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The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 provided powers for local authorities to respond to incidents of dog owners allowing their dogs to be out of control in public places by imposing Dog Control Notices (DCNs).

The Scottish Government updated operational guidance for the 2010 Act in December 2020. This reflected the first decade of use of the 2010 Act and built on best practice to assist local authorities in discharging their responsibilities. This guidance is available at: Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010: guidance - updated - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

A further review of this aspect of the 2010 Act is not planned at this time.

The Scottish Government has also introduced a national DCN database which is helping independent enforcement agencies (local authorities and Police Scotland) access information on dog owners who allow their dogs to be out of control.

The Scottish Government carried out a marketing campaign on dog control with the Scottish SPCA in 2021. This campaign has since been re-run on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on a number of occasions and directs the public to information about ‘The law on controlling your dog’ on the mygov.scot website at: Controlling your dog in public - mygov.scot

This website makes clear that dog owners are responsible for the actions of their dog, and the sets out potential penalties for failing to control dogs.

Local authorities can also consider byelaw making powers to address a specific problem.

A final response to S6W-15344 was issued by the Parliament deadline on Friday 10 March 2023.

It is crucial that the voices of children and young people are at the heart of developing our next steps on alcohol policy.

Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion directly references the recommendations of the Children’s Parliament and contains a section, and questions, on potential restrictions on alcohol sponsorship of events.

The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and publish a report. We will then further consider possible restrictions.

I met with Councillor Maureen Chalmers, the COSLA Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing on 22 March. We had a productive meeting and discussed how good practice in providing rapid help for people living with MND can be shared across local authorities. I will also follow up directly with MND Scotland with a meeting currently being arranged. Additionally, I can confirm that MND Scotland is a member of our recently formed Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder group. The group had their first meeting at the end of 2022, giving constructive feedback to our Housing for Varying Needs review. My officials are arranging further meetings of this group to seek views and opinions on housing and independent living issues including the adaptations review and the new Scottish Accessible Homes Standard.

Information on the initial destinations of school leavers three months after the end of the school year (i.e. in October) is published in the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations publication released in February each year. Information on the destinations of the same cohort of school leavers nine months after the end of the school year (i.e. the following April) is then published in Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destination each June.

Chart 4 of the follow-up leaver destination publication provides information on the percentage of school leavers whose follow-up destination was the same as their initial destination whilst table L1.8 of the associated supplementary tables provide more details of the percentages of school leavers who had sustained their initial destination or moved into another destination by the time of the follow-up data cut - i.e. 9 months after leaving school.

The information used to produce these destination statistics is sourced from the 'Opportunities for All' shared dataset. This dataset contains information on the activities undertaken by young people in Scotland and is managed and hosted by Skills Development Scotland (SDS). SDS supply the Scottish Government with two snapshots from this dataset throughout the year - in April and October.

The eDevelopment service currently has 52,000 registered users.

In the last 5 years the eDevelopment homepage has been accessed 3,294,533 times. The figures in the following table set out the number of times that users have accessed the homepage. The information is broken down into each of the 5 years.

As of January 2023, over 1.41m planning and building standards applications have been submitted online via eDevelopment since the service went live in 2016.

The service regularly receives over 5,500 submissions each week.

We estimate that in 2021-2022, up to 95% of all planning submissions and 90% of building warrant applications are submitted online through the service.

The Digital Planning Transformation programme is a £35 million programme to transform the planning service and realise £200 million economic benefits to the sector. Work is progressing to deliver outputs from five missions as set out in the

Digital Strategy for Planning that underpins the programme.

The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”) introduced the Dog Control Notice (DCN) regime. This regime is operated by independent local authorities under the terms of the 2010 Act.

Local authorities are required to appoint at least one officer for the purposes of the 2010 Act. Local authority ‘authorised officers’ i.e. dog wardens, will be permitted to serve a written DCN on dog owners (if the owner is not yet 16 years of age, a person who has parental responsibilities would be served) who do not keep their dogs under proper control.

It is for local authorities to determine the best approach for enforcement for their areas.

Action taken by the Scottish Government to facilitate the use of the 2010 Act powers includes updated Scottish Government guidance for local authorities in relation to the exercise of their functions and the functions of authorised officers under the 2010 Act (published in 2020): https://www.gov.scot/publications/updated-guidance-control-dogs-scotland-act-2010/

The Scottish Government also led discussions between Police Scotland and local authorities to update the non-statutory Joint Protocol agreement between these enforcement agencies. The intention of the Joint Protocol is to aid local authorities and the police with the decision making process when considering how best to deal with complaints relating to irresponsible dog ownership. The updated Joint Protocol was published September 2021: https://www.safercommunitiesscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Joint-Protocol-REVISED-10.09.2021-Control-of-Dogs-pdf.pdf

The Scottish Government has also established a national DCN database. The database went live in early February 2022. The national database brings together the DCN records of all local authorities into a centralised database accessible by all local authorities and Police Scotland. Where a person subject to a DCN moves from one local authority to another, the national database will be a valuable tool in helping to enforce that notice.

The Scottish Government has also recently funded the development and delivery of dog warden training, successfully delivered by Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland (REHIS).

On the 13th March 2023, following substantial stakeholder engagement, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released an article; "Green jobs" update current and upcoming work - Office of National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) announcing that ONS will now define a green job as:

Employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has continued to review the approaches, expectations and challenges of defining and measuring green jobs, supported by a range of research and engagement with stakeholders and users, many of which were open to the public. This has included a public user engagement exercise (Response summary: Defining and measuring green jobs - ons.gov.uk), an interactive workshop, bilateral conversations with several stakeholders, and discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Economic Experts Working Group (EEWG). All ONS engagement was conducted in line with the existing code of practice for statistics and they will continue to engage as they develop the detailed framework behind the definition.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report detailing offshore workers’ demands for a just energy transition, and agrees that listening to and acting on recommendations from workers is critical to ensure a Just Transition. This is why we have provided £100,000 in funding to the STUC to ensure workers’ voices are at the heart of our just transition planning. The recommendations provided within this report will be considered in full during the consultation period for the Energy Strategy Just Transition Plan and responded to in the final draft.