of co-operative and employee ownership models, and provides specialist advice. Its services are integrated to those of Scottish Enterprise (SE), Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway.

Scotland for EO is the industry leadership group for employee owned businesses in Scotland, established in 2018 to empower the employee owned sector to direct its own development. Led by industry working in partnership with the public sector, the group champions employee ownership in Scotland and drives industry-wide collaboration and alignment.

Co-operative business models including Trusts, Partnerships and Community Interest Companies have all been eligible for the Covid-19 financial support made available to support businesses impacted by restrictions, including the Strategic Framework Business Fund, Sector Top up Funds and the Business Restart Grant.

The Scottish National Investment Bank only opened in November 2020 but has so far committed over £120 million to eight businesses and projects in line with its strategic missions. Details of the each of the Bank’s investments are published on the Bank’s ‘Our Portfolio’ page: https://www.thebank.scot/our-portfolio/ .

In 2020-21 it invested in two businesses and projects with a total commitment of £52.5 million and so far in 2021-22 the Bank has committed £68.4 million to a further six businesses. The Bank’s forward plans are set out in the business plan and investment strategy which can be found on the Bank’s ‘Publications’ page: https://www.thebank.scot/publications/ .

The Bank has been established to make investments independently of Government but in line with the strategic missions set for it by Ministers. The pace of investment and investment decisions are therefore matters for the Bank’s board. The Scottish Government is committed to providing the Bank with £1 billion of funding for investment during the course of this parliament.

Full electrification of the line between Edinburgh Haymarket and Aberdeen is not an absolute prerequisite for achieving the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway by 2035. As set out in the answer to question S6W-03041, however, it remains the expectation that the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh Haymarket and Aberdeen will be fully electrified.

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 is committed to ending our contribution to climate change within a generation. Our Programme for Government sets out our aim to generate 50% of Scotland’s overall energy consumption from renewable sources, and to have decarbonised our energy system almost completely by 2050.

Our vision and roadmap for the energy sector includes a Just Transition Plan for Energy at the heart of our refreshed Energy Strategy, publishing as one coherent document in spring 2022.

On our ambitions for offshore wind, we were clear in our policy statement published in 2020, that we have an ambition of up to 11GW of offshore wind by 2030. ScotWind bids are currently being assessed by Crown Estate Scotland with results of successful bidders known in early 2022 but this will provide us with a strong pipeline of projects. From that we want to ensure that economic benefits and supply chain opportunities are seized upon in Scotland.

This is why in August, the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) published its Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) for Offshore Wind. The report has five main recommendations which are directed at both the sector and government, and the primary recommendation focusses on bringing the manufacturing of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.

I look forward to SOWEC taking forward next steps on the recommendations set out in the report.

As previously stated, pharmaceuticals are considered ‘contaminants of emerging concern’, so research and monitoring to understand trends in the level and impact of pharmaceuticals in the environment - and form an evidence base for future policy including increasing public awareness - is still in the development phase.

In terms of current activity, to address incorrect disposal, members of the public are encouraged to always bring unused medications to their community pharmacy, where they will be collected and safely disposed of by NHSScotland. All community pharmacies offer this service.

From 2022 the “Keep Antibiotics Working” public awareness campaign (which runs in November-December each year to coincide with World Antibiotic Awareness Week) will be redesigned to emphasise the multi-sectoral approach to containing and controlling antimicrobial resistance, including how important it is to avoid the incorrect disposal of pharmaceuticals.

SEPA and Scottish Water are members of the One Health Breakthrough Partnership (OHBP), supported by Scottish Government, which is committed to minimising the presence and concentrations of human medicines in the environment through a variety of interventions in medicines use and disposal to prevent them from reaching the water system. OHBP has supported work to produce a baseline assessment of levels of pharmaceuticals in Scotland’s water environment (see https://www.crew.ac.uk/publication/pharmaceuticals-water-environment-baseline-assessment-and-recommendations ) and partners plan to use this work a starting point to develop a visualisation tool for pharmaceuticals in the water environment that will also include information on levels and patterns of medicine prescribing in Scotland.

OHBP are also working on the following areas with NHS Highland for future source control applications:

1. establishing a waste amnesty scheme and a pharmaceuticals in the environment education campaign around inappropriate medicine disposal;

2. scoping social prescribing initiatives in line with the Realistic Medicine agenda; and

3. informing development of the Single National Formulary. This activity aims to advocate sustainable alternatives to pharmaceutical prescribing and avoid the use of the most eco-toxicologically relevant medicines.

The Scottish Government believes that hosting COP26 will offer important economic opportunities for both Glasgow and Scotland, particularly for Glasgow’s accommodation and hospitality sectors. COP26 also offers potential additional trade and investment opportunities. Scotland has the ideal mix of political, regulatory and commercial factors that will allow investors, entrepreneurs and corporates to start and expand their activities that will help the world meet its climate change targets. We will be using COP26 to accelerate our work on delivering our commitment to Net Zero, as set out in Scotland’s Vision for Trade. Net Zero is at the heart of our global capital investment plan, Investing with Purpose, and our inward investment plan, Shaping Scotland's Economy.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken a separate study of the economic impact of COP26 to date. We are engaging closely with the assessment of the economic benefits of COP26 commissioned by the UK Government, along with Glasgow City Council. This will consider the economic impacts of COP26 to Glasgow, Scotland and the UK.

The Scottish Government will be monitoring the success of our COP26 activities. This includes an evaluation of our programme of over 60 in-person or hybrid events comprising Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone at the Lighthouse in Glasgow. This two week programme will showcase the opportunities for future business and investment presented by our commitment to delivering a just transition to a net zero economy in Scotland, and will be the start of longer term engagement with business on this issue.

Scotland has well established approaches and sources of funding which enable our communities to do things for themselves, as well as to make their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services.

We are targeting similar outcomes to those of the community booster share schemes in England with our Place-Based Investment Programme which is being backed by £325 million of capital funding over 5 years for a variety of place-based investment initiatives, including support for 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community wealth building and community-led regeneration. We also have our £50 million Vacant and Derelict Land investment programme. These initiatives are complemented by our Empowering Communities Programme which supports community led projects and strategic partnerships, enabling communities to tackle poverty and disadvantage on their own terms. We also provide funding to Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) totalling over £400,000 between 2021 and 2024 to continue their Community Shares Scotland programme.

The Scottish National Investment Bank has been established to invest in Scottish business, projects and communities with the objective of delivering positive environmental and social impacts, and positive financial returns for the people of Scotland. The Bank operates on a commercial basis, providing repayable debt and equity. This investment is available to Third Sector and community organisations for specific commercial projects.

How local authorities manage market driven budgets are a matter for individual local authorities who are autonomous bodies, responsible for managing their own day to day business and answerable to their electorates. In view of this it would not be appropriate for the Scottish government to interfere in that local democratic process. Local authorities must use their resources as efficiently as possible and deliver services effectively to ensure taxpayers get the best possible value.

However, the Scottish Government continue to meet with COSLA and local authorities on a regular basis to cover a range of topics, including current and future budget pressures.