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Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government ambitions for future investment in rural transport infrastructure are included in the 45 draft recommendations within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2 ), published on the 20 January 2022. The recommendations form the future transport infrastructure investment priorities for Scotland over the next twenty years and cover the whole country with a focus on active travel; bus priority; getting more freight onto rail; improving the safety and resilience of the transport network and the decarbonisation of the transport system. STPR2 provides the necessary evidence base required to help secure the future funding of these projects, including those that have potential to transform the way we travel in rural areas.

More specifically, STPR2 recommends investment in Demand Responsive Transport and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to support improved public transport connectivity, including in rural areas where conventional fixed route services may not be suitable or viable. In addition, much of Scotland’s rural population resides in towns and villages and there are a number of draft active travel recommendations for these settlements. This includes connecting towns and villages, improving active travel on trunk roads through communities and long distance active travel networks.

Investing in our Trunk Road and Motorway network is important in order to improve safety and resilience of the network for the communities and businesses of Scotland. STPR2 recommendations for strategic roads focus on safety, climate change adaptation and resilience. For safety improvements these will be a primary, but not exclusive, focused on rural sections. Specifically for South West Scotland, STPR2 recommends that safety, resilience and reliability improvements are made on the A75 and A77 strategic road corridors, in turn supporting placemaking opportunities. While to encourage greater use of public transport and support wider town regeneration proposals, STPR2 recommends that consideration should also be given to upgrading or relocating Stranraer rail station.

On the day the report was published on 8 March, the First Minister welcomed the recommendations and thanked Baroness Helena Kennedy and the working group for their efforts over the past year. The First Minister made clear the issues raised in the report are pivotal in challenging society’s tolerance of misogyny and sending a clear message that male attitudes that emanate from prejudice and misogyny have no place in a modern, equal Scotland.

The Scottish Government is considering the detailed recommendations with a view to ensuring that any provisions proposed for legislation in due course are workable and can meet the expectations of, and intentions behind, the working group’s report.

We will provide our initial response to the report in the coming weeks and will outline the next steps then.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Scottish Energy Task Force, have committed to developing and publishing a Joint Business Plan for Unlocking Investment in Scotland’s Energy Sector.

This work is vital to identifying and overcoming many of the short-term barriers to decarbonisation and development of the energy system in Scotland, and enabling a green recovery from Covid-19.

I am pleased to say that the Joint Business Plan has now been published and is available here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804350119 .

The Scottish Government has long recognised the hugely damaging impact of stalking and acted to criminalise it via the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

In March 2022 we announced funding of £495,000 over the period 2022-25 from the new Victim Centred Approach Fund to enable Action Against Stalking to deliver expert support to victims and continue their work to improve the understanding of, and response to, stalking behaviours.

We are also providing up to £230,000 a year through the Scottish Legal Aid budget and £384,000 in 2022-23 from the Justice portfolio to the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre to offer free legal information and advice to women experiencing gender based violence, including stalking and harassment.

I can confirm that the legal position has been considered and I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06967 which sets out that the provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 were subject to policy and legal scrutiny and that there is no legal issue arising from this matter.

The content of any legal advice is confidential. By long-standing convention, successive Scottish and Westminster Governments have not disclosed the content of legal advice other than in the most exceptional circumstances.

At present, in Scotland a new constable will start on a salary of £26,737, and we understand that in England and Wales the lowest starting salary for a graduate is £21,654, and £19,164 for a PCDA (Police Constable Degree Apprentice).

More information on Police Officer salaries in Scotland can be found on the Police Scotland website using the following link: Pay and Grading Structure - Police Scotland

Ukrainians who arrive in Scotland and wish to undertake a course of study in Further or Higher Education will be entitled to home tuition fee status and living cost support for the duration of their studies.

The Scottish Government has also established a new £1 million International Students’ Emergency Fund, which will be open to all international students facing financial hardship as a result of a significant change of circumstances. Ukrainian students who are presently undertaking their course of study in Scotland will be eligible to apply.

It is testament to the hard work and planning of Police Scotland that fewer than 100 COP26-related arrests were made while the event was taking place.

The Netpol/Article 11 report has been carefully considered by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), who now await a report from Independent Advisory Group on the policing of COP26 which is chaired by John Scott QC.

While Police Scotland are operationally independent of ministers, the service continues to learn from their activities on an ongoing basis.

Once the IAG findings are presented, all observations and recommendations will be for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to consider and act upon where appropriate.

The Scottish Government through Transport Scotland provide annual funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST) to deliver the Switched-on Taxi Loan scheme on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

a) To date the Switched-on Taxi Loan scheme has received 920 applications with a value of £37,822,348.

b) To date the Switched-on Taxi Loan scheme has offered 662 loans worth £22,859,952 to taxi owners and operators who have passed the credit, affordability and eligibility checks. Owners/operators who are unsuccessful are given the opportunity to appeal the decision directly with EST.

c) To date Switched-on Taxi Loan scheme has paid 574 applications to the value of £22,859,952. The remaining 88 applicants are finalising documentation or awaiting confirmed delivery dates for their new vehicles.

The Lord President of the Court of Session is responsible for making and maintaining appropriate arrangements for the training and guidance of Scotland’s judicial office holders as set out in the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007. Judicial training is delivered by the Judicial Institute for Scotland.