The Scottish Government recognises that solar power has an important role to play in decarbonising our energy supply and supporting a just transition to net zero, however, we cannot meet our climate targets without ending the use of polluting heating systems in our buildings and moving to clean heat alternatives.

With sustained demand for the scheme and in the context of the real terms cuts to the Scottish Government’s capital funding – as well as drastic reductions in financial transactions – these changes were necessary to ensure that funding is best focused on interventions which directly decarbonise heat or reduce heat demand and ensure the scheme stays within its available budget.

The Deposit Return Scheme requires all drinks producers to register with SEPA before their products may be sold in Scotland. There are no exemptions for producers under the scheme. Data on producer registration is held by SEPA.

As an industry-run scheme, data on individual product lines were held by the private sector scheme administrator.

Producers may choose to register product lines with less than 5000 units placed on the market each year as a ‘Low Volume Product’. Producers of Low Volume Products must still register and report the number of products placed on the market, but products will be exempt from the requirement to apply deposits.

An annual capital and financial transactions budget is allocated to the Heat in Buildings programme, which covers a range of funding programmes. The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme is allocated an element of this budget.

The HES Grant and Loan Scheme budget is agreed annually and investment for 2024-25 remains subject to final accountable officer sign off.

All projects that were allocated funding through European Structural Funds must have met the European Commission's criteria to qualify for support. A full list of projects that were awarded allocations is available on the Scottish Government's website: European Structural and Investment Funds: operations funding - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Since 2019-2020, the Scottish Government has given the following funding per financial year to support organisations and charities that support people with epilepsy.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has not taken any formal action as a result of a college failing to meet Fair Work criteria since the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013 came into force.

Fair Work requirements are a condition of SFC funding. SFC will monitor compliance through reporting requirements in colleges' annual reports.

The following Scottish Government-led national policy delivery projects received a total funding of £5.3 million as follows:

In their published December 2023 Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecast 368,000 children will be eligible for the Scottish Child Payment in Scotland in 2024-2025 and that 329,000 children will receive payments.

They also forecast Best Start Foods will be paid for 51,000 children and pregnant women in Scotland in 2024-2025 and 58,000 Best Start Grant payments will be made, 16,000 for Pregnancy and Baby Payment, 20,000 for Early Learning Payment and 22,000 for School Age Payment.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission do not publish forecasts of the number of children eligible for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods, or the number of children receiving Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods by constituency.

Social Security Scotland routinely publish Official Statistics for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, and Scottish Child Payment. The latest statistics, covering the period to the end of March 2024, do not currently include information by Scottish Parliament constituency. These also do not include information on the number of children benefitted from Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.

The latest statistics show that, as of 31 March 2024, 329,055 children and young people aged 0-15 years were actively benefitting from Scottish Child Payment. This information along with further breakdowns including local authority area, and individual child age can be found at Social Security Scotland - Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 31 March 2024 .

The latest statistics show that, in the 2023-2024 financial year covering April 2023 to March 2024, 56,455 individual parents or carers were paid for Best Start Grant. For comparison, 204,460 parents or carers received at least one Scottish Child Payment.

The latest publication for each benefit can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics .

The Scottish Government engages regularly with all three of these stakeholder groups, as well as with other bodies, to discuss a range of issues related to ensuring a just energy transition, including rates of employment and other workforce considerations.

The Scottish Government routinely meets with the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) and other stakeholders to discuss a range of issues including skills and workforce. The last SOWEC meeting was held on 20 June 2024.

In relation to oil and gas industry, I met with Offshore Energies UK on 20 March 2024. The First Minister also met with representatives from a number of individual businesses in Aberdeen, including oil and gas companies, to discuss the energy transition on 17 May 2024.

In relation to trade unions, I met with representatives from the Scottish Trade Unions Congress (STUC), UNISON, Unite, RMT and GMB on 29 February 2024. Ministers have also subsequently met with trade unions on matters related to transition in Scotland’s onshore energy system. Scottish Government officials also meet monthly, most recently on 3 June 2024, with representatives of STUC to discuss issues relevant to ensuring a just transition. Previous engagement with trade unions has been fundamental to our policy thinking about a just transition to date, including through the creation of the Just Transition Commission. The Scottish Government has committed to providing annual funding of £100k to support just transition capacity within the trade union movement, which will ensure this vital input continues, as we get on with delivering good, green jobs and a truly just transition.

The Post-School Education and Skills Reform: Consultation on legislation was published today, 25 June 2024, with a closing date of 20 September 2024. The consultation seeks views on proposals for changes to simplify the funding body landscape in the post-school education and skills system. The consultation can be accessed here .