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Consideration was given to the need for consultation in line with section 3CA, part (5), however, further consultation was not required because the changes respond to views received whilst remaining consistent with the original proposals and intent of the earlier draft NPF4.

In relation to Policy 27 (d), the changes represent a strengthening of the policy consulted on in Draft NPF4, not a late inclusion. In the Draft NPF4 (Policy 26(a)), we consulted on restricting drive-throughs in out of town locations and, in response to what consultees told us and through our broader strategy of transitioning to net zero, the policy has been restructured in the Revised Draft version of NPF4. This strengthened policy gives greater focus for local development plans to identify when this type of development might be appropriate. We continue to engage with industry and other stakeholders and interests to raise awareness and provide assurance on all aspects of NPF4.

Subject to Parliamentary approval, NPF4 will be adopted by Ministers in early 2023. Regulations and guidance on local development plans will be introduced to support delivery and the Planning, Infrastructure and Place Advisory Group will be established to oversee and advise on the delivery of the spatial strategy, national developments and national planning policy.

Information on legislation to enable amendments to be made to NPF4, and to set the process for making amendments, will be published in due course.

The valuation of non-domestic properties is a matter for Scottish assessors who are independent of central and local government. The tone date for the 2023 revaluation was 1 April 2022, therefore values for the revaluation will be based on the economic circumstances and evidence available at this date. The current rates of inflation do not have a bearing on values for the 2023 revaluation.

The Scottish Budget 2023-24 was published on 15 December 2022 and confirmed that the poundage will be frozen at 49.8p. A Revaluation Transitional Relief will also be introduced to cap increases in rates bills for those seeing the most significant increases in their rateable values as a result of the revaluation, ensuring that the gross bills of an estimated 84,000 properties will be lower in 2023-24 than they otherwise would have been.

Draft values for the 2023 revaluation were published on 30 November 2022, and final values will come into force on 1 April 2023. A revaluation summary report is expected to be published in 2023-24 once final values for the revaluation have been made available.

Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration, in response to changing circumstances and challenges to support their local towns. They are best placed to develop the right partnerships to deliver regeneration and to identify suitable funding for regeneration activity.

The Scottish Government has a strong framework with clear priorities and actions to help facilitate and deliver change working collaboratively with partners. This includes the Town Centre Action Plan 2, the Retail Strategy, and subject to parliamentary approval, and subsequent adoption by the Scottish Ministers, the National Planning Framework 4. These recognise the critical importance of planning with and for communities and in diversifying the offer within our city and town centres, to help them thrive, improve their resilience and anticipate continuing societal, environmental and economic change. Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation contains bold and ambitious actions - within the powers currently available to us – and is a route to a strong, inclusive economy with good, secure and well-paid jobs and growing businesses.

The Government has committed in the recent budget to continue to deliver the Place-Based Investment Programme, which aims to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action and community wealth building. This included £1,740,00 in 2022-23 as a direct capital grant to South Lanarkshire Council.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) are issued with a Ministerial letter of guidance at the start of each financial year, setting out delivery expectations for the year ahead.

In addition, SDS publish an annual Strategic Plan which is subject to Ministerial review and approval. The plan sets out the outcomes SDS intend to achieve, and the measures they use to monitor and report progress.

SDS report to the Scottish Government and Ministers on performance and spend through a series of governance meetings and produce regular reports including publishing quarterly Modern Apprenticeship statistics.

As set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, NDPB Accountable officers are responsible for ensuring that the resources of the public body are used economically, efficiently and effectively, and that arrangements are in place to secure Best Value and deliver Value for Money for the public sector as a whole.

Given Bisphenol A is not currently required to be monitored in drinking water, there are no recorded incidents. However, it has been introduced as a new parameter to be monitored from the 1 January 2023 as part of the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. Monitoring information will be published by Scottish Water in line with the requirements of the Regulations. As part of the phased introduction of the recast Drinking Water Directive, forthcoming legislation will cover requirements in relation to the protection of drinking water catchments and remedial measures.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all farmed animals very seriously. The UK Animal Welfare Committee is currently considering the welfare of farmed fish at slaughter and we will explore the need for any changes to current practice or legislation once the committee publishes its findings.

The Scottish Government has not engaged with Ocado regarding its digital deposit return trial.

We would anticipate that industry will make extensive use of digital technology in delivering our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), for example by developing an IT system to track payments made and received, adopting state-of-the-art reverse vending technology to prevent fraud, and using digital media to communicate with the public regarding DRS.

We are aware of the so-called ‘digital DRS’ as a proposed approach to delivering deposit return whereby consumers redeem deposits on scheme articles by scanning them with a smartphone before placing them in their kerbside recycling. We considered this approach during the policy-development process for DRS and the strong feedback from both industry and environmental NGOs was that the technology is not sufficiently mature for implementation on the timetable for our DRS.

The Advisory Council for Economic Transformation was established in July 2021 to help shape the 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). The Council met 4 times in July 2021, August 2021, September 2021 and October 2021 ahead of the publication of the strategy in March 2022. In addition, a number of sub group meetings were held to help inform the strategy’s programmes and actions. Following its publication, the NSET Delivery Board was created to oversee the successful implementation of the strategy.