Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06233 on 25 February 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 .

Work towards a draft bill to provide local authorities with a discretionary power to apply a visitor levy, including a series of roundtable stakeholder events and formal consultation, was at an advanced stage but was necessarily paused at the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020.

Our Budget confirmed that we would re-commence this work. Given the continuing impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector in Scotland, we consider it prudent to carefully review the work done to date and undertake further stakeholder engagement before making a firm decision on the next steps.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06233 on 25 February 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06233 on 25 February 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 .

Universal Credit (UC) is reserved to the UK Government. The Scotland Act 2016 enables the Scottish Parliament to legislate to allow for specific flexibilities in the way Universal Credit is delivered to clients in Scotland, with agreement from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The Scottish Government works with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in relation to those specific UC flexibilities set out in the 2016 Act. This does not cover feedback or complaints from the DWP service users in Scotland, their preference for channels used in accessing UC, or information regarding DWP staff in Scotland. The DWP does not routinely share information with the Scottish Government regarding any of these issues. They do, however, publish data on the number of overall complaints handled by their staff and the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) on a yearly basis at www.gov.uk/government/collections/complaints-about-the-department-for-work-and-pensions .

This is a reserved policy area. Responsibility for security of supply sits with National Grid ESO (the GB electricity system operator).

Renewable capacity in Scotland includes onshore and offshore wind, hydro, solar, marine technologies, bioenergy and waste. Other sources of power generation and interconnection to the rest of GB electricity system are also critical in terms of maintaining secure electricity supply, particularly at times when renewables output is low.

The UK government has now included renewables in the Capacity Market to recognise their “measurable contribution” to security of supply. Renewables sites in Scotland have been successful in securing contracts in the latest T-4 and T-1 Capacity Market Auctions.

The equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption in Scotland (around 30 GigaWatt hours, GWh) comes from renewable sources.

This is a matter for Crown Estate Scotland (CES) as the assessment and evaluation of the ScotWind applications was undertaken by CES. Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage activity was considered as part of the Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy's Sustainability Appraisal, particularly the Social and Economic Impact Assessment and in the Regional Locational Guidance. Those documents can be found at the links below.

Social and Economic Impact Assessment: https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-sectoral-marine-plan-social-econimic-impact-assessment/documents/

Regional Locational Guidance: https://www.gov.scot/publications/sectoral-marine-plan-regional-locational-guidance/documents/

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of incidents reported to the police. Information is held on the number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, including those for personation of police. This is shown in the following table, by police division, from 2013-14 to 2020-21.

Table: Number of personation of police crimes in Scotland by police division, 2013-14 to 2020-21

As the 2021-22 season is ongoing, NatureScot do not yet have a complete picture of the number of deer culled and so it is not possible to give an accurate assessment of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions. NatureScot will publish cull return data for 2021-22 once the season is over and returns have been received.

Work to increase standardisation since the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 was published, can be seen in the announced Invitation to Tender (17 December 2021) for two new ferries for Islay and the continuing work as part of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP) that will see up to 7 vessels replaced on the west coast as part of Phase 1 of the programme.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) are taking forward the SVRP and are currently working with the appointed naval architects (Navalue) who are providing consultancy services for the concept design stage as well as investigating and evaluating the feasibility of designing low emission ferries to be in line with the Scottish Government climate change and standardisation commitments.

We also continue to support the vessel resilience funding that can be spent on replacing obsolete equipment on existing vessels.