I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26609 on 17 April 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26609 on 17 April 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 .

The Scottish Government, working alongside the UK Government and the other devolved administrations, introduced the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes at the start of 2024. These schemes put legal obligations on car and van manufacturers to sell new zero emissions vehicles each year, ramping up to 80% of all new cars sold, and 70% of new vans, being zero emissions by 2030. At the same time, the schemes encourage car and van manufacturers to drive down the emissions of their new non-zero emissions car and van vehicles.

As set out in the Climate Change Committee’s 2023 report to parliament, decarbonisation of heavy-duty vehicle fleets in Scotland will depend on UK-wide markets. The Scottish Government continues to engage with its UK counterparts on regulatory approaches to the phase out dates for petrol and diesel heavy duty vehicles through the Inter-Ministerial Group on transport and associated official-level, UK-wide working groups that have recently been established on freight decarbonisation. The Scottish Government also participates in the UK Freight Energy Forum, which involves fleet operators, energy network operators and others on decarbonisation of the sector.

In 2022 the Scottish Government established the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, which brought together key representatives from the logistics, manufacturing, energy and finance sectors to shape the pathway to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s road freight and logistics sector. The taskforce produced a Heavy Goods Vehicle Decarbonisation Pathway for Scotland, published on 19 March 2024 and is available on Transport Scotland’s website. That pathway and the evidence that supported it has been shared with counterparts in the UK Government to inform the regulatory options relating to zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

The Scottish Government wants a just transition to a fairer, greener transport system for all in Scotland. The final version of the route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car km will be published in the coming months. The draft route map recognised the need for its implementation to be flexible to adapt to emerging and changing evidence and it committed to setting out a monitoring and evaluation framework alongside the publication of the final route map. It does not expect car use to reduce equally for all, including some businesses using cars rather than vans, those in rural areas, and those who rely on cars for mobility or other reasons. But for those who are able to change their travel behaviour (travel less; stay local; switch mode and, where those options are not feasible, share or combine a journey) we want to recognise and enable that. Our next Climate Change Plan will also set out our approach to continuing delivery of Scotland’s net zero targets through a just transition.

The Scottish Government is grateful for the latest advice from the Climate Change Committee and remains fully committed to delivering net zero by 2045. We will provide a Scottish Government response to the Climate Change Committee.

The Islands Connectivity Plan Strategic Approach paper and the updated Vessels and Ports Plan were published for public consultation on 1 February 2024.

One of the Priorities of the Plan is Low Carbon and ensuring that ferry services take action to reduce the negative environmental impact of their operations and help to achieve Scotland's net-zero targets.

The documents highlight that Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan sets a target that 30% of the Government (CMAL) owned fleet should be low or zero emission vessels by 2032 and that the successful delivery of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme will enable that goal to be met.

Following the public consultation period, the feedback received will be used to inform final versions of both documents by the end of 2024.

Scottish Enterprise has supported companies in the bus manufacturing supply chain, awarding Alexander Dennis Limited with funding to develop their zero emission bus technology including £13m in 2023 in addition to substantial grants in 2019 and 2015.

In addition, Scottish Enterprise is working with Alexander Dennis Limited to explore opportunities for export and access grant funding opportunities such as the UK Automotive Transition Fund.

The Scottish Government continues to support manufacturing in Scotland via the work on the Green Industrial Strategy and our ten-year National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET).

The forthcoming Transport Just Transition Plan we will set out, among other things, how the Scottish Government will support businesses to benefit from the opportunities and deal with the challenges arising from the move to a sustainable transport system.

The Scottish Government has commissioned research through ClimateXChange to investigate the potential impact of the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill on the Scottish Housing Market. The scope of this project includes an investigation into the impact on the mortgage market. As part of this research, researchers are conducting interviews with stakeholders from the property market, including the finance sector. This research is currently being carried out, and findings will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government Homelessness in Scotland statistics are based on data collected from all local authorities, on households that have made a homelessness application to a local authority.

This data collection includes information on whether any adult member, aged under 25, of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority was looked after as a child by their local authority.

The data provided on looked after status will largely be self-reported by applicant households. Applicants can choose whether to answer the question, or they may not know if any other adults aged under 25 in the household have previously been looked after.

The Scottish Government's Renters' Rights campaign ran from 27 February to 26 March 2024, aiming to increase awareness of both new and existing rights for all private tenants in Scotland.

We worked collaboratively with public and third sector partners to disseminate the campaign information, enabling them to reach minority audiences, specialist groups and those who are less likely to be online. This included the Older People’s Strategic Advisory Forum (OPSAF), who represent the following organisations: Age Scotland, Generations Working Together, LGBT Age Project, Outside the Box, We are Hourglass, Independent Age, Scottish Trades Union Congress, The Scottish Older People’s Assembly, Faith in Older People, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Glasgow Disability Alliance and Minority Ethnic Carers of People Programme.

Renters’ Rights information was also directly provided to Citizens Advice Bureaux, Crisis, Living Rent, Property Mark, Scottish Landlords, Scottish Land and Estates, UK Finance, Poverty Alliance, Generation Rent, the Scottish Property Federation, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, Local Authorities, NHS Health Boards, Social Security Scotland and third sector equality partners such as BEMIS and CEMVO.

It is vitally important that all tenants, including older renters, are aware of the strong rights and protections available to them and we will continue to identify opportunities and work with a range of key partners in order to continue to raise awareness.

Scottish Ministers continue to have a positive relationship with the defence industries, and regularly engage with both individual companies and the wider trade associations.

Ministers last engaged with defence industry representatives on 6 March 2024, when I attended Space-Comm Expo at the invitation of ADS Group.

The Chair of the Aerospace and Defence Industry Leadership Group is also a standing member of the Industry Leadership Group (ILG) Chairs’ Roundtable discussions that take place quarterly and was last chaired by the former Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy.

The next ILG Chairs Roundtable discussion is scheduled to take place in early May and will be co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy.