Delivering Scotland’s Blue Economy Approach s ets out the first phase of delivery towards our Blue Economy Vision, as well as a commitment for subsequent next steps in our work.

It includes an overview of Scotland's Blue Economy against the six outcomes presented in the Vision, a review of existing actions to identify how they contribute towards the Blue Economy outcomes and an initial evaluation of the type of "Enablers" (tools, interventions and levers) that will be required to deliver the outcomes. These Enablers have been identified from stakeholder feedback and a review of other international Blue Economy approaches.

Over the next 12 months, the Scottish Government will establish a governance structure for our blue economy agenda and seek to promote collective ownership of the activity needed to deliver Scotland’s Blue Economy Vision.

We are committed to working with people with lived experience as we progress our first phase of work to design an investment programme that ensures that the Changing Places Toilets which are built are fit for purpose. We work closely with PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society) and will engage further with people with lived experience as we develop our Changing Places Toilets investment programme. On 2 November, I also attended a meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Changing Places Toilets to provide an update on progress.

Engaging with people with lived experience is at the heart of policy-making in the Scottish Government. We believe that people have the right to contribute to, and to influence, the decisions that affect their lives, choices and life chances, and that involving the people likely to be affected by the decision in the process results in better decision making.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets over this parliamentary term, in order to increase the number of these facilities across the country and to support mobile Changing Places Toilets to allow people easier access to events and outdoor venues.

Funding for the construction of new Changing Places Toilets has not yet been allocated. We are progressing the first phase of work in order to design an investment programme that ensures that the Changing Places Toilets which are built are fit for purpose. Further information about this fund will be available next year. We have recently published our Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide and an accompanying easy read for people who are planning to develop Changing Places Toilets now.

All of the £830.6 million allocated to Additional Support for Social Care in the 2022-23 budget has been included in the block grant allocation provided to local authorities. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and the information requested on spend would therefore require to be requested from local authorities.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government remains committed to Keeping The Promise by 2030, working in partnership with all partners including Local Authorities, the third sector and importantly the care community.

Through our commitment to lead from the front, the Scottish Government is working closely with Local Authorities and the third sector to create the conditions for change at a national and local level.

To support Whole Family Wellbeing we have committed to provide £32m per annum directly to local areas to build local service capacity and transform delivery of holistic family support services. Children’s Services Planning Partnerships have received their allocation for 2022-23, and are collectively responsible for deciding how to deploy this in a way which best drives change in their areas.

In addition, we are also providing up to £6m to support the work of CSPPs, including collaborative partnerships East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Glasgow City to accelerate plans and provide local learning that can be shared nationally. As well as provision of our Learning into Action Network.

The Scottish Government is committed to funding The Promise Partnership Fund of £4m per annum to support local services and organisations to Keep The Promise. Local Authorities and third sector partners are eligible to bid for this fund through the Corra Foundation.

The Scottish Government continues to support a wide range of projects and initiatives across communities in Scotland that improve outcomes for children, young people, adults and families who are care experienced and those on the edges of care.

There have been no discussions between Scottish Government and NHS Highland regarding the sale of Lochbroom House, Ullapool. The statutory duty for the delivery of care homes resides with the Local Authority.

Robust processes are in place for assessing the outcomes, performance and value for money of capital investment, tailored to the nature of the investment.

For example, projects within the Scottish City and Region Growth Deal Programmes are developed in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance which requires appraisal of the social economic and carbon outputs, outcomes and impacts from public sector investment; whole life cycle costing is examined and value for money reviewed. In addition, Benefit Realisation Plans for the Deal Programmes, aggregate project business case performance information, supplemented by qualitative information, to evidence the cumulative impact of public sector investment in the relevant region.

Our enterprise agencies also follow a rigorous appraisal process aligned to the Scottish Public Finance Manual and HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance to assess investment proposals. Evaluation of value for money is also undertaken. In the period from April 2017 to March 22, Scottish Enterprise delivered £85m of capital investment grant support to businesses which is expected to leverage a further £410m of private sector investment. The agency’s evaluation demonstrates that its capital investment grants also support other benefits, including company creation, innovation, increased company sales and exports, and attracting companies to locate to or stay in Scotland.

The information requested is publicly available on the Scottish Government website and can be found here: Growth Sector Statistics Database .

The latest figures showing employment in the sector, in 2020, had remained broadly the same at 87,000, representing 3% total employment in Scotland.

We are aware however that they do not truly reflect some key aspects of the sector, such as the number of freelancers and self-employed people. We estimate this to be around 40,000, which we have gathered from the APS data source.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.