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The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing three sectoral Just Transition Plans, on Transport, Buildings and Construction, and Land Use and Agriculture, following our commitment to deliver Just Transition Plans for high-emitting sectors. We will also be taking account of consultation responses to revise the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

We have shared preliminary discussion material for each Plan with the Just Transition Commission, who continue to advise on current progress and next steps. As advised by the Commission, discussion papers for each Plan are due to be shared publicly in the coming weeks. These will support extensive public and stakeholder engagement over the summer, to inform the drafting of full Plans over the course of the next year.

The Scottish Government is tackling marine litter with actions detailed in our Marine Litter Strategy, which aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. Our Strategy and action plan was refreshed in September 2022 and focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets. The Strategy will drive forward our work over the next five years and co-ordinate the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

The many actions include: improving the management of end of life fishing and aquaculture gear to reduce litter and improve recycling rates, contributing to our circular economy; working across the UK administrations to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic; and developing international solutions to prevent spills of plastic pellets (nurdles), which can be found on our beaches and risk the health of our marine wildlife. In addition to preventative actions, we are also supporting litter removal, whether off shore through the funding of KIMO’s Fishing for Litter scheme, or at our rivers, with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project.

The UK Government’s own economic modelling shows that the agriculture and semi-processing sectors will lose out because of the UK-Australia trade deal. The approach taken in the negotiation of that deal also does not align with our Vision for Trade, which references the benefits of trade agreements but makes clear that these must include appropriate safeguards for our producers in sensitive sectors, like beef and lamb. The former Secretary of State for DEFRA, George Eustice MP, who was in post while these recent trade deals were negotiated, expressed a similar view when he said in the UK Parliament on 14 November 2022 that “Wedid not need to give Australia or New Zealand full liberalisation in beef and sheep – it was not in our economic interest to do so”. Also, and in sharp contrast, the recent EU trade deal with New Zealand seems to have secured significantly stronger protections for domestic EU producers.

Overall, the gains for Scottish food producers of the UK-Australia trade deal are marginal. While tariffs will be removed on a range of exports, these only benefit certain products such as Scotch Whisky. These gains are offset by the liberal market access the UK has agreed which will allow the import of agri-food products, often produced on a mass scale and to lower standards of production than in Scotland. This will have an adverse impact on our agri-food producers and economy.

Tariff liberalisation may benefit consumers by marginally increasing choice and reducing the price of imported products, for example red meat, wine, dairy and eggs. However, there is a greater risk to the Scottish economy if this displaces domestic products.

Ultimately, these Trade deals go nowhere near replacing the lost trade from the disastrous Brexit deal the UK Government negotiated with the EU.

The devolved responsibilities for Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees are published on gov.scot: Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company is leading on carrying out remediation of the wider Shawfield area. To date, 13.5 hectares of land have been successfully remediated. The Scottish Government is in active discussion with Clyde Gateway to explore potential solutions to deal with the remaining contamination across the Shawfield area.

The annual summary analysis report will be published on or before‎ 1 May on the Sustainable Scotland Network website ( Sustainable Scotland Network - The Sustainable Scotland Network ).

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for Health Boards locally.

PHS publish waiting times data on a quarterly basis. The next publication covering the period to March 2023 will be published on 30 May 2023.

We remain committed to increasing capacity to support recovery, including providing additional endoscopies. To support this we have put in place four mobile endoscopy units, which are providing five to six endoscopy rooms across NHS Scotland. A Dyce facility continues to provide additional endoscopy for NHS Grampian and a new endoscopy room is due to open in NHS Ayrshire and Arran on 1 May 2023.

NTC Golden Jubilee Phase 2 is planned to open in late 2023 bringing additional capacity of five orthopaedic theatres, five endoscopy rooms and two general theatres, and around 9,400 procedures in 2023-24.

We continue to work with Boards on a series of measures to increase diagnostic capacity. Scotland’s world-leading diagnostic bowel service, Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE), has supported nearly 3,000 patients since becoming operational in June 2020, including around 2,500 since April 2021.

Spend on our trunk road improvement projects is managed within the Capital Land and Works allocation of £121.9 million as part of the Motorway and Trunk Roads Spending Plans set out in the Scottish Budget: 2023-24. This covers preparation and delivery of a range of projects and programmes including A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness, the A83 Rest and Be Thankful medium and long options and improvements to the A96 corridor as well as a number of other projects and programmes. Spend on each individual project is managed with the Capital Land and Works allocation budget line which reflects the scope of work anticipated to be taken forward within the financial year.

The Blue Flag programme in Scotland was discontinued at the end of 2016 and replaced with the Scottish Beach Awards scheme. Keep Scotland Beautiful will announce the 2023 beach awards winners before the start of the bathing season. In order for a beach to achieve an award there is a criteria for local environmental quality, which includes consideration of the bathing water quality standards.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring, classifying protecting and improving water quality at designated bathing waters. 98% of bathing waters currently meet the bathing water standards with more beaches being classified as excellent than ever before.