The Scottish Government will engage with all bidders for Green Freeport status, to examine relevant opportunities and build on the strategies they have set out.

As Co-Chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), I am leading on work to implement the five key recommendations in the Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) published in 2021, starting with the creation of a Scottish Offshore Wind Port Cluster.

On 11 May, we published the Offshore Wind Collaborative Framework Charter. 24 developers signed up to the Charter, which includes all active developers in Scotland and encompasses all 17 ScotWind projects.

The Charter builds on the 2021 SIA recommendations adopted by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), and is a clear way to support and enable developers’ collective supply chain commitments. The Charter will help forge effective partnerships to deliver on the potential that offshore wind presents in the coming years particularly those that present via our ports and harbours.

Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) will continue to be delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of the Scottish Government, which Parliament were informed of in February 2019. Consultation and survey responses indicated that replacing Severe Disablement Allowance, which has been closed to new applicants since 2001, would cause unnecessary disruption to the approximately 1300 clients in Scotland who continue to receive it.

Safety and security on our railways is reserved to UK Government and as such it would be inappropriate for me to comment on resourcing or operational plans for British Transport Police. However I have asked my officials to request BTP (D-Division Scotland) contact you directly to advise of its current and future plans to tackle anti-social behaviour on our rail network.

There is currently a shortage of drivers for bus and lorries due to the COVID pandemic, creating a backlog in processing applications and testing which is being compounded by the consequences of BREXIT, as it prevents people from the EU coming here to work freely. We have repeatedly sought a formal role in determining what occupations are in shortage in the devolved nations, but the UK Government has denied this. As such, bus drivers are not included in the Shortage Occupations List (SOL). I understand that the UK Government will be reviewing this later this year and we have asked for full involvement in that process.

The problem is clearly causing issues for local and national bus services across Scotland. To address the workplace issues, my officials are working with bus operators and our partners across the public sector to promote the bus sector as a place to work while recognising that many of the levers are reserved to the UK Government. We have provided up to £210 million in funding to support bus services during the pandemic and an additional £40 million to support recovery this year. My predecessor also wrote to the UK Government about the consequences of the delays affecting the recruitment and training of potential drivers, which continues to be a concern for the bus industry.

I know that the majority of bus services in Scotland are operated on a commercial basis by private bus companies. But I would strongly encourage operators and local authorities to work together to ensure that connectivity is protected and maintained.

There have been two Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) specialised committee meetings so far this year:

• The Specialised Committee on Energy, on 30 March 2022
• The Specialised Committee on Fisheries, on 27 April 2022

Scottish Government officials accepted invitations as observers to these meetings from the UK delegation.

In 2021 Scottish Government officials accepted invitations, from the UK delegation, as observers to 18 TCA specialised committee meetings:

• Social Security Coordination, on 6t July
• Fisheries, on 20 July
• Energy, on 14 July
• Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, on 22-23 September
• Customs Cooperation and Rules of Origin, on 7 October
• Trade in Goods, on 8 October
• Services, Investment and Digital Trade, on 11 October
• Level Playing Field for Open and Fair Competition and Sustainable Development, on 12 October
• Regulatory Cooperation, on 13 October
• Air Transport, on 14 October
• Technical Barriers to Trade, on 15 October
• Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation, on 19 October
• Fisheries, on 27 October
• Trade Partnership Committee, on 15 November
• Aviation Safety, on 23 November
• Road Transport, on 24 November
• VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties, on 15 December
• Participation in Union Programmes, on 21 December

There were a further two TCA specialised committee meetings during 2021 that Scottish Government officials did not observe:

• Public Procurement, on 12 October
•  Intellectual Property, on 13 October

The Partnership Council has met once to date, on 9 June 2021. Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth MSP attended the meeting as an observer to the UK delegation.

The Scottish Government published its response to the Zero Emissions Social Housing Taskforce (ZEST) report on 14 th June 2022, and can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781804355176 .

The ZEST report rightly highlighted the need for clarity with regards to the second Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH2) given that milestones were not fully aligned with net zero and it also confirmed that Housing Associations and Local Authorities need long-term certainty to plan investment appropriately.

The Scottish Government has therefore confirmed that the review of EESSH2 will be brought forward to commence this year for completion in 2023, in order to provide registered social landlords with as much certainty as possible as they plan to retrofit their stock.

While the review is underway the current EESSH2 2025 and 2032 milestones will be temporarily put on hold to ensure that any investment is targeted toward long-term solutions that deliver net zero and support the eradication of fuel poverty. Social landlords should continue to invest in energy efficiency measures to help reduce running costs, and in zero emissions heating systems where appropriate.

The Scottish Government’s Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund supports projects to deploy zero emissions heat, improve energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty. The fund will make £200 million available over the course of this parliament.

As set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, the Scottish Government recognises the challenges presented in decarbonising Scotland’s tenements and earlier this year convened a Short Life Working Group of experts, tasked with developing recommendations on the best approach for tenement buildings to reach a good level of energy efficiency and install a zero emissions heating supply. The recommendations made by the Group will form part of a forthcoming public consultation.

Scottish Ministers have also commissioned the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) to undertake a law reform project, considering the establishment, formation, and operation of compulsory owners’ associations in tenement properties, including the feasibility and desirability of providing powers for associations to carry out energy efficiency and heating improvement work. This was one of the key recommendations of the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group on Tenement Maintenance. The SLC expects to provide the Scottish Government with a report detailing its recommendations and providing a draft Bill for consideration by Spring 2026.

All valid paper returns from Scotland’s Census 2022 will be scanned in full and digital files created. In addition, digital data from responses for all scanned census returns, including online or paper, will be produced and retained.

High quality scanned image files for all paper census returns will be retained by National Records of Scotland (NRS) and stored in a permanent archive for historical research purposes in future. Original paper questionnaires will be securely destroyed only after all data files for both digital data and high quality scanned image files have been produced and safely transmitted for storage.

Census information is kept secure and confidential for 100 years.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to both those who use them and to their families and carers. Revised guidance for buildings-based day services was published on 26 May 2022 which says that such services should return to pre-pandemic capacity wherever possible, while operating safely in line with COVID-19 guidance.

We are investing now in additional support for breaks. We have allocated an extra £5 million for short breaks in the 2022-23 budget, on top of the annual £3 million voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund. We have already distributed £3.5 million of this funding to the Time to Live delivery partners to expand short break support for carers. This is in addition to a further £20.4 million in the 2022-23 local government settlement for Carers Act implementation. We are also legislating through the National Care Service Bill to establish a right to breaks from caring.