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The Scottish Government remains commitment to securing a long term, sustainable future for the Grangemouth industrial cluster, and highly skilled workforce located there. This is outlined in our draft Grangemouth Industrial Just Transition Plan which was published for consultation on 7 November.

This document is designed to set the strategic direction for Grangemouth’s transition to net zero, including a co-designed vision for the future of the cluster and a series of proposed actions to support this. The final plan will take cognisance of the outputs of Project Willow which is due to report in early 2025.

With partial rewetting, the water table in peatlands or peaty soils is held deeper underground than with full rewetting or restoration. In theory, this delivers a carbon benefit but also allows certain types of agriculture that may be limited by full rewetting to continue.

The Peatland Science and Technical Advisory Group have advised there may be some potential in lowland grassland systems and at the edges of some raised bogs where the use of ‘leaky dams’ may have a part to play in finer control of water table depth. However, significant areas of lowland agricultural peats are difficult to identify and map.

We have commissioned scientists at the James Hutton Institute to advise on the distribution of grassland on peat and on the relationship between water table depth and carbon emissions in peat grassland systems.

When complete, this will inform on-going work in government considering options for incorporating peatland protection, management and restoration within the new four-tier agricultural support framework.

The Scottish Government has now met its target of 6,000 public EV charge points two years early.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has invested over £65 million in public EV charging. As a result of this early investment, and rapidly increasing private sector investment, today Scotland has one of the most comprehensive public charging networks in the UK, and the latest official UK Department for Transport statistics show that Scotland has the highest number of public chargers per head of population of any part of the UK, except London, and the most rapid charge points of any part of the UK.

In partnership with our stakeholders, we have been developing the Draft Vision Implementation Plan and route map for the delivery of approximately 24,000 additional public charge points by 2030. I thank stakeholders for their continuing engagement to support delivering our Vision for world-class, people focused public EV charging network.

As previously indicated, we will publish the draft Implementation Plan for consultation on its proposed actions by the end of the year and we envisage that the final Implementation Plan and route map will be published in 2025.

Our Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change (PES) highlights the importance of effective engagement to build support for climate action. The Scottish Government continues to build on outcomes from Scotland’s most recent Climate Assembly, by delivering a programme of participative engagement in support of the just transition planning process. We are exploring options to establish an additional participative process to engage the public in order to build understanding of the transition to a net zero and climate resilient Scotland. This is further to our existing engagement work, including the £5.5m Community Climate Action Hubs, £425k Climate Action Schools programme, and awarding funding of £272k through our Climate Engagement Fund.

The Scottish Government has committed to the development of a just transition plan for Mossmorran following completion of the just transition plan for Grangemouth in 2025. As with the Grangemouth just transition plan, this work will be co-designed with key stakeholders including industry, the workforce and the community. The Scottish Government is actively engaging with relevant stakeholders as part of the scoping phase of this programme of work.

Our focus remains on mitigating any impact, to the best of our ability, that Petroineos’ decision to close the Grangemouth Refinery will have on the locality and wider economy. Petroineos’ consultation with their workforce is ongoing and, following its conclusion, we will be able to establish in more detail any potential impact that the closure of the Grangemouth Refinery will have.

The Scottish and UK Governments have announced a package of measures to support Grangemouth’s industrial future. This includes a skills intervention, jointly funded by Scottish Government and UK Government, to support those Petroineos workers affected by the recent closure announcement. This intervention will support workers at both the Grangemouth Refinery and Finnart Terminal, and will be provided by Forth Valley College.

Looking towards the long term future of the Refinery site, the Scottish and UK Government's are supporting the Project Willow cross site study which is examining the enablers and blockers to deploying low carbon technologies at Grangemouth. Such technologies will take time to be brought forward, but they offer a route to the creation of new, highly skilled jobs at Grangemouth and our focus is on accelerating the deployment of these projects and associated jobs.

Lastly, the Deputy First Minister and Secretary of State for Scotland have also signed an enhanced Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal that will support wider economic development for those who live in the locality.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has provided interest free loans worth over £223 million to individuals and businesses across Scotland to support the transition to zero emission/ultra-low emission vehicles.

This financial year we are providing £15 million of loan funding to further accelerate the shift to zero emission transport. To support a just transition to net zero, funding has now been prioritised to focus solely on lower income households, as well as households in rural and Island locations, in addition to the taxi sector.

Recipients of the loan as well as individuals who reside in rural and Island locations can also access the domestic charge point fund which will provide up to £400 of funding to support the installation of a charge point for an electric vehicle.

Both of these funds are delivered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of Scottish Ministers, additional information on the schemes supporting the transition to Net Zero and funded by the Scottish Government can be found here - Grants and loans to help you travel greener - Energy Saving Trust.

In 2023, almost seven in ten children were within a healthy weight range (69%) based on their BMI, this was within the range of 64% - 72% recorded since 1998.

The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) sets out data on children’s weight. The table of children aged 5-11 with valid interviewer administered height and weight measurements from that report is set out below by year::

Development of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) Delivery Plan is underway. This takes account of the current financial climate and is examining existing schemes across all modes in addition to the longer term STPR2 recommendations.

The latest Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts, following the UK Government Autumn Budget Statement, show an improved medium term outlook for capital. The Scottish Government will continue to consider its longer-term infrastructure plans after we receive clarity from the UK Government over our multi-year capital funding envelope in the Spring.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Public Health Scotland to carry out an evaluation of the residential rehabilitation programme. On 13 February 2024 PHS published their baseline report, covering the first two years of the National Mission and a final evaluation report will be published after the National Mission ends in 2026.