Chamber and committees

We know some people may not be able to apply online, for example if they do not hold the required proofs. For this reason applications can be made in-person via local councils. Local councils determine the documents which are required for offline applications and accept a wider range of proofs such as interactions with other local authority departments. Many local councils also have dedicated staff on hand to help applicants who might have difficulty with the application process.

In some council areas, schools are coordinating applications on behalf of their pupils. Schools will contact parents or guardians and pupils directly if this arrangement is in place.

Many school children use public bus services to get to and from school and will benefit from the u22s scheme. Other pupils who are eligible for free school transport and use dedicated school transport or public bus services will continue to travel to school for free. We are working closely with local authorities to understand impact of the scheme on school transport and this will inform our planned review of the scheme after its first full year of operation.

Some young people, or their legal guardians, may have difficulty providing the proofs of person or of address to access the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme, including young people who are (a) care-experienced and (b) estranged from parents, family or care givers. To this end, many local councils have dedicated staff on hand to help applicants who might have difficulty with the application process, including care-experienced young people, and need particular support. Transport Scotland has not been prescriptive on what constitutes acceptable proof or verification that an individual is eligible for the scheme. This is to allow delivery partners and local authorities the flexibility to support applications from a range of eligible individuals.

The Scottish Government have produced guidance which has been issued to all local authorities, advising that children and young people should be supported to access free bus travel where appropriate, with specific guidance aimed at supporting those who will have the most difficulty in providing documentary evidence. As corporate parents, local authorities are committed to ensuring that the children and young people they look after experience the same opportunities and life experiences as are open to their non-care experienced peers.

At the time the scheme opened in January, because of the high levels of transmission associated with the Omicron variant, we asked that only those with an essential need to travel by bus apply and that anyone travelling should follow the latest advice to keep themselves and others safe. Since travel restrictions have eased, we are asking all eligible young people to apply for free bus travel and have been working to make the application process easier to use. On 28 January we released the Transport Scot Pass Collect app, which lets people aged 16 – 21, who already have a National Entitlement Card or Young Scot National Entitlement Card, to download free bus travel onto their existing card. This means they may not need to apply for a replacement card.

In designing the scheme, Transport Scotland worked closely with Barnardo's Scotland on how to safeguard young people travelling on the bus network, including providing training material for bus drivers. This helps drivers to recognise and respond to children or young people who need support while travelling on the bus network and help ensure that they can travel safely.

Attached are the figures for FTE requested since 2016 and broken down by workstreams.

The Scottish Government is wholly committed to a just transition to net zero and using the energy transition to build a better and more equal society.

Our ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund will accelerate the energy transition of the North East and Moray regions, and will also support the role of Aberdeen and the wider north east as one of Scotland’s centres of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy as we grow Scotland’s offshore wind sector and supply chain – which Scottish Ministers have called on the UK Government multiple times to match.

We have invested £26.3m to support the creation of the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) in Aberdeen. The ETZ will be a place to attract and develop green energy related R&D, innovation, manufacturing, testing, and demonstration, and will help to position Aberdeen as a global hub for offshore wind and other innovative renewables technologies such as the development of green hydrogen projects.

On Monday 28 th February 2022, the First Minister announced that ETZ Ltd have the National Floating Wind Innovation Centre as their anchor tenant. The £9 million centre will be located within the Altens Industrial Estate of the Energy Transition Zone and is being developed to ensure that the North East of Scotland and wider UK capitalise on the massive opportunity created by the Scottish seabed leasing round, Scotwind, which will drive the development and demand for floating offshore wind. ETZ Ltd is providing £4m for the capital costs of the innovation centre and ORE Catapult are contributing £5m to operationally run it. Through the Energy Transition Fund we are providing the full £4m that ETZ are investing. It is due to go out in Financial Year 2022-23.

In addition, the Scottish Government’s £75m Energy Just Transition Fund (ETF) will not only support our energy sector and the North East but will also benefit the wider Scottish energy sector and offshore wind supply chain, working with local businesses to maximise the economic benefits, create and support sustainable jobs and contribute to inclusive economic growth across the country.

Furthermore the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) has been identified by both industry and the Scottish Government as a key vehicle for taking forward the strategic supply chain opportunities that emerge from ScotWind. A key role for SOWEC is the implementation of the recommendations in the Strategic Investment Assessment (SIA), which was commissioned by SOWEC and led by Professor Sir Jim McDonald of Strathclyde University. The primary recommendation focusses on bringing the manufacturing of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s 2021/22 Programme for Government commits to work to ensure that a legitimate and constitutional referendum can be held within this Parliamentary term, if the Covid crisis is over, and that a detailed prospectus for an independent Scotland will be prepared to allow the people of Scotland to make an informed choice over their future.

The work to prepare an independence prospectus is being co-ordinated by the Constitutional Futures Division within the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate. This division is currently comprised of one Senior Civil Servant and thirteen other officials (12.9 FTE).

The work to take forward referendum legislation will be co-ordinated by a team in the Elections and FOI Division, also in the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate. The team is currently comprised of three officials.

The staff numbers may change as the work programme evolves. Both streams of work will also draw on other civil servants who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government.

As civil servants are not required to record the time spent on individual tasks we cannot provide a figure for total staff hours spent on taking forward these commitments.

The Scottish Government has today introduced legislation to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004, to ensure the process by which a trans person can obtain legal recognition is simplified, in line with the commitment made in the 2021/22 Programme for Government and the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme.

VisitScotland already works closely with ScotRail as a key national partner. The relationship includes liaising on matters relating to the visitor experience and running joint marketing campaigns, including a spring 2022 campaign to promote family days out in Scotland's cities.

ScotRail Trains Limited have been charged with producing a Market Growth Strategy, from April 2022, that develops and implements appropriate products and services to address post–Covid markets including, in particular, tourism. To assist with the development of that strategy and in furtherance of the relationship that exists between ScotRail and VisitScotIand. I have asked my officials to establish with them what more can be done to promote tourism and, in particular, actions to encourage visits to national attractions by rail.

The reason for the increase in FTE staffing level’s from 2016 and 2021 are due Transport Scotland’s increasing pieces of work through changing ministerial responsibilities. These responsibilities include our work on EU Exit, COP26, Free Bus Travel for U22’s and the Strategic Transport Projects Review (SPTR2). These key commitments have led to the need for an increase in staffing numbers to ensure their delivery.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table details the average number of purposeful activity (PA) hours that individuals in custody engaged in, within each public sector establishment, between December 2020 and December 2021.