Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01690 on
‎ 16 August 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

From 2017 to the end of 2021 we have received a total of £194.8m in EU Exit preparation consequentials.

Spend, both in preparation and post-EU Exit, has been on staff supporting activities such as legislative preparations, and supporting stakeholders and partners, including businesses, cultural bodies, higher education institutes, local government and the third sector.

We have consistently targeted our spending responsibly and appropriately to mitigate against the negative impacts of exiting the EU and this last year we have allocated our spend to deal with the concurrent impacts of Covid and EU exit. An example of this is the £100m Winter Support package which was announced to support those on low incomes, children, and people at risk of homelessness or social isolation in coping with winter weather and the economic impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and Brexit.

No meetings with Yes.scot campaign employees have taken place with the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, or Special Advisors.

The Scottish Government is committed to a Scottish public inquiry, and will begin to take the necessary steps during our first 100 Days in office to establish such an inquiry. Since the UK inquiry was announced we have been considering how the Scottish inquiry would interact with that. Detailed work will be done on the terms of reference and the timescale, and we are clear that we expect the inquiry to begin its work by the end of this year.

No meetings have taken place with The National and the Sunday National since the beginning of the current parliamentary session.

One of the three overarching objectives within Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-29 is to Increase the contribution of forests and woodlands to Scotland’s sustainable and inclusive economic growth , with Improving efficiency and productivity, and developing markets identified as one of the six priority areas for action.

Scotland’s Forestry Strategy Implementation Plan 2022-22 includes a commitment to: Support the Scottish Forest and Timber Technologies Industry Leadership Group to deliver its strategy “Roots for Further Growthand increase the sector’s contribution to inclusive economic growth ; and a further commitment to: Work with construction industry professionals and others to identify opportunities to increase the use of wood products in construction .

As part of the current Programme for Government, we are committed to increasing the annual volume of Scottish timber going into construction from 2.2 million cubic meters in 2018 to 2.6 million cubic meters by 2022. We are working in partnership with the forestry sector to deliver this target by supporting research into timber engineering, increasing the understanding of timber as a building material among architects and supporting efforts to increase demand for home grown wood products through the Wood for Good initiative.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered a range of initiatives on the Scottish Government's behalf and has been allocated the following funding since 2016 to enable it to do so:

2016-17 £11,147,463

2017-18 £11,152,455

2018-19 £11,131,472

2019-20 £8,642,939

2020-21 £10,054,598

To date £1,555,145 has been awarded to KSB for initiatives to be delivered in this financial year

Every homicide represents the loss of a loved family member, a friend or a work colleague. The emotional cost of such loss cannot ever be captured by the financial costs arising.

Within this context, the Scottish Government does not make specific assessments of the public financial costs of individual crimes, including homicide. However, it does publish general information on financial costs of the justice system in the ‘Costs of the Criminal Justice System in Scotland’ publication (available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/costs-of-the-criminal-justice-system-in-scotland-dataset-2016-17-published-december-2019/ ).

The publication has financial information that may be useful in considering financial costs associated with a homicide (e.g. the average costs of prosecution or a prison place).

Further to this, table 4 of the publication discusses the “economic and social” cost of crime. It explains that UK Government research has estimated the total economic and social costs associated with a homicide in England and Wales at £3.3m. Based on this, it is estimated that the costs associated with all homicides in Scotland are around £200m per anum. However, these “economic and social” costs go far beyond the financial cost to the public sector – including both non-financial costs and impacts outside the public sector.

Deployment of 5G in Scotland is being commercially led by the four main mobile network operators.

To support that rollout and accelerate adoption and use of 5G, we published a strategy in 2019 (available at 5G: strategy for Scotland - gov.scot ).

This states our commitment to embracing the possibilities of 5G and establishes what steps are needed to ensure Scotland seizes this social and economic opportunity.

As a core part of implementation of this strategy, in 2019 we established the Scotland 5G Centre to be a visible national platform supporting the development, deployment and commercialisation of 5G in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s expectations of Scottish Enterprise are set out in a framework document which expands on the agency’s responsibilities and statutory functions under the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990.

Scottish Enterprise has service level agreements in place with partners which require it to respond to customer enquiries within 5 working days, with more than 90% of enquiries in a normal year receiving a response within 2 working days.

Although no specific standards are in place in relation to the provision of advisory and grant support services, Scottish Enterprise monitors this and seeks regular feedback from businesses accessing the services.