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The following table provides how many deposits have been held with SafeDeposits Scotland in each year for which data is available.

The role of the Scottish Government is to monitor each of the three deposit schemes for compliance with the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011. This includes being satisfied that the tenancy deposit schemes have clear and substantial processes in place that meet the requirements laid out in the regulations.

The three approved tenancy deposit schemes are private businesses and the Scottish Government is not involved in their business operations. We do not hold information on how many full-time equivalent staff currently work at SafeDeposits Scotland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to establish an independent review of governance of its portfolio of strategic commercial assets.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Ltd to review the Framework Document, which sets out governance arrangements between the parties.

The Local Governance Review is being taken forward jointly with COSLA to examine how power and resources should be shared between national and local government and with communities. We remain committed to concluding the review and taking forward the findings within this parliament.

The current ETSU guidance should continue to be followed by applicants and used by decision makers to assess and rate noise from wind energy developments. The WSP report, commissioned on behalf of the UK Government, provides some recommendations for updates that could be made to bring the guidance into line with the most up to date evidence and policy.

The Scottish Government is a member of the ETSU steering group comprising of the four Governments of the UK. This group is considering, under the lead of the UK Government, how best to take forward these recommendations and will do so, as required, in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the steering group, made up of Disabled People’s Organisations, to co-design the new Disability Equality strategy. The group met several times in 2022 and are focused on developing responses to the challenges and obstacles disabled people face.

The group last met in April 2023 and a further meeting is planned for June 2023. It is anticipated that the strategy will be published on the conclusion of the co-design process.

Our current focus with the Disabled People’s Organisations is the development of an Immediate Priorities Plan that will respond to the negative impact of the cost of living crisis on disabled people. This plan will be published in the Summer. A publication date for the Disability Equality Strategy will be determined following the work on the Immediate Priorities Plan.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review policies in relation to placing young people in adult mental health wards.

NHS Boards use the Admission to Adult Mental Health Wards for under 18's Guidelines which were published in 2020, alongside discussions with the young person and their family, to make the most appropriate decision regarding the treatment and support that a young person requires.

The guidelines make clear that we expect children and young people who require inpatient care to be looked after in age-appropriate facilities. There may be occasions when it isn’t possible for a young person to be admitted to a specialist child and adolescent bed – for example, a crisis admission out of hours where there are concerns for the young person’s safety, or the young person and their family have a preference for an admission to a local adult ward. On occasions where young people are placed within an adult ward this will be monitored and reviewed regularly to ensure that the young person is receiving the most appropriate treatment and care.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE.

Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work. In this instance Capricorn Energy have confirmed that they are providing bespoke support to all affected employees and will not be accessing the services provided by PACE.

There is no statutory duty on the Scottish Government to achieve a biodiversity net gain.

Scotland’s draft biodiversity strategy published in December 2022 sets out a clear ambition for Scotland to be nature positive by 2030, and to have substantially restored and regenerated biodiversity by 2045. Five year delivery plans will set out the actions we need to take to achieve that ambition. We will consult on the first delivery plan in the summer. We will also bring forward a Natural Environment Bill, which will put in place key legislative changes to restore and protect nature, including, but not restricted to, targets for nature restoration.

The National Planning Framework also places a strong emphasis on securing positive effects for biodiversity as one of its six statutory outcomes (as identified in section 3A(3)(c) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended). The recently adopted National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) includes a cross-cutting theme to improve biodiversity and our strategy and policies support development that helps to secure positive effects for biodiversity. NPF4 Policy 3 sets out that development proposals will contribute to the enhancement of biodiversity, including where relevant, restoring degraded habitats and building and strengthening nature networks.

(a) There were 149 admissions of under 18s to secure accommodation during 2021-22. Details of those placements can be found in the Children’s Social Work Statistics Scotland: 2021 to 2022 .

(b) The Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2021-22 show the establishments where under 18s were held. This is detailed in the following table: