As the national arts development body, Creative Scotland operate at arm’s length from the Scottish Government.

As per the legislation, this means that neither Scottish Government nor Scottish Ministers have a role in funding processes and decisions made by Creative Scotland for individual projects. Creative Scotland are rapidly reviewing their funding allocation to Rein as they have been clear that what has been reported simply does not meet what the funding was applied for.

I look forward to Creative Scotland sharing its conclusions with the Scottish Government.

The next meeting of the Orkney Ferry Replacement Task Force will be held on 18 April 2024.

Building on the success of our Good Practice Principles and our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, the Onshore Wind Sector Deal represents a significant step forward in ensuring our journey to net zero benefits people across Scotland, and is part of a just transition. We are learning from these successes and will continue to work with industry to explore other avenues within our devolved powers to maximise the benefits flowing into communities.

We are also pressing the UK Government to explore mandating community benefits from onshore renewables as well as electricity transmission network infrastructure. It is critical that the UK Government continues to work with us as these proposals are developed to ensure they deliver the maximum benefits for the people of Scotland, and support our transition to a green economy in which no one is left behind.

On 11 August 2023, Ministers launched the Wild Bird HPAI Response Plan that sets out how the Scottish Government and its partners will respond to any further outbreaks of HPAI in wild birds in Scotland, and this plan remains a live one, with the aim of incorporating evolving science and advice from epidemiologists, virologists and wildlife experts.

Instances of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 amongst captive birds and wild birds have reduced significantly in Scotland. Since the beginning of the current HPAI outbreak season on 1 October 2023, there have two infected premises in Scotland (both in November 2023) and seven positive findings of the virus in wild birds (with only one finding in 2024).

However, we are aware of the virus continuing to circulate in other parts of Great Britain and Europe, and the risk level for the virus associated with wild birds remains at medium across Great Britain, whereas it is low for kept birds. The Scottish Government continues to promote best practice biosecurity measures to all involved in the game industry, through various forms of media, including regular biosecurity and industry stakeholder meetings.

The National Innovation Strategy included an action to publish an annual innovation scorecard. These key metrics will enable us to track our progress towards becoming one of the most innovative small nations over the next decade.

The framework for the scorecard, showing current performance, was published as part of the Strategy document in June 2023. The next iteration of the scorecard will be published later this year, when the full set of latest statistics and indicators become available.

There are 20 ScotWind projects with seabed option agreements. The first 17 successful projects were announced by Crown Estate Scotland in April 2022. These were joined in October 2022 by three further projects, granted agreements through the Clearing process. To date, one ScotWind project, N1 - West of Orkney Wind Farm, has submitted an application for consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 and associated marine licences under section 20 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and section 65 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. All other ScotWind projects are at the pre-application stage, with 6 environmental impact assessment scoping opinions issued by Scottish Ministers to date.

Crown Estate Scotland currently expects to see rental income of £4Million per Gigawatt per annum, based on 2024 prices. Rent is indexed against the Consumer Prices Index so this figure could change. The rent will go to Crown Estate Scotland once projects are operational. While it is too early to know when that will happen, it is generally 10 years from option award. The nature of project development means Crown Estate Scotland cannot be certain at this time what total capacity will ultimately get built.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any local authority ceasing its funding for secondary school music tuition and relying solely on the additional funding provided by the Scottish Government. The most recent Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

The policy of free instrumental tuition has now firmly been established across all Local Authority Music Services. The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities to deliver free instrumental music tuition in schools, with £12 million allocated this financial year alone. The purpose of this funding is to enhance the instrumental music tuition offer that is provided through Local Authority budgets.

There is no evidence of an overall reduction in the provision of secondary school music tuition. In fact the most recent Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

The policy of free instrumental tuition has now been firmly established across all Local Authority Music Services. The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities to deliver free instrumental music tuition in schools, removing financial barriers to learning an instrument.

Offshore wind was highlighted by the First Minister’s Investor Panel as the single most important opportunity for attracting capital to Scotland and raising Scotland’s wider investment profile. Our up to £500m strategic investment will stimulate and support private investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to the growth of our world-leading offshore wind sector. It is key to unlocking the commitment made by ScotWind developers to invest an average projection of £1.5bn into Scotland per project.

We will ensure we invest this capital in the projects that are going to help us deliver our priorities and bring maximum economic impact – supporting market certainty, helping to create a highly productive, competitive economy, providing thousands of new jobs, embedding innovation and boosting skills.

It is widely accepted that offshore wind represents a significant opportunity to create thousands of good Scottish jobs. Based on the evidence available and assumptions made in individual studies, a range of economic impact from offshore wind deployment in Scottish Waters could be set at 10,400 jobs – 54,000 jobs.

We also want to ensure a just transition that takes our existing skilled workforce and supply chain with us. We will drive forward offshore wind skills development – working with stakeholders to focus on the opportunities for diversification and skills transfer from our oil and gas sector, in line with our commitment to a Just Transition.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with Local Authority Heads of Instrumental Music, COSLA and the Improvement Service to support and monitor the ongoing delivery of free instrumental music tuition.

The annual Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) undertaken by the Improvement Service and most recently published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.