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Matters relating to the financial services industry are reserved to the UK Government. However, the Scottish Government is working with Her Majesty's Treasury and others to strengthen the resilience of the industry in Scotland. In the event of a widespread outage of the banking sector, the Scottish Government would be part of a nationwide response involving the relevant authorities, including local emergency responders in Scotland. Any response by the Scottish Government to a widespread outage would be complementary to the business continuity plans of the banking sector.

Paragraph 3.42 of the consultation on the registration of civil partnerships and same sex marriage said: “If Scotland should move to introduce same sex marriage, then, in future, there would be no need in law for transgender people to divorce before obtaining the full gender recognition certificate. The marriage could just continue. Transgender people and their spouses would still be able to divorce, if they wished to do so, and the issue of an interim certificate under the Gender Recognition Act would still be a ground for divorce”.

The government appreciates that similar issues also arise in relation to people in a civil partnership who are acquiring a new gender under the Gender Recognition Act. We will include details on these points in the next consultation on same sex marriage, due to issue later this year.

No.

Our view is that an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 is required to give certainty on protection for individual celebrants taking a different view from a religious body that does agree to conduct same sex marriage. We will work with the UK Government to secure agreement to such an amendment before the formal introduction of a bill to the Scottish Parliament, with a view to it being in place before the legislation comes into force.

Paragraph 3.43 of the last consultation noted that “If Scotland should introduce same sex marriage, some existing civil partners may wish to convert their partnership into a marriage”. Paragraph 3.44 noted that the detail “will be included in the consultation on any draft Bill”. That remains our position.

Enhanced oil recovery is compatible with the Scottish Climate Change Act and its targets if it does not give rise to any net increase in Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions.

As Enhanced Oil Recovery is not new to the North Sea Oil and Gas industry and has been carried out routinely for many years we do not see this activity give rise to any net increase in Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. The technique also maximises the efficiency with which resources are extracted and minimises the potential for unrecoverable deposits. This is good environmental practice as it is good husbandry of valuable natural resources.

Emissions in the offshore oil and gas production sector are included in the EU Emissions Trading System, when qualifying installations undertaking certain activities emit listed greenhouse gases, as detailed in Schedule 1 of the ETS Regulations 2005. Most offshore emissions are CO₂ emissions and are within the net UK carbon account. This sector falls under reserved competence and is dealt with by DECC and BiS.

Enhanced oil recovery is compatible with the Scottish Climate Change Act and its targets if it does not give rise to any net increase in Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions.

As Enhanced Oil Recovery is not new to the North Sea Oil and Gas industry and has been carried out routinely for many years we do not see this activity give rise to any net increase in Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. The technique also maximises the efficiency with which resources are extracted and minimises the potential for unrecoverable deposits. This is good environmental practice as it is good husbandry of valuable natural resources.

Emissions in the offshore oil and gas production sector are included in the EU Emissions Trading System, when qualifying installations undertaking certain activities emit listed greenhouse gases, as detailed in Schedule 1 of the ETS Regulations 2005. Most offshore emissions are CO₂ emissions and are within the net UK carbon account. This sector falls under reserved competence and is dealt with by DECC and BiS.

The Scottish Government provide funding to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to undertake bus punctuality improvement work in Scotland. Presently there are four enforcement examiners and bus punctuality forms part of their overall enforcement role. This will extend to seven or eight enforcement examiners within this financial year.

Discussions regarding the provision of bus compliance is currently ongoing with both Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and Bus Users UK.

In relation to the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation, the Scottish Government worked very closely with the UK Government on the development of the regulations to ensure they were sufficiently flexible to allow Scottish specific circumstances to be taken into account. Under the Energy Act 2011, Scottish Ministers had to give consent for a number of the secondary regulations to be laid in the UK Parliament.

In terms of the Renewable Heat Incentive, under the Energy Act 2008 Scottish Ministers must give consent to any changes to the Renewable Heat Incentive regulations. We will continue to work closely with DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) in the development of future regulations.