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Following the end of Professor Ken Muir’s ‘ consultation on the replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the reform of Education Scotland’ , on 26 November 2021, Professor Muir is preparing his report and recommendations, which the Scottish Government expects to receive soon.

The decrease in financial support required for the Northern Isles Ferry Services reflects a forecast recovery in fare box revenue, a reduction in the forecast fuel consumption costs and the exclusion of year one contract mobilisation costs that will not recur in 2022-23.

The Scottish Government is working closely with business organisations to develop an action plan to identify actions to mitigate the impact of labour shortages on businesses across affected sectors. Longer term interventions will include consideration of the current skills system, specifically how this links with the wider education landscape and careers guidance services.

With the exception of skills and training, most of the levers available to mitigate the acute HGV driver shortages we have seen in the last 6 months are reserved to the UK Government. Our Modern Apprenticeships continue to support individuals to enter the logistics sector. The Freight Logistics Apprenticeship Framework encompasses the planning, routing and movement of freight across all transport modes as well as associated activities such as warehousing and storage.

Collectively there were 1107 starts on these frameworks in 2020-21 and up to the end of Quarter 2 of 2021-22, there have been 770 Modern Apprenticeship starts in freight logistics with 1456 individuals in training in total. In addition, as of September 2021, 95 individuals have been supported through the Employability Fund to train as HGV drivers.

Skills Development Scotland is also developing a small pilot with the Road Haulage Association to support up to 30 drivers with an HGV licence to undertake Driver Certificate of Professional Competence training allowing them to re-enter the sector. The pilot will help establish the demand for this type of training.

We are also monitoring the impact of bus driver vacancies and on bus service levels. My officials are in regular contact with the Department for Transport regarding issues such as delays in processing licence applications and driver testing. In addition, officials are also working with the bus sector to facilitate solutions to workforce issues through the Labour and Skills Shortages Action Plan, and connecting Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) who are aware of opportunities in their areas with bus service operators through the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT). This includes sharing examples of good practice across the network of both LEPs and members of the CPT to encourage more local level collaboration to meet the needs of each area.

The Scottish Government has provided £79.3 million directly to taxi and private hire drivers and operators in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Further support of up to £28 million was announced on 5 January 2022 from within the £375 million package of funding announced on 21 December 2021, bringing total support for the sector to over £107 million.

Transport Scotland has set out a Stage 1 and Stage 2 evaluation of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme following the first full year of operation. The evaluation will assess the short and medium outcomes and the long term impact of the scheme by comparing conditions at different stages.

During the first year of operation (Stage1), short term outcomes of the scheme such as uptake of entitlement and travel behaviour will be evaluated. Uptake of the scheme will be monitored directly through the application process, which launched on 10 January 2022, and data on usage of the entitlement will be collected through recording of journeys made using the National Entitlement Card. Reports from this evaluation will be published on the Transport Scotland website.

It is an objective of the free bus schemes that bus operators should be financially no better and no worse off as a result of their participation. This objective should mean that there are not subsequent fare pressures on fare paying passengers as a result of the scheme. We have worked with the Confederation of Passenger Transport to arrive at reimbursement rates which seek to meet this aim. Usage of the Young Persons Scheme will be closely monitored to refine the reimbursement model as necessary.

The annual Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics publication is the main source of data used to assess territorial emissions of greenhouse gases in Scotland. Although each annual publication is accompanied by a spreadsheet containing all background data at its full resolution, it is not currently possible to distinguish between types of generation or fuels using these data.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) releases a quarterly publication presenting statistics on the number of patients waiting for one of the eight key diagnostic tests, which are covered by the national six-week standard. Further information on these tests and the latest available statistics up to the 30 th September 2021 can be found here:

Diagnostic waiting times - Waits for key diagnostic tests 30 November 2021 - NHS waiting times - diagnostics - Publications - Public Health Scotland

In addition, PHS collects data on patients waiting for six other tests not covered by the national six-week standard, including Echocardiography. However, these data are not routinely quality assured and completeness may vary by Board. Verified data for patients waiting for an Echocardiogram is therefore not available centrally.

The Scottish Government has engaged widely with stakeholders and partners about the introduction of a licensing scheme for short-term let accommodation. Since January 2020, Ministers and or Scottish Government officials have had 13 meetings with representatives from different local authorities in Scotland. Details of these meetings, including when control areas were discussed, can be found in a recent Freedom of Information response at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100228791/ .

When deciding to designate all or part of an area as a short-term let control area, a planning authority must submit their proposal to Scottish Minsters for approval. We are aware the City of Edinburgh Council and Highland Council are currently progressing plans to designate control areas, in order to address pressures created by secondary letting, but these have not yet been submitted to Ministers for consideration.

A fundamental purpose of the scheme is to ensure basic safety standards are met in all types of short-term let accommodation across Scotland. It is therefore mandatory for operators and licensing authorities to abide by the scheme, which will help to ensure the safety of guests and neighbours. The Scottish Government would expect local authorities to act in compliance with their statutory duties if a licensing authority did not have a licensing scheme in place by this date, it could be subject to challenge. If a failure to comply with statute was successfully judicially reviewed, the Court of Session could order that particular action be taken to remedy that.

In 2021, we published draft guidance for licensing authorities, letting agencies and platforms to inform our consultation. We are now in the process of reconvening the stakeholder working group, which includes local authority representatives, to update and publish revised guidance to enable operators and licensing authorities to review their preparations for implementation.

The guidance sets out that we want licensing authorities to take a risk-based and proportionate approach that will enable them to sustainably recover their own costs associated with establishing and administering the licensing scheme within a ‘not for profit’ fee based structure. Section F of our updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) , published on 23 November, also provides further information about recovery of costs through fees.

In line with Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy, we have encouraged licensing authorities to work towards a digital first approach to administering the scheme. We have also encouraged licensing authorities to have paper copies of relevant information, and the application form, available upon request for people who cannot access them online and to provide support to access online services at their offices.

The Scottish Government intends to allocate up to £5.1m per annum to cover the costs of the advocacy provision over a four year period. All of the funding is provided for the establishment and operation of the new service. However, this is a demand-led service and until it has been operational over a period of time it will not be possible to develop a detailed breakdown of when funding will be drawn down.

To ensure continuous improvement of the service, and to inform the next procurement exercise, we will monitor demand and review expenditure over the contract period. Subsequently, the contract value will be updated in the Public Contracts Register ahead of any extension or retendering for this contract.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05411 on 24 January 2022. 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

Our priority is for a seamless transition for passengers and staff throughout the transition to ScotRail Trains Ltd from 1 April and during the business’ first year of operation. We have empowered ScotRail to review its range of fares offerings to respond to changing travel behaviours due to the impacts of the Covid pandemic, and as part of this work to seek to simplify fares where possible as part of an improved service to passengers.

In addition, the Fair Fares Review, which is currently in its planning stages, is being undertaken by Transport Scotland to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares in the future.