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Through the work of the Scottish Government funded Scotland Food & Drink Export plan, Scottish Development International (SDI) will be organising a learning journey to Saudi Arabia & Qatar for Scottish food & drink companies later in 2025, including those in the seafood sector, who are looking to enter or grow their business in the Middle East region.

The purpose of the mission will be to raise the ambition of the companies and their awareness of the opportunities in these emerging markets, as well as help them to identify routes to market. SDI will be arranging a programme of activity that will include attending in-market events, stakeholder/meet-the-buyer meetings and receptions that will allow companies to showcase their products.

More generally, SDI and Seafood Scotland will continue to work with key partners to monitor any potential emerging opportunities for Scottish Seafood companies in the Middle East.

Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

The responsibility for the safe production of food lies with the food business operator. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) supports food businesses with provision of guidance, tools and advice. Local authorities are also supported by way of Codes of practice, guidance, training and ongoing engagement.

FSS also provides an annual training programme for Local Authority Food Enforcement Officers. This includes the courses listed below:

REHIS Advanced HACCP

Enforcement Sanctions

Training on the Scottish National database and Food Law Rating System

HACCP in Speciality cheesemaking

Shellfish Depuration

Food Microbiology

Predictive modelling and shelf-life challenge testing

Official Control Verification methodology and practice

IFSP Counterfeit Spirits

TACCP (Threat Assessment and Critical Control Point, focuses on threats and aims to prevent malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion, or terrorism.)

In addition, FSS provides an annual training session for student Environmental Health officers.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is working with Health Boards and Health and Social Care partnerships to drive improvements in sustainability, and the capability of remote, rural and island primary and community care services, avoiding a one size fits all approach.

Their work includes programmes to enhance the education and training for multi-disciplinary teams working in rural and island areas, as well as evaluation of new ways of delivering improved primary and community care health services in partnership with practitioners, citizens and partner agencies.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care has developed a new training programme and supervisory training hub for Rural Advanced Practitioners and is developing a community training hub pilot to increase the amount of training taking place in remote, rural and island primary and community healthcare settings.

Further details on the work of the National Centre can be found here: National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub | Turas | Learn

Membership of the Strategic Wildlife and Species Land Managers Forum (SWSLM Forum) is made up of representatives from the main public and private organisations that have a role in managing wildlife. However the constitution of the group may change on a meeting-by-meeting basis to reflect the subjects on the agenda. The initial membership of the SWSLM Forum consists of the following organisations:

• Scottish Government
• British Association for Shooting and Conservation
• National Farmers Union Scotland
• National Trust for Scotland
• NatureScot
• Royal Society for the Protection for Birds
• Scottish Gamekeepers Association
• Scottish Land and Estates
• Scottish Countryside Alliance
• Scottish Wildlife Trust
• Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

The next meeting of the SWSLM Forum is scheduled to take place on Thursday 3 April 2025. The intention is that the Forum will then meet every three months.

The Scottish National Investment Bank is operationally independent of the Scottish Government, it invests on a purely commercial basis and does not distribute grants of any kind.

Full details of the Bank’s portfolio can be found on its website and this provides a breakdown of the Bank’s investments by primary mission and also provides further details on each investment such as listing any co-investors and a summary of what the investment will achieve:

Scottish National Investment Bank Investment Portfolio

It is not possible to separately identify which charges and prosecutions for assault were specifically for assaults on doctors

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-34075 on 18 February 2025. 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 Scottish Government recognises that the third sector needs stability and certainty in order to thrive and to help the Government to deliver on its policy agenda. The Programme for Government 2024 commits the Government to continuing to invest in the third sector across the Scottish Government, making improvements to grant making.

We have listened to the views of the Sector and have committed to progress Fairer Funding within the bounds of affordability. In the first instance this includes implementing a multi-year funding pilot and improving the timeliness of grant notifications. Subsequently we will go on to evaluate the impact of the Pilot and make further improvements to the grant making process, including consideration of reporting requirements and grant conditions in order to ensure grants make the greatest impact possible for beneficiaries.

The estimated non-domestic rates revenue from energy transmission infrastructure from 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 is presented in Table 1. This includes overhead transmission lines and pylons, underground lines, and sub-stations, operating at or above 132kV. We are unable to separately estimate the amounts related to pylon infrastructure only.

There are no Scottish Government levies charged on the basis of pylon height or size. We are not aware of any other levies charged on this basis.

Table 1: Estimated non-domestic rates income from electricity transmission infrastructure