We have undertaken an external audit of the climate justice fund and an impact assessment to ensure policy coherence for sustainable development for the overall approach in order to better understand the needs for loss and damage support. As agreed following the evaluation, all Climate Justice Fund money for the £5m pledge will be allocated on the basis of an independent needs assessment with stakeholders and those communities impacted. Once conducted, we will respond accordingly and deliver a participatory, co-designed programme that fully meets the needs of the communities that it seeks to serve. In line with funds already delivered to loss and damage, all sums granted will be monitored and evaluated.

The Scottish Government has invested over £65m in the ChargePlace Scotland Network that now has over 2,400 publicly available electric vehicle charge points, alongside supporting homes and businesses to install almost 20,000 charge points. A range of factors will influence the number of charge points required – and delivery plans will be determined by both public and private investment.

Our focus is on making sure that the public charging network builds on the benefits of ChargePlace Scotland, which includes maintaining comprehensive coverage across all parts of Scotland. To that end, our £60m EV Infrastructure Fund has the potential to at least double the size of the public charging network over the next four years. This is over and above the commercial investment in charge points now taking place across Scotland.

In line with the principle of industry responsibility for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), it is for retailers (in consultation with the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd) to decide how to comply with the obligation to provide a takeback service for scheme articles sold online. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published guidance to support retailers in complying with their obligations:

https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/deposit-return-scheme/retailers/online-retailers/

However, as set out in the answer to S6W-12236 on 1 December 2022, we are considering measures to reduce the burden this obligation places on industry, and are working closely with SEPA to ensure that the guidance is updated if necessary as a result of this work.

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 .

We will set out our approach to the future electricity market in an Independent Scotland in the forthcoming Net Zero prospectus paper.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to reduce the speed limit on the M8 through Glasgow for the purposes of assessing the relationship between speed limit and congestion, noise and air pollution.

£10 million of funding has been directed to support Cancer Waiting Times improvements in our NHS across 2022-23, of which NHS Lanarkshire received a share of £1,229,861. Funding will be targeted towards the most challenged specialties, including colorectal. Significant funds are going towards up-skilling nurses and investment to support extended working days and weekend working to increase capacity and treat patients as timely as possible.

In addition the First Minister announced on 10 October that two new Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services will be established, one of which will be developed in NHS Lanarkshire within existing infrastructure. The service will provide primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, such as weight loss and fatigue.

The list of active groups and sub-groups within the Finance and Economy portfolio includes:

• Apprenticeship Approval Group (AAG)
• Business Support Partnership
• Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan - Implementation Steering Group
• Clyde Mission Strategy Group
• Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill steering Group
• Creative Industries Leadership Group
• Developing the Young Workforce Employers Forum
• Digital Collaborative Governance Group
• Economic Leadership Group
• European Structural and Investment Funds Programme Board
• European Structural and Investment Programme Monitoring Committee
• European Structural and Investment Programme Monitoring Committee Working Group
• European Structural and Information Technology Board
• Financial Services Growth and Development Board
• Flexible Workforce Development Fund Senior Strategic Group
• Foundation Apprenticeship Enhancement Group
• Green Freeports Programme Board
• Industry Leadership Chairs Group
• Innovation Strategy Steering Group
• Input-Output Expert Users Group (IOEUG)
• Lifetime Skills Offer Steering Group
• Life Sciences Scotland Group
• Ministerial Trade Board
• National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board
• National Strategy for Economic Transformation Portfolio Board
• National Strategy for Economic Transformation Skilled Workforce Programme Board
• Public Sector Network Steering Group
• Regional Economic Policy Advisory Group
• Retail Industry Leadership Group
• Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Group Board
• Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Standards And Frameworks Group
• Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Employer Engagement Group
• Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Employer Equalities Group
• Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Apprentice Engagement Group
• Scottish Business Growth Group
• Scottish Cities Alliance Chief Executive Officers Group
• Scottish Cities Alliance Delivery Group
• Scottish Cities Alliance Leadership Group
• Scottish City Region and Growth Deal Delivery Board
• Scottish Economic Statistics Consultation Group
• Scottish Government and Business Organisations Meeting
• Scottish Government Labour Market Evidence Programme
• Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services
• Skills Ministerial Group
• Strategic Leadership Group for Advanced Manufacturing
• Sub-Scotland Economic Statistics Group
• Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group
• Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo)
• Young Persons Guarantee Equalities Subgroup
• Young Persons Guarantee Employer Advisory Group
• Young Persons Guarantee Implementation Planning Group

Please note these groups will be kept under review.

The offshore wind developments included in the estimate of 40GW of potential offshore wind developments in the pipeline, subject to planning and consenting decisions, and finding a route to market, included:

3.8 gigawatts of projects currently under construction or awaiting construction [1]

• Seagreen
• Inch Cape
• Moray West
• Neart na Gaoithe

4.2 gigawatts of projects with lease options [2]

• Berwick Bank
• Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm
  
  
• 5.7 gigawatts of estimated capacity for targeted oil and gas decarbonisation projects under the INTOG leasing round [3]
  
  
• 0.5 gigawatts of estimated capacity for Innovation projects under the INTOG leasing round [4]
  
• 27.6 gigawatts from 20 ScotWind projects [5]

[1] Scottish Energy Statistics Hub - Pipeline renewable capacity by planning stage

Scotland, 2022 Q2
‎ Scottish Energy Statistics Hub (shinyapps.io)

[2] Marine Scotland – Marine Projects

Marine Projects | Marine Scotland Information

[3] Scottish Government, Sectoral marine plan – offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework

Supporting documents - Sectoral marine plan - offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[4] Scottish Government, Sectoral marine plan – offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework

Supporting documents - Sectoral marine plan - offshore wind for innovation and targeted oil and gas decarbonisation: initial plan framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[5] Crown Estate Scotland, “ScotWind Awards with Project Partners November 2022” https://www.crownestatescotland.com/resources/documents/scotwind-awards-with-project-partners-november-2022

It is not possible for the Scottish Government to mandate the provision of community benefits through energy regulation because the relevant powers are reserved to the UK Government. However, we continue to encourage renewable energy businesses to offer community benefit packages in line with our Good Practice Principles; promoting a national level equivalent to £5,000 per installed megawatt per annum for onshore renewable developments, index linked for the operational lifetime of the project.

Local Energy Scotland, who deliver our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), administer a voluntary register of community benefits payments and a community benefits map. This indicates a community benefit commitment of around £24 million will have been paid out from renewable energy projects in Scotland over the past year (from November 2021 to November 2022).

All developers of renewable energy developments and local communities in receipt of community benefit payments are encouraged to use and input to the register. The register and map can be viewed here: https://localenergy.scot/community-benefits-map/

Work is underway to review the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Offshore Renewable Energy Developments.

Caledonian Sleeper is a subsidised Franchise. The Caledonian Sleeper Franchise is of significant social, economic and environmental value to the people of Scotland.