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Ministers granted permission (subject to conditions) on 21 December for the proposed Hoy and Quanterness wind farms in Orkney, on the basis that they are justified by their benefits, including their contribution towards the case for a new electricity interconnector to export renewable energy from Orkney to the Scottish mainland.

The decision letters are available to view at www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/Document.aspx?id=814579 (Quanterness) and www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/Document.aspx?id=814699 (Hoy).

The decision letters set out in full the grounds for the decisions. Ministers cannot comment beyond what is set out in the decision letters.

Further to the answer to question S6W-00511 on 21 June 2021, the Scottish Government has had no discussion regarding the use and release of imidacloprid-based treatments in Scotland’s marine environment with SEPA, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and Benchmark. No applications have been received for imidacloprid use or release.

This fund is one of the recommendations in the Improving Housing Outcomes for Women and Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse report . We have convened an official level implementation and monitoring group to oversee implementation of the recommendations within the report, including working with partners to explore the options for a dedicated fund to support women leaving an abusive partner.

The Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) can currently provide financial and practical support to those experiencing Domestic Abuse with the provision of Crisis and Community Care Grants.

In line with the terms and conditions associated with the Winter Support funding, the Scottish Government expects to begin receiving evaluation reports in April 2022.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes. The discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes is intended as a tool for local authorities to use among a suite of measures when developing their local transport strategies. Depending on local circumstances, WPL schemes have the potential to encourage the use of more sustainable travel modes, reducing congestion, improving air quality and reducing emissions.

As set out in our Climate Change Plan Update, we have continued to progress policy development to inform the regulations and guidance which will underpin local authorities’ WPL schemes, should they wish to take forward a scheme. Regulations were laid in Parliament yesterday (12 January 2022) setting out the regulatory framework and this will be followed by guidance for local authorities in the first half of 2022.

It will then be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances. It will be for local authorities to determine the timing of when they take schemes forward, if they choose to do so, and the detail of their local schemes. Local authorities will be required to undertake a public consultation and impact assessments before implementing a WPL scheme.

The following table shows the poundage, property rate supplements, and property rate thresholds (rateable value) for each year from 1999-2000 to 2022-2023:

Table 1: Poundage and Property Rate Supplements

The area of new woodland that has been planted as (a) commercial forestry, (b) agroforestry and (c) private/community woodland in Scotland in the last year, December 2020 to November 2021, is shown in Table 1. There were no grant applications for the specific agroforestry option, which is different from tree planting on farms. More than half of the applications for tree planting in private and commercial forestry were from the agricultural sector.

The National Centre for Resilience (NCR) whilst an independent body is fully funded by the Scottish Government, and works closely with it. In the past its remit had focused on natural hazards, but early in the pandemic it adapted its efforts into health resilience - bringing to bear its existing work on recovery to the particulars of the emerging threat.

The NCR was already working with the Scottish Government’s Resilience Development Service (ScoRDS) on recovery as the pandemic began. In collaboration with ScoRDS it had held a series of national workshops where policymakers, practitioners, and academics shared their experiences and the challenges faced when supporting communities through recovery from significant disruptive events. An initial findings paper was published. That laid very firm groundworks for recovery across sectors, and has also placed the NCR in an excellent position to continue to support those sectors.

Building immediately on this work, and following participation in the Scotland responders’ Covid lessons group in the summer of 2020, the NCR identified a need to help responders understand an evidence-based approach in order to not only recover, but to build back better. It used its networks to connect with the third sector responders and SG policy teams, to gain a clear understanding of new issues arising, and also how existing challenges were being amplified by the pandemic.

As a result, a series of symposiums were hosted - bringing together senior leaders in response organisations, academia, and policy teams in order to engage and identify cross sector ways to help find and deliver practical solutions, to improve and mitigate reported issues. Full reports on these symposiums were shared with all participants and have been published on the NCR website.

The NCR has also conducted literature reviews, looking at areas such as mutual aid and the role of the third sector through the lens of the pandemic, as well as mapping changes in policy in Scotland over the last ten years. Reports on these reviews will be published on the NCR website. Its staff and researchers continue to engage in a spectrum of activity across Scotland and the UK in support of the recovery from the pandemic, but also to understand how the pandemic has affected other aspects of resilience.

The Chair of the NCR Steering Group has also been invited to attend the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Post Covid Future Commission's Resilience Roundtable event on 19 January.

In summary, the NCR has been building its understanding and knowledge of the effect of the pandemic on its relevant audiences, as part of its ongoing strategic objectives. It has been seeking ways to collaborate and work together across sectors in order to provide robust evidence to inform policy. It has fostered ways to provide a gateway to networks of academics for government and responders, and it has identified the challenges and barriers that need to be addressed to promote and adopt the concept of evidence-based transformational change, in order to build back better across the wider resilience sector.

I responded to the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny report on 23 December and my letter is published on the Parliament’s website.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to ensuring that victims of domestic abuse feel supported throughout the justice system, including court proceedings. A number of measures are in place to support survivors of domestic violence during court proceedings. For example, the court can take extra steps, called 'special measures', to help vulnerable witnesses give the best evidence they can. In criminal courts, deemed vulnerable witnesses (including those in domestic abuse cases) are automatically entitled to special measures including a screen in the courtroom; a TV link to somewhere outside the courtroom; and a supporter who can sit with the witness while they give evidence.

The Scottish Government recognises the key role that advocacy services play in helping victims come forward and engage with the justice process. As such, in the first 100 days of this Government we allocated an additional £5m to fourteen specialist support organisations including Scottish Women’s Aid to bolster the vital services they provide and help ensure those who need support are able to access it.