It is important that we take the time to work closely with industry, with investors and with our partners across the public and private sectors to ensure that we get our approach to this right. This process is already well-underway and will update the market once it has been completed.

Delivery of the £500 million Just Transition Fund remains ongoing with £75 million allocated to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

The survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists describes some of the issues with current mental health service provision that we are working hard to improve. The recent Audit Scotland report concluded that our new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy "recognises the importance of a whole system approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing and provides a foundation for better joint working ". The Mental Health Strategy Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan will be published in the coming weeks, and these will set out the actions we intend to take to address many of the issues across the whole system.

We fully agree with the conclusion in Audit Scotland’s report that our focus cannot just be on access to specialist services for mental health. As well as many other key pieces of work, our commitment to this is shown by:

• Our investment of £51m in the adult Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund since 2021. Approximately 3,300 grants were made to local organisations across Scotland in its first two years.
• Our continuing national roll-out of our Distress Brief Intervention programme.
• Our ongoing investment (£4.4m in 2022/23) in NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub, which continues to receive approx. 2,500 calls a week.

To support the range of help available, mental health spending has doubled in cash terms from £651m to £1.3bn since 2007.

Regulation of electricity networks is reserved to the UK Government. The Electricity Act 1989 schedule 4 sets out the powers that are available to certain distribution network licence holders to fell and lop trees and the circumstances in which such felling and lopping may be carried out. The schedule sets out the duty of the licence holder to give notice to the landowner(s) or occupier(s) of the land of the requirement for this activity and the process which follows thereafter.

The Scottish Government did not provide any funding directly to Avenue Confidential in 2022.

Relationships Scotland operate a network of 21 Member Services across Scotland, including Avenue Confidential (known as Avenue).

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided Relationships Scotland with core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund; and grant funding to provide child contact services.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The total cost for providing prisoners with mobile phones since the roll out in June 2020 and the end of the provision in July 2023 has been £5.972m. These figures include all costs associated with usage, running costs and mobile handsets purchased, as well as the capital implementation spend.

Introduced during the COVID-19 global pandemic, prison issue mobile phones provided those in our care with the ability to maintain contact with family and friends during an extremely difficult and challenging period.

This information is not held centrally and relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body.

The SCTS have provided the following table detailing how many orders of destruction were issued by the courts. However, they don’t hold records of how many dogs were then subsequently “destroyed”. Following an order being issued by the court, appeals and other protocols can occur. Once the order is issued SCTS do not find out the outcome of whether the dog was destroyed or not, the specific information is not held by SCTS.

Destruction orders issued under both the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 at Scottish Courts

Regulation of electricity networks is reserved to the UK Government. Matters pertaining to the retention of electric lines on land are governed by schedule 4 to the Electricity Act 1989. The schedule sets out the circumstances and the timeframe within which an electricity network distribution licence holder may, following the service of a notice to remove the electric line from the land, not be obliged to comply with the notice and retain the electric line on the land.

We are working closely our partners in the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank to develop an approach that will allow us to respond at pace to market needs. We will provide more detail to the market in due course.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table shows the number of breaches where an authorised mobile telephone was used in the prison setting up to and including 31 July 2023, when the provision was withdrawn:

In Scotland (and across Great Britain) the GB Dead Wild Bird Surveillance Scheme, administered by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on behalf of the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and Defra (England), allows members of the public to report dead wild birds (via a helpline and/or online reporting tool), and for a selection of these birds (based on a triage criteria) to be tested for avian influenza. The purpose of the scheme is to capture information on the general location and strains of avian influenza that might be prevalent in GB. This data then helps government build up a picture of the current risks, and shapes how they then respond in policy terms.

In addition to this, NatureScot have a network of reporters across Scotland who provide early intelligence on unusual mortality levels in wild bird species. It is also recognised by Scottish Government that managers of grouse moors in Scotland may regularly carry out their own health checks of wild grouse across the summer months.