We already work with a range of stakeholders to design heat in buildings policies. The Scottish Government has established a number of expert groups including the Green Heat Finance Taskforce, EPC External Reference Group and the Strategic Advisory Group, who provide independent advice on a range of policies.

Recently, we consulted on proposals for legislation to improve energy efficiency and drive the clean heat agenda in the existing built stock – both homes and non-domestic buildings. A number of stakeholder engagement events were held across Scotland for people to learn and give feedback to the consultation proposals. There were c1650 responses to our consultation from various stakeholders and industries which are now being independently analysed.

We also ran a consultation to invite views on proposals for a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard (SHNZS), which will replace the post-2020 Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing, or EESSH2. Stakeholders from the social rented sector, who are part of the EESSH2 Review Group, will be asked to help consider the final design of the proposed SHNZS policy, based on the consultation analysis.

In addition, the Strategic Public Engagement Delivery Partnership, which will be developed in 2024, will further strengthen those relationships.

The potential impacts, including that of job creation, of the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (“INTOG”) leasing round are currently being assessed through the sectoral marine planning process. The INTOG sites together with the commercial-scale sites leased by Crown Estate Scotland through the ScotWind leasing round will form the spatial basis for the updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy. The planning process includes undertaking a plan-level social and economic impact assessment which will provide an estimate of the positive impacts INTOG developments may have on employment opportunities. The assessment will be made available for public consultation, alongside the draft updated Plan, later this year.

The Scottish Government recognises the need for active measures to improve retention across the health and social care workforce, which is essential to ensure confidence in longer-term modelling of a sustainable future medical workforce to meet future clinical service demand.

One of the 11 ambitions in the Cancer Strategy is for a Sustainable and Skilled Workforce with actions under 5 pillars. There are six actions being taken forward under ‘nurture’ to aid retention of staff.

For example, retiring employees who wish to continue in employment that is suitable to them and the service are supported by the Retire and Return provisions in the NHSScotland Retirement Policy . In addition, the NHSScotland Flexible work location policy and NHSScotland Flexible work pattern policy provide staff with a range of flexible working options to help them to balance their lifestyle whilst maintaining and promoting the best possible service to our patients and service users, supporting retention.

The Scottish Government’s leadership in support for rail freight is outlined in our rail freight strategy and put into practice with significant investment and our first of a kind regulatory growth targets. Benefits for rail freight are included in our rail projects and we will continue to maximise these benefits in our future investment in the rail network in Scotland. Rail connections between Wembley and the Channel Tunnel have not been specifically discussed, but the Scottish Government meets the UK Government regularly to consider how to maximise the potential for rail freight growth and these discussions include the importance of sufficient capacity and power supply for cross-border rail freight services.

This information is not held centrally.

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), a representative membership body for the UK offshore energy industry, estimated in their 2024 Economy and People report that the oil and gas sector supports around 206,000 jobs across the UK in total, including supply chain and wider induced activity.

The teaching funding available to each college/region has been maintained and is unchanged from the funds made available for Academic Year 2023-24. We recognise the range of financial challenges which colleges and universities are managing, and have sought to minimise the impact on frontline allocations for learning and teaching and support for students.

The Scottish Government cannot extend the coverage of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 as it applies to England and Wales only.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 applies a sustainable procurement duty on Scottish public bodies which whilst similar to the general duty found in the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, is more far reaching The sustainable procurement duty requires a Scottish public body to consider and act on opportunities to: improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of its area; facilitate the involvement of SMEs, third sector bodies and supported businesses; and promote innovation.

The legislation in Scotland also includes provisions for oversight, requiring public bodies with an annual procurement spend of £5 million or more to set out in annually reviewed procurement strategies how they will comply with the Act and to publish annual procurement reports setting out how they have complied with their strategies. The content of these reports forms the basis of the Scottish Ministers Annual report on procurement activity in Scotland. For example - Procurement activity: annual report 2021 to 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Our vision is for Scotland to be a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025, where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society. Whilst the Scottish Government expects public bodies to implement and promote Fair Work First in all relevant procurement processes (and suppliers delivering public contracts) Avanti West Coast is contracted by, and reports directly to the UK Government and the Scottish Government does not have the details of Avanti West Coast’s employment practices.

The Scottish Government continues to work towards meeting 2013 and 2020 household recycling targets.

To help us meet our targets, the Circular Economy Bill and draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map set out further measures to improve and modernise local recycling services and drive up reuse and recycling rates.

This Bill also includes a commitment – in line with advice from the Climate Change Committee – to set new circular economy targets from 2025 so they are future proofed, support our work to tackle the climate emergency and help us measure progress in reducing emissions.

Our vision is for Scotland to be a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025, where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society. In the absence of powers over employment legislation, the Scottish Government encourages all employers in Scotland to adopt Fair Work practices and play their part in making Scotland a leading Fair Work Nation.

The Scottish Government expects public bodies to show leadership in that regard, and implement and promote Fair Work First in all relevant procurement processes (and suppliers delivering public contracts).

Scottish Rail Holdings (SRH) oversees the delivery of rail operations by ScotRail Train Limited and Caledonian Sleeper Limited, which moved into the public sector in April 2022 and June 2023 respectively. SRH has responsibility for engaging with its subsidiaries to promote fair work practices . In addition, the Scottish Ministers set out in their High Level Output Specification for the current 5 year railway funding period (2024 -2029) that they expect Network Rail in Scotland to follow the Scottish Government’s Fair Work principles.

Most cross-border passenger railway operators are the responsibility of the UK Government and this level of operational detail is not covered through Scottish Government engagement. The Scottish Government does not engage to this level either with ‘open-access’ operators which include all rail freight operators and rail charter operators.