Chamber and committees

a) Valneva has not received economic development funding to expand their manufacturing capacity from the Scottish Government, but have received account management support and advice from Scottish Enterprise.

b) The UK Government through the Vaccines Taskforce and (BEiS) has supported Valneva by providing funding for its early clinical trials and has also made a multi-million-pound investment to upgrade and expand Valneva’s Livingston manufacturing facility, as part of its supply agreement for COVID-19 vaccines.

Due to the commercially confidential nature of supply agreements, the UK Government is not able to disclose any further details.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that Scotland’s Climate Assembly has today [23 June] laid its full report and recommendations in parliament.

I am grateful for the commitment shown by Assembly members, and to those that organised and contributed to this Assembly. It has been inspiring to see how the Assembly has come together during the pandemic and delivered its work entirely online.

In this year of COP26, Scotland’s Climate Assembly exemplifies how we are putting people at the heart of policy making, by consulting, engaging and involving citizens in decision-making. The Assembly’s ambitious recommendations provide support for the societal transformation we know will be needed for Scotland to become a net zero nation.

We welcome the recommendations made today by Scotland’s Climate Assembly. It is clear that Assembly members have taken great care to develop ambitious proposals, which are a credit to them and the dedication they have shown. We will take the necessary time to reflect on the recommendations and issue a comprehensive and cross-Government response in line with the requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.

The Scottish Government is committed to replacing the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion to ensure that future services are of a high quality and sustainable.

NHS Lothian submitted its review to the Scottish Government on 21 May 2021 and we have since accepted the review. The Scottish Government wrote to NHS Lothian on 9 June 2021 to invite it to submit an Outline Business Case (OBC) for the development of eye care services. This will be considered by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group who will undertake a detailed review of the evidence provided.

Once an OBC is approved the next stage is submission of the Full Business Case (FBC) and construction normally begins shortly after approval of a FBC.

It is essential that the required due diligence is completed to ensure the best possible future services and facilities; and this will take time. We look forward to continuing to work with NHS Lothian to fully support them during this process.

We are putting in place a temporary arrangement to deal with such a scenario between 26 June and 11 July. In the event of extended play, and limited only to match days and the games where this occurs, closing time for hospitality premises showing the game will be extended up to 23:30 where required. This is not a blanket relaxation of the rules but a specific and pragmatic approach to facilitate safe viewing of full Euros matches. Guidance for the sector will be updated to reflect this temporary change.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00986 on 23 June 2021. 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 .

Keeping children safe online is a key priority of the Scottish Government.

Additional funding was made available to Police Scotland for enhanced enforcement activity in direct response to the increase in reporting of online child sexual abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government continues to support Police Scotland’s response, ensuring that hundreds of children have been safeguarded by police enforcement.

We continue our significant funding commitments to third sector partners such as the NSPCC, Barnardo’s Scotland and Stop It Now! Scotland.

We have strengthened legislation and increased funding to make it easier for victims and survivors to come forward and speak out against abusers. We are also collaborating with third sector and operational partners to engage the public and raise awareness about the dangers of online abuse, including running successful communications campaigns earlier this year which connected with hundreds of thousands of Scots.

The regulation of the internet and online service providers remain a reserved matter, but we continue to work closely with the UK Government and Ofcom in developing proposals to introduce better safety measures online to help protect children and young people – including close liaison with the UK Government on the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.

The Scottish Government has been ready for some time to press ahead with the process to establish green ports. Despite our commitment to moving forward in partnership, the UK Government has failed to engage with us to publish a joint applicant prospectus. We have also yet to receive formal agreement from the UK Government about designating two green ports in Scotland, and that each will be able to access the same amount of seed capital funding as each freeport in England.

As a result, the Scottish Government is now inviting notes of interest from potential green port bidders in Scotland. This exercise will allow us to gauge interest for the development of green port policy in Scotland and will provide an indication of the geography and sectors likely to benefit. The notes of interest invited will be based on the content of the abridged draft applicant prospectus, published on the Scottish Government website in March, which also signposted the reserved offer available to all freeports in England. Further information on the call for notes of interest is available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/green-ports/

I have written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to set out the Scottish Government’s proposed next steps for delivering this policy and intend to hold a stakeholder engagement session on the 30 th of June.

The marriage notice (M10 form), or notice of intention to marry, is set out in a statutory instrument made by the Registrar General for Scotland, or their deputy, with the consent of the Scottish Ministers. Each party to the intended marriage can select in their marriage notice whether they should be designated in the marriage register as a bride or a bridegroom or they can choose for no designation to be entered.

The Registrar General and the Scottish Government will, when time permits, write to key stakeholders to seek their views on what changes may be required to the marriage notice.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and its predecessor Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) has sold the following under the New Woodland Investment Programme (2021 - 2017) / Repositioning Programme (2007 – 2016). The figures in the following table include 6,598 hectares sold / transferred to communities and NGO’s under the National Forest Land Scheme and Community Asset Transfer Scheme:

Excluded are sales of ‘surplus’ assets, typically buildings and small parcels of land, sold under the Rationalisation policy.

The funds for disposals have been used for the following:

• Acquiring land for planting;
• Cost of woodland creation;
• Maintenance and management of new woodland creation;
• Starter Farms initiative;
• Transaction and programme costs both for acquisitions and disposals.

The New Woodland Investment programme was closed at the end of FY 20-21 and there will be no further land sales as part of the programme. Further acquisitions / residual obligations (to cover future costs as detailed above) remain to be discharged over the following four year period.

As announced as part of last year’s Capital Spending Review, FLS were allocated £30M of capital funding over the next five years (starting in FY 21-22) to purchase land for woodland creation and expansion of Scotland’s national forests and land.

The woodland sold by FLS / FES remains managed as woodland. Using the proceeds to subsequently purchase and plant additional land has ensured that the area of woodland in Scotland continues to increase.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00570 on‎ 21 June 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.