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As part of normal practice in processing any marine licence or section 36 consent application, officials from the Marine Directorate Licensing Operations Team will meet with applicants and as such, have met with Flotation Energy on multiple occasions for the projects they are developing, both before and after April 2023. Meeting arrangements between MD-LOT and applicants are set out on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marine-licensing-and-consenting-offshore-renewable-energy-projects/pages/meeting-arrangements-with-md-lot/

Offshore Wind Directorate officials have also met with Flotation Energy multiple times, including at conferences and as part of regular stakeholder engagement, to discuss opportunities and challenges of their projects and the wider offshore wind sector.

Ministers meet developers as part of regular engagement with the renewables sector. For example, the Deputy First Minister met Flotation Energy in September 2024 to discuss supply chain opportunities, the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy attended an Offshore Energies UK Roundtable in January 2024, at which the Flotation Energy CEO was present and the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy met with the Flotation CEO in March 2023 to discuss Flotation Energy’s plans for offshore wind developments in Scotland.

In 2022, the Scottish Health Survey reported that the proportion of all children aged 5-15 undertaking at least 60 minutes of activity on average per day in the previous week was 69% (including school-based activities). These levels have been relatively stable since 2019 and are broadly comparable with levels in England.

In partnership with COSLA, the Scottish Government published a new Physical Activity for Health Framework on October 2nd 2024. This document provides a framework for action to improve levels of physical activity at both national and local level which is firmly founded on evidence-based international guidance from the World Health Organization and other global partners as to the approach which is needed to deliver sustainable change.

There are a range of ways we are ensuring children and young people continue to be physically active, including the following:

• We are committed to ensuring that all children in primary schools receive at least two hours of physical education each school week, and all young people in secondaries 1 to 4 receive at least two 50-minute periods of physical education each school week.
• Our Active Schools programme takes place in all local authorities and is free for all children and young people. It provides a focus on inclusion, for example to support children living in poverty, those with additional support needs, and care-experienced young people to participate. The Active Schools programme is a long-term investment in health and wellbeing, supported by a network of over 400 Active Schools managers and coordinators working with schools to deliver quality sporting opportunities for children and young people. In 2023/24, there were 4.9 million visits by pupils over 262,000 sessions – a 6% increase from the previous year.
• sportscotland invests in and supports approximately 47 Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs) to develop their sport-specific pathways, including undertaking work to increase participation levels for children and young people in their sports.
• Our Active Play Development Project, which targets areas of disadvantage, provides children with the opportunity to develop physical skills in their early years and to encourage a long-term, positive relationship with physical activity.

The Scottish Government does not collect or record information relating to the volume of ministerial correspondence that is fast-tracked.

So far £23,094,147 has been spent on trunk road improvement schemes in the North East of Scotland during the 2024-25 financial year. This figure includes capital expenditure on Minor Improvement works, Structural Maintenance, Strategic Road Safety and Structures improvement schemes. This figure includes Construction, Design and Investigation costs.

An additional £993,181.21 has been spent on Major Project schemes in the North East of Scotland for financial year 2024-25. This figure provided includes spend for taking the various projects through design and statutory process stages, acquisition of land compensation payments, preparatory works, as well as costs associated with construction.

I meet with Transport Scotland officials on a regular basis to discuss improvements across the entire trunk road network including those located in the North East of Scotland, and most recently met at our regular portfolio meeting on 30 October 2024.

The following table provides the number of injury road collisions recorded by Police Scotland as taking place at or within a half mile radius of the Toll of Birness.

Please note that the figures for 2024 are provisional, as they are based on monthly returns received thus far from Police Scotland in 2024, with the most recent returns being received on 10th October 2024. This may be an incomplete picture of casualties up to that date due to a slight lag between collisions occurring and the data being processed and shared by Police Scotland. These figures are also subject to change due to subsequent corrections and late records.

