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The following table shows how many school-aged children are in each local authority (as at September 2020) and how many devices have been distributed by councils using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those local digital inclusion schemes, therefore, the table below only shows devices distributed through the funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

Connecting Scotland was planned to run till the end of 2021. However, the depth of the challenges of digital exclusion that the pandemic has revealed mean we are extending the programme till the end of this Parliament in 2026, as set out in the Programme for Government.

The current phase is open for applications from organisations working to remove barriers related to digital exclusion for unemployed young people and adults until‎ 27 September 2021. From 28 September the programme will be accepting fast track applications from organisations that can identify users who are digitally excluded, on a low income, and at risk of social isolation and loneliness (particularly older people, people with disabilities, and single parents).

A full update on progress towards our target of a 33% reduction in food waste by 2025 will be provided in the upcoming review of Scotland’s Food Waste Reduction Action Plan. A detailed analysis on the composition of residual waste is currently being undertaken and will form part of this review, due in Spring 2022.

In addition, we are developing a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets which will inform the development of the new Circular Economy Bill. There will also be further engagement and consultation to shape the Bill’s contents.

The Scottish Government has committed to extend the Connecting Scotland programme over the course of this Parliament to reach a total of 300,000 people. Work is underway to scope the future service, including how best to reach priority groups who we know are most likely to be digitally excluded, including refugees and asylum seekers.

The completed bids are published on the Transport Scotland website. The manufacturer that has been contracted by the Bus Operators to supply the battery electric buses is noted at https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/scottish-ultra-low-emission-bus-scheme/scottish-ultra-low-emission-bus-scheme-completed-bids/  207 of the total 272 buses funded under SULEBS have been ordered from Alexander Dennis Ltd, the bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland.

Under the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the UK and EU the Scottish Government is unable to set subsidy rules that restrict support solely to domestic manufacturers. Scotland is bound by TCA and World Trade Organisation rules as is the rest of the UK.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) are the Scottish Government's vessel asset owning company.

CMAL conduct regular and rigorous worldwide searches across the available vessel charter and sale markets.

We know how important agri-environment support is to farmers and crofters in helping them to deliver a wide range of environmental measures. That is why we have prioritised agri-environment support in the face of significant cuts to the budget resulting from the UK Government reneging on public commitments that farmers and crofters would not be worse off as a result of leaving the EU.

The latest application round of the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme closed at the end of June, decisions on approvals will be made by the end of 2021 and this will build on the £214 million of support committed to since 2015.

The farmer led groups also considered biodiversity and environmental outcomes and the recently announced Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board will carefully consider these recommendations, and those from other reports such as Farming for 1.5, as they contribute to our work to implement policy reform. We are also working closely with NatureScot on their pilot programme on a range of approaches, including a farmer-led outcomes based approach to inform what rural support could look like after CAP.

The Scottish Government is aware of the paper published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on the use of rubber granulates in artificial sports pitches. Also that ECHA, through its EU REACH process, has placed some restrictions on the use of rubber granules in the EU.

We recognise the impact the deliberate introduction of these granules has on the natural environment and that the EU restrictions might have an impact on the supply of rubber granules.

Our National Agency for Sport, sport scotland, will be participating in a UK Sports Agency meeting in September where the use of the infill will be discussed.

The Scotland Government no longer require social care staff (in line with the general population) to self-isolate if they are double vaccinated, symptom free and return a negative PCR test. As an additional protection social care staff are also asked to undertake daily LFD testing for ten days following covid exposure.

More information can be found at the following link:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) – exemption of fully vaccinated social care staff from isolation: information for providers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)