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The total amount paid to employers from the Apprenticeship Employer Grant for Modern Apprenticeships was £19,023,900 and £119,750 for Graduate Apprenticeships.

The Scottish Government remains committed to funding the expansion of free school lunches to all children in primary and special schools during the course of this parliament. We will also establish a pilot of the provision of free school lunches to secondary school pupils.

As the First Minister stated, during her statement to Parliament on our Programme for Government on 6 September, having delivered free school meals for all pupils in primary 1 to 5, we can now announce that we will start work with local authorities to extend universal provision to all pupils in primary 6 and 7. This work will be supported by £30 million of capital funding during this academic year to support the expansion of catering and dining facilities to accommodate increased uptake.

Where families do not meet the regular eligibility criteria for receiving free school meals, local authorities have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals where families are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances. We would encourage any families experiencing difficulty with meeting the cost of school meals to contact their local council to enquire about what assistance may be available.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) makes clear the planning system should maintain a presumption against further marine finfish farm developments on the north and east coasts, and that local development plans, or supplementary guidance, should take account of Marine Scotland’s locational policies when identifying areas potentially suitable for new development and sensitive areas which are unlikely to be appropriate for such development.

All planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. As a statement of Ministers’ priorities, the content of the SPP is a material consideration that carries significant weight, though it is for the decision-maker to determine the appropriate weight in each case.

We laid our fourth Draft National Planning Framework (NPF4) in parliament on 10 November 2021, including proposals for updated planning policy on aquaculture. Alongside Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, we ran a public consultation, supported by an extensive engagement programme, with comments invited by 31 March 2022. Once approved and adopted, NPF4 will be part of the statutory development plan, and will replace Scottish Planning Policy. We are considering the broad range of views shared with us before laying a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.

The recent Programme for Government also commits to the development of a new National Marine Plan to address the global climate and nature crises and to supporting local authorities to guide development to the right places.

Following the publication of the analysis of responses to the consultation on A New Deal for Tenants, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights met with Living Rent, alongside other key stakeholders, at a roundtable meeting on 25 August 2022.

The Minister also met with Living Rent on 6 September, as part of his one to one conversations with key stakeholders, immediately following the publication of the Programme for Government 2022-23. These meetings included discussions on proposals for rent controls, emergency cost of living measures to support tenants and a rent freeze.

As we move at pace to introduce emergency legislation to implement a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions, we will ensure a continued dialogue with a range of key stakeholders, including Living Rent.

The Programme for Government sets out our response to the cost crisis, as well as our ambition to create a better future in the longer term. This includes working with the business community to identify further measures that can assist in addressing increased costs and economic disruption. The Government has committed to an emergency budget review to assess all opportunities to target additional resources.

Energy policy is reserved to the UK Government and we have been calling for it to introduce a business energy cap for some time. While the support announced today will be welcome relief for businesses, substantial reform to the energy market is still required or there is a real risk that this temporary measure will prove to be inadequate.

We will continue to do everything within our resources and powers to help those most affected.

The extraction of peat for use in horticulture exacerbates the linked climate and nature crises. By stopping using peat in horticulture, the people of Scotland can play their part in our journey net zero and help tackle those crises which affect us all. We are mindful of the effects on both edible and ornamental horticulture and, through our forthcoming consultation and continuing work with industry, we aim for a smooth transition with minimal compromises for food production, environment and recreation.

We will soon launch our consultation, which will inform ambitious timescales for phasing out the use of peat in horticulture and we will seek diverse views to help us meet the needs of the people of Scotland.

There have been nearly 300 applications to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) from Ukrainian nationals, undertaking a first year of study in Higher Education (HE), for financial support (including tuition fees) in the 2022-23 Academic Year (AY). There have been a further 35 applications from Ukrainian nationals for financial support for postgraduate studies – this package attracts a tuition fee loan.

These figures may continue to rise with applications still being accepted.

It is not possible to confirm how many of these students have applied to the Super Sponsor scheme.

Data in respect of applications for support for courses of Further Education (FE) is not available. At the end of the 2022-23 AY, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will be able to confirm the number of Ukrainian nationals who enrolled on college courses.

Following the clearing announcement on the 22 August 2022, the ScotWindleasing round has identified 20 offshore wind projects with a potential overall capacity of 27.6GW. Based on the Supply Chain Development Statements (SCDS) submitted with the leasing applications, developers have committed to invest around £1.4bn per project.

Before construction, these projects will go through project development and consenting processes, respond to geographical and technological requirements, and find a route to market. For this reason, it is not possible to have a clear indication at this time of what will be constructed and the combined generating capacity.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (SMP-OWE) assessed a potential generation figure of 10GW and therefore does not comment on additional generation or impacts. The SMP-OWEis subject to an Iterative Plan Review (IPR) process, which allows Scottish Government to review the conclusions of the Plan against new available information. Through the IPR process we will consider the impacts of the new potential generation figure of 27.6GW.

The water and sewerage charges exemption scheme is open to charities which have an income of less than £300,000. Eligibility is assessed based on gross income information as obtained from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and there are no disregards in respect of capital grants or restricted income. This position was agreed in light of a public consultation and reflects the fact that in many cases restricted income/capital grants are not clearly set out in annual accounts.

In recognition that restricted income such as grants or asset disposals would elevate, temporarily, a charity’s income, the income threshold for eligibility was increased from £65,000 to £200,000 for full exemption and £300,000 for partial exemption. Setting a higher income threshold ensures that the administrative costs of the scheme are kept to a minimum as there is no need for individual assessments to be made in relation to the nature of the restricted income. Furthermore, as charities are required to submit annual applications, this means that if an organisation does not qualify in one financial year, it will not be prevented from applying in future years should it meet the criteria of the scheme.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland. Table 1 below highlights data from SFC showing both the recommended and actual intakes to pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, broken down by year from 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. Nursing and Midwifery at the Open University in Scotland (OUiS) were funded through the SFC for the first time in 2021-22. As such figures for the SFC Early Statistics Collection are only available in 2021-22 and have been provided separately in Table 2.

Table 1