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Transport Scotland’s primary engagement with consultants was via the appointments made to provide support on the delivery of the A9 Dualling programme. Under those various appointments the views of a number of consultants have informed the identification and assessment of factors that could affect delivery of the programme, undertaken as part of Transport Scotland’s normal risk management practices. That process of identification and assessment was also informed by discussions with consultants and contractors via regular meetings held with the Association of Consulting Engineers and The Civil Engineering Contractors Association respectively.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14969 on 21 March 2023. 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

The Access Bikes scheme closed in February 2022. During the life of the scheme, 4 loans were distributed, though we do not hold information on the recipients or local authority area.

A new Access Bikes scheme has been running since April 2022 which focuses on assisting those facing challenges to access a bike through various means. There is no loan aspect provided in the new scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13420 on 19 January 2023. 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

Our national guidance ‘Included, engaged and involved part 1: promoting and managing school attendance’ encourages Education Authorities to consider the underlying reasons for absence, including those which arise from an additional support needs.

The guidance identifies that poor attendance can often be related to, or be an indication of, an additional support need and that schools should use their staged intervention processes to ensure that any barriers to learning are identified and appropriate support is provided.

The guidance establishes requirements regarding classifying and recording attendance and absence. It is for local authorities to record the reasons for absence for their pupils within the local authority management information system SEEMiS.

The report shows that staff across schools are committed to promoting positive relationships within an inclusive environment and seek to prevent and address bullying.

We take the findings of the report very seriously and have put in place a range of actions immediately to respond. We have begun a review of our national anti-bullying guidance, Respect for All, and have established a working group of key stakeholders to support us in this.

HM Inspectors will undertake a second phase of the thematic inspection which will look at good practice in how schools are responding to bullying. Education Scotland will publish this report later this year. The findings will inform our future work.

We are engaging with the Teachers Panel and with teaching unions to discuss their experiences and how we could better support schools and pupils. The fifth wave of our Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research started in February and will provide a robust national picture of current relationships and behaviour. We will use this research and engagement with stakeholders, including the Scottish Advisory Group for Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, to inform the development of further future policy, guidance and support for schools and school staff.

If the Ministry of Defence objects to an application for consent for a wind farm which impacts on the Eskdalemuir seismic array, then the Scottish Government would not proceed to consent the application unless that objection is withdrawn.

In cases where further information is provided by an applicant or changes are made to a proposal to overcome an objection, there will be further consultation to establish if the Ministry of Defence are content to remove their safeguarding objection.

The Scottish Government agrees with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee that we need plans to deter car use, to accompany current plans to encourage active travel and the use of public transport, the need for both is set out in the route map on 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030.

That is why we have set out our future transport infrastructure priorities in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published on 8 December 2022 that includes a focus on active travel, mass transit and bus priority for mode shift away from the predominance of cars.

However, the evidence is clear that incentivising sustainable alternatives alone will not be sufficient to bring about the behaviour change to deliver the scale of 20% car KM reduction. Therefore As outlined in our route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030 jointly developed with COSLA, we have commissioned research exploring equitable options for demand management to discourage car use.

The most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved. The recent rises in the cost of motoring underline the unfairness of the current, regressive motoring tax regime.

We will continue to press the UK Government for a fair and progressive future transport tax system that better incentivises the transition to zero-emission vehicles, reduces unnecessary journeys and raises revenues to fund policies to support a shift to more sustainable travel.

We do not hold information on mileage travelled by the recipients, but from follow-up surveys for the new Access Bikes scheme running since April 2022, we can confirm that 76% of scheme recipients have swapped car journeys for bike journeys.

The Access Bikes scheme closed in February 2022. The scheme was run by Cycling UK, who partnered with Capital Credit Union and ScotWest Credit Union as a mechanism for offering the loans. £250,000 was originally provided for financial transactions, though only £7,000 of this was distributed to successful applicants.

A new Access Bikes scheme has been running since April 2022 which focuses on assisting those facing challenges to access a bike through various means. This scheme is also run by Cycling UK.