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There were no Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued under the Marine Scotland Act 2010 in the past five years. FPNs were issued under Nature Conservation Orders which are enabled by the 2010 Act.

The number of FPNs issued under Nature Conservation Orders were 2019 X3, 2020 X1, 2021 X1, 2022 X0, 2023 X1, 2024 X0. All vessels were UK vessels because the Marine Scotland Act and associated orders apply to Territorial and Inshore waters where generally only UK vessels are permitted to fish.

The Scottish Government does not hold centralised data on the number of bus stop bypasses, also known as floating bus stops, currently under construction or planned across Scotland. Responsibility for the planning, design and delivery of bus and active travel infrastructure rests with individual local authorities. As such, detailed information on specific infrastructure projects, including bus stop bypasses, is held with the local authority. You may wish to contact the relevant local authority directly for the information on projects in their area.

The Scottish Government funds active travel infrastructure through delivery partners such as Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Authorities. As such, Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) related to specific design elements, such as bus stop bypasses are typically carried out by these delivery partners as part of their statutory duties during project development and delivery.

While the Scottish Government does not directly conduct EQIAs for infrastructure designs related to delivery partners, we require delivery partners to ensure that all funded projects comply with relevant statutory procedures, including consideration of impact on disabled users.

This approach is consistent with the outcomes of the second National Transport Strategy, which seeks to deliver a fairer transport system that meets the needs of everyone, and with the recommendations of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2), which emphasise the importance of inclusive and accessible active travel networks.

NatureScot consulted on and produced an Environmental Report on the principle of beaver translocation to the river Beauly catchment in 2022. A copy of the report can be found on NatureScot’s website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-translocation-consultation-river-beauly-catchment-environmental-report

NatureScot also carried out a Habitats Regulations Assessment for the River Beauly catchment area. A copy of the assessment can be found on NatureScot’s website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-translocation-consultation-river-beauly-catchment-habitats-regulation-appraisal-hra-possible

The licence application was assessed against the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations which also assesses environmental benefits and risks. NatureScot’s decision documents on Glen Affric and Abriachan sets out how the licence applications were assessed. Copies of these documents can be found on Naturescot's website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-decision-document-licence-application-283801 and

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-decision-document-licence-application-296282

From 2014 data on Audiology waits formed part of the 18 weeks referral to treatment waiting time data Public Health Scotland (PHS) publication. In March this year, PHS communicated that as part of their ongoing work to ensure their suite of statistical publications meets user needs, they decided to pause the 18 weeks RTT national data collection, analysis and publication. The 18th March 2025 publication was the last planned publication. It is important to note that PHS will continue to publish comprehensive statistics on waiting times which will help demonstrate the impact of the additional funding to reduce waiting times. By pausing the 18 week RTT statistics, PHS will be able to shift resources towards developing statistics on the number of 8 key diagnostic tests carried out per quarter. This change in focus is needed for the public to understand how we are progressing with our commitment for 150,000 extra appointments, diagnostics and treatment in 2025-26.

Given the importance of audiology, as part of the Scottish Government’s implementation of the Service Renewal Framework consideration is being given as to how to strengthen visibility and accountability on audiology waiting times to ensure planning of services reflects actual need and supports equitable access. This has been prioritised as part of the first year work programme of SRF implementation.

The Scottish Government has commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to undertake work which maps the skills and competencies required at each level of practice for all disciplines within the healthcare science profession, including audiology as a clinical priority area.

A Redefining our Workforce document is under development which sets out work on redefining of the scientific workforce in Scotland (including audiologists) and will support development of educational courses in the future. This is in its final stage of publication and will be published this Autumn.

This sits hand in hand with activity which will enable us to be able to map our scientific workforce in NHS Scotland more accurately, strengthening capacity, training and recruitment pipelines for audiologists, and supporting better workforce planning for the future.

Scottish Government is aware that research is essential if we are to continue to develop new and effective approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours.

There are no plans for the Scottish Government to provide direct funding support to the Scottish Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, however, Individual researchers or groups of researchers based at the Scottish Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence and who are employed by a Scottish University or NHS Board can apply for CSO research grant funding.

We look forward to working with the Centre co-leads and funders to facilitate awareness of and engagement with the NHS Research Scotland support infrastructure.

In 2024–25, the Scottish Government supported the delivery of 966 affordable homes, including 351 acquisitions and 615 voids, through £40 million in targeted acquisition and voids funding.

Through delivery of the Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot we are working with our Save a Life for Scotland partners to improve access to defibrillators by ensuring that they are publicly accessible, registered and to take a data driven approach to their placement.

The Scottish Government provided the Resuscitation Research Group funding to support the development of PADmap - Increasing cardiac arrest survival through optimal defibrillator placement. This is a free to use, data-driven service to help defibrillator guardians make informed decisions about where to place their devices in order to have the most impact.

The Scottish Government will deliver up to £4.9 billion of investment over the coming four years, with homes delivered through a mixture of public and privately leveraged investment. Further details will be outlined in the forthcoming Spending Review.