Chamber and committees

The marine and European Protected Species licences issued to Seagreen Wind Energy Limited (SWEL) in respect of unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance activities were conditioned such that high order detonation techniques for UXO clearance are used only when it is not possible to undertake UXO clearance using low yield or low order techniques. All possible opportunities to undertake clearance using low order and low yield techniques must have failed before use of high order detonation techniques. The marine licence also conditions that SWEL must, no later than 28 days following the completion of the licensed activity, submit a written report to the licensing authority which confirms the method used to remove each UXO, the considerations made and justification for selecting the method used to remove each UXO including, as appropriate, the failure of other methods.

The majority of Scotland’s council areas have experienced a stall in life expectancy growth since 2012-2014. Life expectancy has unfortunately decreased across many areas in Scotland. This trend has also been experienced across the UK.

National Records of Scotland publish official annual statistics on life expectancy by council area. Their report for 2018-2020 can be found here: Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk) . Between 2016-2018 and 2018-2020, average life expectancy in Inverclyde reduced from 75.2 to 74.3 for males and 79.6 to 78.6 for females. Average life expectancy in North Ayrshire reduced from 76.3 to 75.3 for males, though female life expectancy increased from 79.9 to 80.1.

It is worth highlighting that deaths from COVID-19 have accounted for the vast majority of the fall in life expectancy across Scotland as a whole, reducing male life expectancy by 16.7 weeks and female life expectancy by 14.3 weeks. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have sadly experienced some of the highest rates of deaths per local population from COVID-19, with 216.7 per 100,000 population in Inverclyde and 234.6 per 100,000 population in North Ayrshire.

We know that deprivation drives excess mortality, and that areas of high deprivation have increased rates of deaths from COVID-19. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have a higher proportion of local zones of high deprivation than many other areas in Scotland. We are committed to ending poverty, increasing equitable access to fair employment, education and training, and improving our physical and social environments. We will do this by working more effectively in partnership across government and with our local partners across all sectors.

Our recently published COVID-19 Recovery Strategy sets out how we will tackle many of the deep-rooted inequalities that lead to unfair differences in health and life expectancy. Increasing life expectancy and improving the health for everyone in Scotland remains a clear priority for this Government.

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025. This work will also be critical in determining how the waste and resources sector will contribute towards lower carbon emissions in the period to 2030 and beyond.

Pension Credit is reserved to the UK Government. The Department for Work and Pensions publishes an estimate of Pension Credit take-up, annually, at a UK-wide level only. The latest figures published (covering 2018/19) show that 76% of the maximum amount of possible Pension Credit expenditure was claimed.

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025 and beyond. As part of this work, local variation in recycling performance and its causes are being carefully considered, building on the work to identify key challenges and lessons through Scotland’s 2019 Recycling Summit. There are numerous factors that impact on recycling rates, including housing stock, social demographics, rurality, service design & delivery and communication to residents.

The Scottish Government is required by law to regularly review all protective measures that are currently in place, such as the mandatory requirement for the wearing of face coverings in most indoor settings, including places of worship. This measure will continue to be monitored and reviewed in relation to evidence on the four harms : the direct impact of COVID-19, other health impacts, societal impacts, and economic impacts.

After a recent review, during which there was careful consideration of all of the current evidence as well as the options available, Ministers determined that the regulations on face coverings remain proportionate and should not change for the present.

At this stage of the pandemic many of the more intrusive restrictions have been lifted, but the virus and the harms that it causes have not gone away. We still continue to see hospital admissions and deaths as a result of COVID and the impacts of long COVID can be significant. That is why it remains important to maximise the use of the remaining measures such as face coverings.

While the vaccination has significantly weakened the link between new cases and serious health harms, it has not been completely broken. It is therefore important that places of worship, along with many other indoor settings, continue their good practice to reduce the spread of the virus.

We are grateful to faith and belief communities for their important role in protecting their congregations and enabling everyone, particularly those at higher risk, to access worship safely.

The reported amount of spend by Levy Paying private sector organisations accessing the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) since 2017, as provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) who administer the Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government, is:

A robust, impartial procurement process has been undertaken in accordance with regulations and best practice to identify a partner to undertake work on this commitment.

Following the procurement exercise, EY has been awarded the programme of work and analysis to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how this aligns with our climate change targets and the goal of the Paris agreement.

It is expected that this work will supplement a wide range of evidence that will be considered to take an informed policy decision on the contribution of North Sea production to the global climate emergency and to Scotland’s economy, security and wellbeing within Scotland’s wider energy system.

The Programme of Work will inform the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which brings together our commitment to refresh the 2017 Energy Strategy and to deliver Scotland’s first sectoral Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to eliminating sectarianism, racism and all discrimination from our national game. We believe that there is no place for discrimination of any form in football or society in general and the Scottish Government condemns those who commit any actions.

Since 2012 we have invested £15 million in work to tackle sectarianism which has delivered the broadest and most comprehensive set of activities in response to this issue that there has ever been. This includes 9 projects funded for 2021-22, including the Fair Play Foundation who are working with SFA schools of football and community football clubs along with North Kelvin Sports Development and Sense Over Sectarianism who are now working with the South of Scotland Lowland Development League.

Police Scotland work with clubs to identify and take action against individuals as we appreciate the majority of football fans do not participate in these forms of hatred against others.

Since its introduction in 2017, the Scottish Government has allocated the following funds to the Flexible Workforce Development Fund: