Chamber and committees

Ferguson Marine have strong links with the local college and have a thriving apprentice community. The yard currently have five apprentices who will complete their training this summer, and a further twenty four who will shortly be moving up into their second year.

The 2021 apprentice recruitment process is also underway, aimed at recruiting fifteen new apprentices for September 2021. The yard are also considering a Foundation Apprentice programme, and potentially taking apprentices into non-technical disciplines such as Finance and Human Resources.

The provisional HMT fiscal underspend against total budget, for each funding type, in each year since 2007 is summarised in the following table:

Table: 2007-08 to 2020-21 Provisional Outturn Variances Comparison – HM Treasury Budgets

The Turing Scheme is currently signposted on the Scottish Government mygov.scot public services website, as well as on the website for the Scottish Funding Council.

Any action to promote the Turing Scheme will be for local authorities themselves to decide and report on.

It is the Scottish Government’s position that the UK Government’s Turing Scheme is not fit for purpose. It is a replacement scheme, which cannot match the breadth and scope of Erasmus+. With funding only guaranteed for one year, no provision for inward mobility to the UK, and no support being offered for adult education and youth work, Turing will see support for our most disadvantaged learners cut, and opportunities for our students, staff and young people reduced.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government to ensure Turing better reflect the needs of Scotland.

The emissions reduction targets set in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, as amended by the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, constitute the most ambitious framework of emissions reduction in the world.

The extremely stretching statutory framework set by all parties in the Scottish Parliament places specific duties on Scottish Ministers in the case that emissions reduction targets are missed. In particular, triggers a duty on Ministers to bring forward – as soon as reasonably practicable after such a target outcome has been reported - additional policies and proposals to compensate in future years for the excess emissions arising from the missed target.

This approach ensures that the total amount of Scottish emissions over the lifetime of the targets in the Act will remain no greater than would have been the case if all of the annual targets had been exactly met.

The way in which land is owned, managed and used is centrally important to many of our national priorities, especially in meeting the twin challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises and supporting thriving communities and a green recovery. Everyone has a stake in Scotland’s land and everyone should benefit from Scotland’s land.

Community ownership has long been a key focus for land reform, and the Scottish Government continues to support communities to take ownership of land and assets. In the last parliament, we implemented legislation to extend community rights to buy to include a right to buy land to further sustainable development. Communities in Scotland now have more options than ever before to take ownership of land and assets, including several distinct rights to buy, and they can now choose which route to community ownership best suits their aspirations.

The Scottish Government understands that Historic Environment Scotland (HES) wrote directly to Mr Sweeney on 24 June 2021.

HES assessed this property in 2017, and it was found to not meet the criteria for listing at that time as it was not a notable example of its building type and its setting had been altered. HES held subsequent discussions with the Sir John Stirling Maxwell Trust and Glasgow City Heritage Trust during 2020 regarding the best ways to retain and reuse the building.

As Scotland's lead public body for built heritage Historic Environment Scotland (HES) investigates, cares for and promotes Scotland’s historic environment. Part of those duties is responsibility for designating listed buildings. The role of Scottish Ministers in designations largely relates to strategic oversight in matters of national importance. It should be noted that Minsters' powers are used sparingly as HES retains the considerable experience and expertise which is more appropriate to assess applications on a case-by-case basis.

Social workers have made an immense contribution as Scotland has dealt with, and continues to recover from, the pandemic. Supporting and resourcing social workers to work from home is primarily a matter for their employer.

We are aware of the stresses and emotional impact being felt by health and social care staff at this time. Enhanced wellbeing support services, backed by £5 million, are in place, including the National Wellbeing Hub. The Hub includes resources specifically for social workers and to support home working. In addition, the Scottish Association of Social Work has been given £50,000 this year to provide a peer support service covering a range of issues including wellbeing and resilience.

The Ayrshire Growth Deal, signed in November 2019, includes a commitment from the Scottish Government of £103 million investment over the next 10 years ensuring the long term inclusive growth for Ayrshire. The UK Government will match this funding, and regional partners will contribute £45.5 million to a total Deal worth £251.5 million.

Hunterston Port and Resource Centre (PARC) will receive £18m investment from UK Government as part of the Deal. The Sottish Government are not contributing to the funding of this project, which has been selected by regional partners.

Scottish Enterprise have been working with Peel Ports to examine the opportunities at Hunterston PARC, focussing on Oil and Gas Decommissioning, Offshore Wind and Liquified Natural Gas. Following an assessment of these opportunities, Scottish Enterprise approved a contribution of £10 million towards a £30 million project to reconstruct the dry dock cassion gates and develop a new quayside serving the marine yard.

The Scottish Government's new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone' will be published later in 2021. The strategy will set out a series of actions to deliver further air pollution reductions over the next five years. These actions include work being progressed across Government which will benefit air quality, such as continuing to take forward introduction of Low Emission Zones in Scotland's four largest cities, a £500 million funding commitment to active travel over the next five years and a reduction in motor vehicle kilometres by 20% by 2030.

We will also take forward proposals to control the sale of the most polluting domestic fuels, produce a code of good agricultural practice for improving air quality in Scotland and develop a public engagement strategy on air quality. At the same time we will ensure that the strategy integrates fully with other Government plans and strategies that have implications for air quality, such as the Climate Change Plan update, the National Transport Strategy 2 and National Planning Framework 4.

The new strategy will build on the achievements of Scotland's first air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland - The Road to a Healthier Future' which set out a series of 40 actions to improve air quality, 36 of which have been fully completed and the remainder carried over to the new strategy.

The Scottish Government has made clear its expectation that Scottish Enterprise will move towards a more regionally, place focussed model in strategic guidance issued to the agency. Scottish Enterprise has, in response, aligned resources to a more regionally-focussed model as part of its business planning for 2021-22. It has also developed a Place Framework for adoption across its organisation to shape how it makes that transition.

Alongside this, Scottish Enterprise is playing an active role in Regional Economic Partnerships, which are focused on the development of strategies to promote regional economic recovery, and in supporting the city and regional growth deals programme.