Whilst the inherent environmental and social benefits of the TimberLINK service are recognised, increasing budgetary pressure has meant it is also important to explore opportunities to maximise benefits of public funding for all communities.

My officials are continuing discussions with the service provider and users of the TimberLINK service to explore options for the future of the contract.

As the event organiser, Commonwealth Games Scotland are now formally engaging with Police Scotland and other public sector partners to commence planning to ensure the delivery of a safe and secure Commonwealth Games.

The event budget makes provision for policing and stewarding costs to ensure the event can be delivered safely and securely. Commonwealth Games Scotland have engaged with Police Scotland to carry out an initial assessment of the budget and resources that will be required.

Commonwealth Games Scotland will now engage with the relevant organisations to undertake robust safety and security risk assessments, which will determine the exact resourcing requirements and associated costs for public sector, including Police Scotland, to deliver the event. These costs will be met by Commonwealth Games Scotland.

The Scottish Government will engage across the Games governance structure to ensure our interests are represented and that the relevant organisations are engaged and supported at the appropriate junctures.

Scottish Rail Holdings working with its subsidiary Caledonian Sleeper Limited keep all aspects of the Caledonian Sleeper operation under review to ensure it operates effectively and in alignment with the policies of the Scottish Government.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Energy Industry Skills Landscape Study.

We continue to work with the energy sector to plan for a multi-skilled workforce that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system. This includes enabling skilled offshore workers to carry their experience and expertise into different roles as our energy sector evolves, and ensuring a reliable pipeline of future talent, to support Scotland's renewable energy ambitions.

The design of road infrastructure is influenced by the loading from heavy goods vehicles and the legislation for the weights and dimensions of these vehicles is reserved to the UK Government. Regular engagement on potential changes to vehicle weights and dimensions is held between officials in Transport Scotland, and the Department for Transport. It is known that increasing axle weights causes increased wear and tear on carriageways and could result in the requirement to re-assess the load carrying capacity of bridges.

The Tax Advisory Group (TAG) most recently met on 11 September. Their last meeting for 2024 is scheduled for 6 November.

The minutes and dates for previous TAG meetings are published at https://www.gov.scot/groups/tax-advisory-group/. The minutes from their September meeting will be added once the group has cleared them at their November meeting.

The Scottish Government does not spend directly on disposal of clinical waste. However, funding for additional costs associated with delivering clinical waste services was allocated to NHS National Services Scotland to cover resilience measures as detailed in the following table.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes. Section 71 of the 2019 Act defines what constitutes a workplace parking place.

The liability for licences and associated charges is the responsibility of the occupier of the premises providing workplace parking spaces, and not employees or workers. There is no licence charge payable by workers and therefore no scope to vary such charges.

Local authorities do, however, have the discretion to make local exemptions beyond the fixed national exemptions to support their local objectives and circumstances. For example, a local authority could apply WPL to only certain parts of the local authority boundary, exempt premises with fewer than a specified number of parking places, exempt parking places for use by certain types of vehicles or for specified uses, or specific premises or premises of a specified description. A WPL scheme may also provide for descriptions of persons or motor vehicles to be exempt from the scheme or from paying charges under the scheme.

In addition to providing for exemptions, a WPL scheme may make provision for different charges (or no charge) to apply in different cases. This can include provision for different charges to apply on different days, at different times of day, to different part of a licensing area and to different descriptions of persons. Different charges could also be applied to different descriptions of premises and to different classes of motor vehicles.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30299 on 15 October 2024. 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