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In the 2022 Programme for Government, and more recently in the FM’s policy prospectus, the Scottish Government has committed to launch a Talent Attraction and Migration Service for Scotland. The service is in the early stages of development and we intend to launch it before the end of 2023. The service will improve Scotland’s ability to attract and recruit workers with the skills that our economy will need in the future and support international workers in the migration and relocation process.

The Scottish Government will update the guidance regularly to ensure displaced people from Ukraine have up to date information. Updates have been made since the guidance was first published in 6 th April 2023. We will continue to review the guidance – and listen to our stakeholders, partner organisations and displaced people from Ukraine living in Scotland – to ensure it is up to date and meets needs.

We remain committed to the expansion of free school meals in primary and special schools as described in our programme for government. All food and drink, including free school meals, served in local authority and grant aided schools must meet the standards set out in the Nutritional Standards for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. What produce is used and where it is sourced from is a matter for individual local authorities taking into account local needs, priorities and circumstances as well as their duty to consider sustainable development as they procure food and drink for school menus.

However, the member raises an important matter. I have asked to meet with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs to discuss the points raised by this question in more detail.

The Scottish Government is currently planning to implement provisions from the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 restricting the days when F2 and F3 fireworks can be supplied to and used by the general public, as well as the compensation regulation making powers connected to the restricted days of supply, during the 2024-25 financial year at the earliest.

The successor scheme to Warmer Homes Scotland will support those most vulnerable and most likely to be in fuel poverty. Any ‘low-income pensioner’ will be eligible for support, this includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee or anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme will create a much larger eligible group than that of the current scheme.

The answer to question S6W-17589 on 16 May 2023 provides further detail on steps taken to ensure that our schemes are accessible to all.

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

To deliver this commitment, the Scottish Government established the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) in 2021 to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. This includes the continued delivery of the £25 million per annum Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), support for Clyde Gateway urban regeneration company to help deliver their 20-year operating plan, and £140 million delivered directly to all local authorities over 5 years.

PBIP funding allocated to each local authority for the first 3 years of the programme 2021- 2023 is provided in the following table: It is up to each local authority how they allocate funding to specific projects, within the terms of the PBIP grant award and related criteria.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for managing all training provided to doctors in Scotland. NES ensure that all doctors receive high quality training in line with curricula that is set by the relevant Medical Royal College so that they are able to demonstrate that they have met all GMC curricular requirements, in order to practise independently as a GP in the UK.

All GP practices receive funding for protected time consisting of one session a month (usually within practice time) to allow GPs to maintain and develop their training and skills, and those of their practice teams. For GPs after their 3-year training, NES provide educational content related to gastroenterological conditions. There are also Practice-Based Small Group Learning modules (PBSGL) covering cancer and gastroenterology cases.

We have allocated £350m to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures this year, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households.

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS), our national fuel poverty scheme, is designed to help those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures in to individual properties. Individuals over 60 who had no working heating system or who are in receipt of certain benefits have been eligible for support through the scheme.

WHS is now closed to new applicants but a successor to WHS will launch in October 2023. Home Energy Scotland are currently taking applications for this scheme.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee and anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme provides support for all owner occupied households to install energy efficiency measures. All domestic owner occupiers in Scotland can apply to the scheme. Grant funding of up to 75% of the combined costs of measures up to a maximum £7,500 is available, with an additional £7,500 of funding available as an interest free loan. A rural uplift of £1,500 applies to the energy efficiency grant, this uplift increases the maximum limit of the grant to £9,000.

Funding is available via the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund for Social Landlords to apply for projects which will install energy efficiency measures across their housing stock. Pensioners who live in social housing will benefit from this investment, which also includes sheltered accommodation.

We are maintaining our £64 million investment in energy efficiency improvements this year, targeting areas with high levels of fuel poverty through our Area Based Schemes.

There are several ways that the Scottish Government assist communities to take ownership of assets. The Scottish Land Fund, which will be doubled to £20m by 2026, allows groups to purchase assets, often through negotiated sales, from both public and private owners.

In addition, there is a Land Reform Bill which shows our commitment to introducing Land Reform legislation to further improve transparency of land ownership, help ensure large scale land holdings deliver in the public interest and empower communities by providing more opportunities to own land and have more say in how land in their area is used.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a just transition to net zero, putting people and communities at the heart of our approach. The Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, set out these aims and the accompanying equality impact assessment reviews how our energy efficiency delivery schemes support people through this transition. https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-buildings-strategy-equality-impact-assessment/pages/

The Scottish Government funds Home Energy Scotland (HES), a free and impartial advice service available for anyone wanting to improve the energy efficiency of their home. HES can be contacted across a range of channels and formats to ensure our advice and funding support services are widely accessible. This include web based enquiries, over the telephone, by bespoke email or private messaging on social media platforms, face to face at events or in people’s own homes. Help is available through the British Sign Language app, and HES has partnered with the translation organisation “Happy to Translate”. Similar support is available for business owners through our free and impartial Business Energy Scotland service.

We will also publish a new Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy this year to set out how we will work with wider trusted messengers, from a national-to-local level, to raise awareness and understanding of the heat transition with different communities across Scotland. This will include increasing promotion of our existing advice and support services to ensure people can access the right support, at the right time to meet their needs as they undertake energy efficiency improvements to their properties and a move to renewable heating. Delivery of public engagement in line with the upcoming strategy will be led and coordinated by our new national public energy agency, Heat & Energy Efficiency, which was established in a virtual form in September 2022 and currently operates in-house to the Scottish Government ahead of becoming a dedicated body by 2025.