The Scottish Government supports NHS Scotland‘s Health Boards implement a standardised approach to Child Healthy Weight programmes through funding for Tier 2 and Tier 3 pathways as part of the delivery of Scotland’s Diet and Healthy Weight Plan

Health Boards deliver weight management services in line with Public Health Scotland Standards Weight Management Standards. These standards were introduced in 2019 and aim to ensure a fair and equal approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity for children, young people and adults across weight management services in Scotland.

Health boards delivering weight management interventions work to ensure that programmes are tailored to the specific needs of their local populations by conducting robust needs assessments, consulting with local communities and frontline staff, and addressing barriers related to equality, diversity, and inclusion. This includes conducting Equality Impact Assessment to continuously improve service accessibility and effectiveness.

All Health Boards provide data via Public Health Scotland on their weight management service’s performance and outcomes. This data is published regularly.

Public Health Scotland are undertaking an evaluation of the implementation and impact of the Standards for weight management services with recommendations to inform local action and national policy direction.

The first national Good Food Nation Plan represents a fresh approach to food policy and it embeds long-term strategic transformation into decision making at both the national and local levels. The consultation draft of the national Plan set out the six overarching Good Food Nation Outcomes to achieve our ambitions for Scotland’s food system. Draft Outcomes 1 and 3 set out the high-level aspirations in relation to health and diet related inequalities:

Outcome 1 - Everyone in Scotland eats well with reliable access to safe, nutritious, affordable, sustainable, and age and culturally appropriate food.

Outcome 3 - Scotland’s food system encourages a physically and mentally healthy population, leading to a reduction in diet-related conditions.

These Outcomes will be updated and refined based on the consultation responses received before the draft Plan is laid before Parliament in 2025.

Scottish Ministers will need to have regard to the national Good Food Nation Plan when carrying out specified functions in relation to food ensuring a clear, consistent and coherent approach to food policy across policy areas and ministerial portfolios. This approach ensures connections are made between policy areas so that complex issues such as child obesity and diet-related inequalities will be considered in the context of wider food system challenges. As part of this joined up approach the Ministerial Working Group on Food supports cross-Government work to drive progress across portfolios on issues relating to food policy.

The Scottish Government supports NHS Scotland‘s Health Boards implement a standardised approach to weight management services.

Health Boards deliver weight management services in line with Public Health Scotland Standards Weight Management Standards. These standards were introduced in 2019 and aim to ensure a fair and equal approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity for children, young people and adults across weight management services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with Boards to reduce any unnecessary variation, this includes working to develop once for Scotland approaches to weight management and adoption of evidence-based weight management interventions such as Counterweight Plus Type 2 Diabetes Remission.

Public Health Scotland are undertaking an evaluation of the implementation and impact of the Standards for weight management services with recommendations to inform local action and national policy direction.

This government is committed to ensuring everyone in Scotland has reliable access to safe, nutritious, affordable, sustainable, and age and culturally appropriate food.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 provided the framework for our future food strategy, to build an environment where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day. It places duties on Scottish Ministers, local authorities and health boards to produce plans of their policies in relation to food and set out what they will do to make those plans real.

The Ministerial Working Group on Food will provide cross-Government leadership to co-ordinate action on food relevant to achieving a Good Food Nation. Members will work collectively to drive progress across portfolios by providing strategic direction, tackling complex issues and sharing best practice.

To help create a food environment which better supports healthier choices, we are committed to legislation to restrict promotions of food high in fat, sugar or salt at the point of purchase. This is when people make their decisions about what and how much to buy and to consume, for themselves as well as for their families.

Over the last seven years we have invested in the Healthy Living Programme (HLP) and the Reformulation for Health Programme. The HLP helps convenience stores offer healthier choices. More than two-thirds of the 2,300 strong HLP membership serves the most deprived areas of the country and ensures access to affordable, healthier food and drink in those communities.

The Reformulation Programme helps smaller businesses reformulate common products to make them healthier. This is playing an important role in improving dietary health by removing hundreds of millions of calories from Scottish food and drink products sold across the country, including deprived areas.