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The information requested is not held centrally.

Data on deaths from all causes in Scotland are available from National Records of Scotland: Vital Events - Deaths | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk).

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own parking charges on the basis of local needs and priorities. Parking charges and restrictions can have many objectives, including managing both demand for space and the time that space is occupied, to ensure parking is available for those who need it most. The Scottish Government does not have a national policy on parking charges for public places however we are committed to finding ways to shift the balance towards sustainable travel, away from private car use. We are equally committed to tackling inequality and increasing opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to interact in improved areas of civic space. Reducing our reliance on private car use can significantly improve the places we live in and have great benefits for local high streets.

There is research on the topic, for example the Living Street’s Pedestrian Pound Report from Sustrans (2018) evidenced that local shops can benefit from their customers travelling car-free. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/3890/pedestrian-pound-2018.pdf

Additionally, Transport Scotland has recently commissioned research through ClimateXChange to better understand the environmental, social and economic benefits of sustainable travel to local highstreets and town centres. The findings will be particularly valuable to local policy makers, local businesses and individuals and will support the Scottish Government policy to reduce car km in Scotland by 20% by 2030.

The routemap to achieving the reduction in car km was published in January 2022 and aligns with the ‘ Town Centre Action Plan Review – Joint response from Scottish Government and COSLA’ that sets out a new vision for town centres and outlines actions directed to better embed a ‘Town Centre First approach’ to ensure the economic, social and environmental health of town centres is at the heart of investment decision making. Further to this, the draft NPF4 recognises that our cities and towns are a national asset and strengthens support for development in town centres.

Restricting alcohol advertising and promotion is one of the World Health Organization’s three ‘best buys’ to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms.

That is why we have launched a public consultation setting out potential restrictions on a variety of methods of alcohol advertising, including on sports sponsorship. The consultation closes on 9 March 2023 and we would encourage everyone to respond to this, including those involved in elite and grassroots sport.

The function of consulting at this stage, before any proposals are finalised, is to give organisations and individuals the chance to feedback on these proposals, and potential impacts. Following the consultation, we will analyse the responses and then further consider possible restrictions.

I will meet with key stakeholders, including sporting bodies, during the consultation period to directly hear their views on the proposals and better understand any potential impacts they may have.

A wide range of academic evidence is referenced in the consultation paper, available at: https://consult.gov.scot/alcohol-policy/alcohol-advertising-and-promotion/ .

The consultation set out that alcohol advertising and promotion is seen by, and appealing to, large volumes of children and young people in Scotland. International evidence shows that seeing alcohol marketing is associated with an increased likelihood that children and young people will start to drink alcohol or, if they already drink alcohol, drink more. This is harmful to them in both the short and long term.

The consultation cites evidence that those who drink heavily have increased susceptibility to alcohol marketing and that this can translate into drinking behaviours. For those in recovery, alcohol marketing can be a trigger which threatens their recovery and can be responsible for relapse.

Although there is limited research on the impact alcohol marketing has on adults in the general population, it is likely that alcohol marketing also makes alcohol more attractive to adults generally and influences consumption.

In addition to the academic evidence cited, young people in Scotland, as well as people in recovery and their families, have told us directly that they see a lot of alcohol marketing and want us to take action to tackle this.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the content of our consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion.

Officials in the Alcohol Harm Prevention Team have met with the ASA at regular intervals to discuss alcohol marketing and ASA research.

I will meet with key stakeholders, including the ASA and other advertising bodies, during the consultation period to directly hear their views on the proposals and any potential impacts they may have.

The primary Scottish Government funds which enable local authorities to support town centre regeneration are the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Town Centre Fund which pre-dated the PBIP. I have placed a copy of tables in SPICe bib number 63928 which set out the information we have available to date on what the South Scotland region has received in each year since 2007, broken down by Town and Local Authority.

In addition, though not included in the table, the Scottish Government has provided offers of other financial and non-financial support which has benefited high streets. This is not limited to:

• funding to agencies and partnerships such as South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Business Improvement Districts, VisitScotland, Historic Environment Scotland;
• funds and funding such as Regional growth deals, the Climate Challenge fund, Active Travel funding. and Covid funds such as the £80m Local authority covid economic recovery funding;
• programmes such as the Scotland Loves Local, Empowering Communities, and Vacant and Derelict Land; and Climate Action Towns.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all school aged children have access to a device to support their learning by the end of this parliament.

In 2020-21, we provided £25 million of funding to local authorities across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning. The following table shows the number of devices distributed via that funding, as reported by individual local authorities, as well as the number of pupils currently on the school roll in those council areas.

As noted in the 2022-23 Programme for Government, we are continuing our preparatory work to ensure every school-aged child has access to a digital device by the end of this parliament in 2026.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) estimates that capacity for up to 100 newly created posts can be created each year when the programme reaches full capacity, with scope to employ up to 300 by 2026.