To improve Scotland’s ferry, the Scottish Government have committed to investing around £700m in ports and vessels. This includes 6 new major vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) fleet before the end of this Parliament session.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and CalMac Ferries Ltd continue to seek additional tonnage. The current charter of the MV Alfred is an example of this, as a resilience vessel on the CHFS network.

We continue to provide resilience funding to CalMac Ferries Ltd to enable additional works and upgrades to vessels where required. This is on top of the funding included in the annual subsidy to CalMac Ferries Ltd for vessel maintenance.

A report detailing the impact of the initial pilot by Maggie’s can be found here .

From November 2021 to December 2023, 2494 people affected by cancer have been supported via Maggie’s.

During the initial pilot phase, people with 34 different cancer types, including those with multiple cancers, attended the prehabilitation workshops. 59% of attendees were people affected by prostate and bowel cancers. The trend is similar in the period from April to December 2023, however those affected by breast and lung cancers make up a larger percentage of attendees than in the pilot phase.

77% of those providing feedback said the prehabilitation workshops delivered by Maggie’s had a positive impact on their health engagement. In addition, more than 90% said they felt better able to make positive changes to their physical activity, emotional well-being, and diet/nutrition.

The prehabilitation website referred to in response to question S6W-24556 on
‎ 25 January 2024 is available to those who prefer to source information online, and a Scottish Health Technology Assessment is in progress to help Scottish Government understand the potential for digital solutions to delivering prehabilitation. Finally, in collaboration with NHS Education Scotland, a training plan is in development that will support national scale up of the Maggie’s workshops via other willing providers.

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 continues to deliver on its commitment to build the case for an independent Scotland in the EU, giving people the information they need to make an informed choice about their future, as set out in the recent Programme for Government. I’m pleased to confirm that on 2 February we are publishing ‘Our Culture in an Independent Scotland’.

This is the tenth paper in the Building a New Scotland series, which focusses on Scotland’s cultural and creative industries, providing detailed proposals on how an independent Scotland would further support Scotland’s creative economy, how an independent Scotland could realise the potential of our culture and creative sectors on the international stage by re-joining the European Union and removing barriers for international performers, how public service broadcasting would be protected with independence, and how Scotland can build on the strength of our screen sector.

I can also confirm that we intend to bring the matters raised in this publication forward for a debate in the Chamber as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government is continuing to prepare further papers in the Building a New Scotland series and these will be published in the coming months.

The Our Culture in an Independent Scotland paper will be available to view on the Scottish Government website from Friday morning at www.gov.scot/newscotland .

Sandeel aid the long-term sustainability and resilience of the marine environment and are an important food source for many species, including marine mammals, seabirds and predatory fish. It is therefore critical that we manage our marine environment in a such a way as to ensure its sustainable use, protecting biodiversity and ensuring healthy functioning ecosystems. I am therefore pleased to announce today that following full consideration of the all the consultation responses, we will be proceeding with prohibiting fishing for sandeel in all Scottish waters.

I would like to thank everyone that responded to the consultation. We received a total of 494 written representations from individuals and organisations including the fishing sector, renewable energy developers and recreational interests covering a range of issues, as well as 9,815 campaign submissions. This emphasises the strong interest from both the public and sectors, for which there was overwhelming support for the option to prohibit fishing for sandeel in Scottish waters with 97% or respondents indicating support.

The Sandeel (Prohibition of fishing) (Scotland) Order 2024 will be laid in Parliament on 5 February 2024 and will come into force on 26 March 2024 ahead of the 2024 fishing season.

In the 2023-24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to pilot a new aquaculture consenting process in two local authority areas to help deliver a more streamlined regime across Scotland.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that pilots for a new pre-application consenting process for fish farm developments are underway in the Shetland and Highland local authority areas.

The commencement of these pilots is a result of the work undertaken by the Consenting Task Group, which I established in November 2022 to consider the recommendations of the Independent Review of Aquaculture Consenting and to identify and pilot improvements to the consenting system.

The Consenting Task Group, which includes representatives from the fish farming sector, SEPA, local authorities and other regulators, have worked together to co-design a new management process which maintains robust assessment of development proposals, but which coordinates and enables appropriately informed regulatory decisions to be made as quickly as possible.

During the pilot phase, the Consenting Task Group will continue to meet on a quarterly basis to share key learnings and make improvements as part of an iterative review process.

I would like to thank the Consenting Task Group’s Chair, Professor Dickon Howell, and all the task group members for their contributions to the pilots and I look forward to further progress. Information on the work of the Consenting Task Group is available on the Scottish Government webpages.

Scotland really is a land of food and drink, with so many high quality and delicious products, renowned and sought after at home and internationally. That’s why making the most of the fantastic food and drink produced here in Scotland has always been at the heart of the Scottish Government’s food policies.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy food and drink produced locally and for producers of all sizes to access the markets on their doorsteps. So today, the Scottish Government is publishing "Local Food for Everyone: Our Journey" – our Local Food Strategy.

This Strategy has been developed following the Local Food for Everyone consultation and outlines how the Scottish Government and partners will ensure the people of Scotland continue to have access to the best produce Scotland has to offer.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed their thoughts, views, ideas and experiences to help inform the development and content of the Strategy.

Link to "Local Food for Everyone: Our Journey" https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781835217696

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed.

Kincardine and Lochgelly Medical Centres were not included within the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26, which identified the priority health capital projects for funding within that period. The Scottish Government will bring forward a revised Infrastructure Investment Plan in the spring, alongside the medium-term financial strategy, at which point we would hope that the fiscal outlook will be clearer.

Scottish Forestry estimate that the draft Budget will support over 9,000 hectares of new woodland in Scotland, which will be more woodland creation than the rest of the UK combined. We are engaging with stakeholders so that we can maximise tree planting and the delivery the benefits for climate, the economy, people and nature.

The Scottish Government has no plans to fund a fish counter on the River Dee .

As set out in the answer of 8 January 2024 the in-year budget changes impacted on both new and existing programmes which could not proceed as anticipated. This included activities related to Mental Health and Primary Care; regional CAMHS developments; full implementation of Coming Home; full implementation of the new Mental Welfare Commission Patient Records System; and improving prisoner mental health.