There are currently no imminent plans to make any further amendments to the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) system, following the amended Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) regulations which were introduced in November 2021.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders including the local authority sector, Police Scotland and business and active travel representatives to understand any issues that arise from the various road order processes.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

The following tables provides a monthly breakdown of the total number of charge points on the CPS network by month and the recorded uptime and downtime across the entire CPS network as served to the public for the last three years

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website which provides a breakdown by local authority from November 2021. This will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network. Prior to November 2021 this information was not collated by the Scottish Government.

Please note that the new CPS contractor took over responsibility of the contract from the end of July 2021, therefore the figures provided are from the first full month of delivery.

The Scottish Government only holds personal injury accident information. It does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).

There has been the following number of personal injury accidents recorded on trunk roads in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Angus Council in the last 5 years:

On 30 October I chaired the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board. This meeting involved a range of operational partners, including Police Scotland and local authorities, to discuss measures aimed at enhancing road safety and progressing towards achieving our vision for Scotland, including the north east, to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030.

One of my Transport Scotland officials recently attended the Aberdeenshire Road Safety Seminar on 10 October, with Police Scotland, local authorities, elected members and key stakeholders in attendance. Road safety at a national level and issues pertaining to the local road network, with a particular focus on the A90 and A952, were discussed.

The findings of the WWF Living Planet Report provide further evidence, if any were needed, that the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss represent the existential threat of our times. We know we must take urgent action to address them now.

Consideration of all protected characteristics, including gender, will continue to inform the design and delivery of post school education and skills reform.

We will continue to build on our existing work to address barriers for women and girls, including:

• A range of resources developed by Education Scotland to address gender segregation in subject choices in schools.
• The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to tackle persistent inequalities in the tertiary education sector. Their approach includes for institutions to have regard to significant imbalances on courses and take action to address it.
• The refreshed Fair Work Action Plan which was published in December 2022 and aims to take an intersectional approach, where possible, to tackling the structural labour market barriers faced by disadvantaged groups in Scotland’s labour market including women.
• The Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) created the Gender Commission, who developed recommendations that offer practical solutions to help address the gender imbalance across the Apprenticeship family. The Gender Commission published their report and recommendations, and SG are committed to integrate findings from the Commission into our reform work to ensure they become embedded in the skills system.

An initial Equalities Impact Assessment, Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA): Purpose and Principles (www.gov.scot) for the Purpose and Principles for Post-School education, research and skills Post-school education, research and skills - purpose and principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) was published on 4 July 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomed Transport Focus’ objection to the Department for Transport’s proposals to close the vast majority of its tickets office. It is equally welcome that these draconian proposals were subsequently dropped by the DfT. Unlike this situation, there are no plans to close any ScotRail ticket offices.

There is no specific timeframe set for the consideration of a Harbour Order application. The Harbour Order application process can be complex and, depending on the proposed aims and potential impact, some applications require more detailed consideration. Applicants may choose to communicate directly with those who make representations during the formal consultation period, which can increase the time to complete the process. However, this can also help ensure that an application is adequately considered, providing the opportunity for all those impacted by its aims to provide views before a final decision is made.

The Scottish Government applies fixed fees for its processing of Harbour Orders in Scotland. These are as follows:

• £2,000 for an order the sole purpose of which is to amend the borrowing powers of an existing authority;
• £4,000 for any other order that would not empower an authority to undertake works;
• £6,000 for an order which expressly empowers an authority to undertake works where an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is not required; and
• £10,000 for an order which expressly empowers an authority to undertake works where it is decided that an EIA is required.

As this proposal does not involve works, the fee paid by Argyll and Bute Council to the Scottish Government for the Argyll and Bute Council (Oban) Harbour Revision Order application is £4,000.

The Scottish Government has committed to funding this facility for £2 million annually until March 2026. To date, the only Scottish Government spend on this facility is the first tranche of funding for 2024-25 which was £760,000, provided to the HSCP in August. The second tranche of funding for 2024-25 is due to be provided in December.