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The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council, and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors.

The Scottish Government funds a number of organisations for work supporting refugee integration, currently through the Connected Communities budget. This funding has totalled £940,000 a year since 2017-18. The Scottish Government takes an inclusive approach with wider work across a range of policy areas also supporting integration and the aims of the New Scots strategy.

In August 2020, the New Scots partnership secured funding of £5 million from the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) for the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project (NSRIDP) to enhance the delivery of the New Scots refugee integration strategy until December 2022. This included 10% match funding (£500,000) from Scottish Government.

The current plan is to fully dual the A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen; however, we are conducting a transparent, evidence-based review of the programme which is underway and the first part of the review, a report on the Public Consultation and the Initial Appraisal: The Case for Change was published on 22 December 2022. This is sensible good governance for major investment of this kind.

Transport Scotland is now pushing forward with the next phase of further detailed work to inform the remaining stages of the Review. These include a robust appraisal of the remaining options alongside a Climate Compatibility Assessment, with outcomes expected to be announced in the first half of 2023 for final public consultation, before a final decision can be reached.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) makes clear that we encourage developers to offer community benefit and shared ownership opportunities as standard on all renewable energy projects.

As set out within the ESJTP, the Scottish Government is reviewing its Good Practice Principles for community benefits from offshore renewable energy developments.

As part of the development process, we are currently holding a series of stakeholder engagement sessions to raise awareness of the work and gather initial input, with a view to consulting on the draft guidance later this year.

The Scottish Government’s international offices use five shared strategic objectives to inform the activity and evaluation of their work. These are:

• Scotland's international reputation is improved;
• Scottish businesses are trading internationally more effectively;
• Scottish research and innovation capability is promoted and further partnerships and funding secured;
• Investment to Scotland has increased
• Scotland's interests in the EU and beyond are protected and enhanced.

When reporting against these outcomes, offices use a range of both qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure their performance, monitor their effectiveness; ensure they are achieving their strategic objectives and that they are providing value for money.

Due to an absence of Scottish Government landholdings (i.e. presence of Scotland’s national forests and land) in East Lothian and/or Midlothian, Forestry and Land Scotland have not conducted any tree planting (either restocking or new planting) in the two local authority areas in the period of 2007 to 2022.

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

We will continue to support SFRS in its partnership work with the Fire Brigades Union and Professor Anna Stec to build on the existing work of their dedicated Contaminants Group.

The Scottish Government will carefully consider any related proposals from the FBU or SFRS as a result of this important research.

The Scottish Government’s priority is to move to a circular economy, which means reducing our demand for raw material, increasing reuse and repair, and recycling more. Where we do produce unavoidable and unrecyclable residual waste, we must ensure we treat it responsibly.

In terms of waste incineration, the independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy made it clear that Scotland does not need additional waste incineration facilities to treat our unavoidable and unrecyclable municipal residual waste beyond those for which planning permission has already been granted. That is why National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), as approved by parliament on 11 January, makes clear that development proposals for energy-from-waste facilities will not be supported except under very limited circumstances. The independent review did not consider waste to fuel facilities, such as the proposed plastics to hydrogen development.

Scottish Government has not assessed the number of jobs or value of investment that could result from such a facility. However, available evidence suggests that delivering a circular economy provides local employment opportunities and lower cost options to access goods. 10,000 tonnes of waste can create up to 296 jobs in repair and reuse, compared to 1 job in incineration, 6 jobs in landfill or 36 jobs in recycling.

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means, and timescales, of further expanding access to thrombectomy, including how the increased budget will be best used in recruiting staff to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment.

By working with National Services Division, we aim to ensure that decisions taken on potential expansions of the thrombectomy service consider the wider access requirements of patients across Scotland and ensure access is as equitable as possible.

Currently, five funded projects are being delivered by local authorities in partnership with commercial partners, including third sector and/or for profit organisations:

• North Ayrshire

• Fife

• Aberdeen City (two projects)

• East Lothian

The funding programme is only open to local authorities and local authority-led partnerships, no applications were therefore received directly from commercial partners.

All local authorities will consider and monitor the impact of the scheme on glass collection after the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

Zero Waste Scotland’s advice to local authorities is not to make service changes in advance of Scotland’s DRS launching and it is currently undertaking modelling of different options for local authorities to provide efficient kerbside glass recycling services and will share this with local authorities in due course.

We are supporting local authorities to modernise recycling services, align with our forthcoming deposit return scheme, and make it easier for households to recycle and increase local recycling rates.