Chamber and committees

CalMac ferries continue to plan recruitment around the latest delivery date provided for the MV Glen Sannox and recruitment is currently ongoing. The recruitment process is continually monitored to ensure any risks and issues are identified and managed. Recruitment plans are also continually updated to reflect required changes.

Publication of information about the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry’s costs is a matter for the Inquiry. The Inquiry has decided to provide quarterly reporting of its costs on its website at https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/inquiry-costs .

The Scottish Government have engaged with the Bank regularly throughout the recruitment process for a new CEO including over the last few weeks.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with David Lonsdale, the Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), through engagement with the SRC but also through other means such as the Scottish Government Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) - of which Mr Lonsdale is a member. The most recent engagement with the Director of the SRC was held on 22 March 2023. The Scottish Government greatly values regular updates, intelligence and input from the Scottish Retail Consortium which is informing rationale for it’s overall response to the cost crisis and challenges facing Scotland’s retail sector.

Freight works on a commercial basis so the decision to move products by rail is a decision for the customer and its logistics provider.

However, I can confirm that a dedicated express rail logistics service is currently running into Scotland. This service which runs between Birmingham and Mossend, started with a trial period on 17 October 2022 followed by a full operational service running five nights a week from 9 January 2023, is operated by Varamis Rail.

Since the establishment of Research Data Scotland (RDS) at the end of 2021 my officials have had ongoing engagement with RDS.

Information on annual spend on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme is reported through our published annual out-turn reports and can be accessed through the following link Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The following table provides the expenditure on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) in each financial year since 2016-17.

The expenditure incurred in a particular year does not correlate directly to the number of completions within that year as the construction of new affordable housing developments can span a number of years:

(a) Transport Scotland received the following number of applications for the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme since 2018:

2018-19 2 applications for support in Scotland and contributed to 6 cross border flows.

2019-20 2 applications for support in Scotland and contributed to 5 cross border flows.

2020-21 2 applications for support in Scotland and contributed to 5 cross border flows.

2021-22 2 applications for support in Scotland and contributed to 6 cross border flows.

2022-23 2 applications for support in Scotland and contributed to 7 cross border flows.

(b) Transport Scotland received the following number of applications for the Freight Facilities Grant scheme since 2018:

2018-19 - 0

2019-20 - 1

2020-21 - 1

2021-22 - 0

2022-23 - 2

The Scottish Government share many of the concerns raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and others regarding the Energy Charter Treaty. As our Vision for Trade makes clear, no part of a trade or investment agreement should limit the ability of the Scottish Parliament to regulate in devolved areas, or constrain much needed action to achieve our net zero goal.

We continue to engage with the UK Government and other Devolved Administrations on the UK’s future membership, and impact in Scotland, especially in light of recent developments amongst EU member states and the potential impact of this on the modernisation process.

The Scottish Government spent £16,662.50 (ex VAT) on 1,164 domains in 2022. Of these, 645 are categorised as active, and 507 are inactive.