Chamber and committees

We have committed to a new station in Aberdeenshire at Kintore, offering rail services to a community not currently served. This is part of a phased programme of works on the Aberdeen to Inverness Rail Corridor.

I recognise the important role that Scotland's transport system plays in connecting people to jobs and services and businesses to markets. Transport investment decisions need to be supported by robust evidence and in the Aberdeenshire area work is already ongoing through the Strategic Transport Appraisal which formed one of commitments in the Aberdeen City Region Deal. This appraisal will provide valuable evidence which will be considered further and in more detail on the part of Scottish Government through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review and by local and regional authorities through their Regional Transport Strategy.

Any specific proposals for rail investment which emerge from the appraisal will also need to align with our Rail Enhancement and Capital Investment Strategy, published in February this year.

Sections of the project have been opened as they become available and some sections are already open to traffic, for example Craibstone and Dyce junctions at Aberdeen Airport and the 7km section of dual carriageway between Blackdog and Parkhill (Goval). More recently the section between Balmedie and Tipperty opened on 15 August 2018.

Transport Scotland is working closely with the contractor to bring forward sections of the project as soon as they are available and safe to open to traffic. The AWPR/B-T is expected to fully open to traffic in late Autumn 2018.

In response to the breast screening incident in England, the Scottish Government established a Clinical Taskforce which worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) to ensure that all women affected by the incident, and who are now resident in Scotland, have been contacted appropriately. The Scottish Government can confirm that all women affected by the incident in England have now been contacted and offered a breast screening.

In the course of its work, the Scottish Clinical Taskforce has undertaken due diligence checks on the Scottish Breast Screening Programme. This work has identified a separate and unrelated issue within the Scottish Programme. 1,761 women in Scotland, out of the approximately 700,000 women who are eligible for screening, have not received their final invitation for breast screening over the last three years. All of these women will now be aged 71 or older.

All of the women who have been affected have been identified and are being written to this week with an invitation for breast screening, and an apology that they did not receive their invitation to screening when they should have.

The data requested are not yet available. However, Transport Scotland has commenced work on an evaluation of the A96 Inveramsay Bridge Improvement project. In addition to considering the effects on traffic and journey times, this report will also evaluate the economic impact of the project. Transport Scotland will publish the report once the evaluation has been completed later this Summer.

The Scottish Government are aware of the situation on the Alwyn, Elgin and Dunbar offshore platforms. There has been, to date no ministerial discussions with management at total regarding it's negotiations with Unite. We would encourage continued dialogue between all parties to reach a prompt resolution to this dispute.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to take forward a comprehensive programme of action to support the childcare sector and to deliver our ambitious commitment to almost double funded early learning and childcare entitlement to 1140 hours by August 2020.

We reached a ‘landmark agreement’ with COSLA Leaders on 27 April on a multi-year revenue and capital package which will fully fund the expansion in funded entitlement to 1140 hours. This agreement will see annual revenue investment increase by £567 million on 2016-17 levels by 2021-22, whilst £467 million of capital funding will be provided over four years.

This “real partnership working” is further evidenced by our joint consultation with COSLA, launched 29 March, which sets out the details of the National Standard for providing funded early learning and childcare (ELC) that will underpin the new Funding Follows the Child model that will be introduced in 2020.

We are working closely with the sector on the development of this new model, and we are currently running a series of provider engagement events across Scotland to support the joint consultation.

Payment of a sustainable rate to providers is a key aspect of our new Funding Follows the Child approach. The multi-year package agreed with COSLA includes funding to pay sustainable rates to providers in the private and third sectors, which reflect the cost of delivery, and which will enable all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement to be paid at least the Scottish Living Wage from 2020.

On 1 April 2018 we introduced a new 100% rate relief for private properties wholly or mainly used as day nurseries. The relief will remove the burden of rates from up to an estimated 500 businesses to support an inclusive workforce whilst benefitting the economy as a whole.

We are also working with partners to support the expansion of the early year’s workforce. In October 2017 we launched the first phase of our recruitment marketing campaign, targeted at school leavers; with the second phase, to attract career-changers and parental returners to ELC, launching last month.

We are working with the Scottish Funding Council to offer over 1,500 additional places on a one-year HNC course in 2018-19 and over 400 additional places at graduate level. We will continue to invest in increased college places and training provision in 2019 and 2020. In addition Skills Development Scotland are increasing the number of modern apprenticeships in ELC by 10 per cent year-on-year up to 2020.

In addition, over the last year we have:

• published a widely welcomed ELC Quality Action Plan in October 2017, which will act as a driver for improving children's outcomes through the expansion;
• worked with the Care Inspectorate to produce Your Childminding Journey, an online learning and development resource for both prospective and registered childminders;
• taken forward plans to implement our commitment to provide an additional graduate in nurseries in Scotland's most deprived communities from August 2018, which will see an extra 435 graduates working directly with children;
• our new £2 million ELC inclusion fund opened for its first round of applications on 31 May. This fund, which is open to providers across all sectors, will provide an additional source of funding to support specialist training, equipment and adaptions to enable staff to support children with additional support needs or disabilities;
• published Space to Grow, a new good practice design guide for ELC, which promotes innovative design for both indoor and outdoor space, and;

? announced over £860,000 funding for Inspiring Scotland to encourage and support greater use of outdoor learning in ELC, including working with eight local authorities to deliver outdoor learning opportunities as part of the expansion of early learning and childcare and producing a 'how to' guide for practitioners, with practical advice on how to access outdoor spaces.

Oil and gas production has generated around £330 billion in tax revenues for the UK exchequer over the last six decades, and the Office for Budget Responsibility estimate that the North Sea will generate further revenues of ‎£5.5 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2022-23. In 2016 oil and gas production in Scottish adjacent waters accounted for 82% of total UK hydrocarbon production.

Following a challenging number of years there are increasingly positive signs emerging from the oil and gas industry, including the strong response to the OGA’s 30th licensing round with 123 licenses awarded to 61 companies, which will provide a much needed boost to exploration and is also expected to unlock 320 million barrels of “stranded” oil in undeveloped discoveries. It is crucial that the revenues generated from such developments are reinvested into Scotland and the North East in particular.

It is clear that the UK Government has failed to properly re-invest the proceeds from the North Sea to provide a long-term benefit to future generations or to allow adequate support to protect against downturns in the industry, and the Scottish Government continues to make representations to the UK Government to ensure that they provide immediate support to the sector to encourage greater activity and protect the highly skilled workforce and innovative supply chain.

The Scottish Government will continue to do everything within its powers to support the industry and its workforce, with efforts led by the Oil and Gas Industry Leadership Group which I Co-chair, while calling on the UK Government to ensure a fiscal and regulatory regime which encourages on-going investment to support jobs and export led growth.