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The Scottish Government work with a range of partners, including Police Scotland, to reduce the harm caused by criminals intent on exploiting vulnerable people for financial gain. There is a range of advice to help people improve their online and telephone safety and protect themselves from fraud and cybercrime, including from ‘vishing’ scams over the phone and ‘phishing’ scams through email. Some such resources are the Cyber Essentials Scheme, Take 5 to Stop Fraud, Cyber Aware, and Get Safe Online.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. Police Scotland have confirmed that enforcement activity continues, and enquiries by local CID officers into the incidents in Orkney are being support by specialist Police Scotland Departments across the country.

The banking sector, in partnership with Police Scotland and Trading Standards, introduced the Banking Protocol in March 2018. This allows bank staff to alert police if they suspect a customer is being defrauded. Since its introduction, the Banking Protocol has prevented victims losing over £1.7 million to fraud.

I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of fraud or cybercrime to report it to Police Scotland by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency.

Electricity network policy and pricing is reserved to the UK Government. While we recognise that network charges in the north of Scotland, despite being reduced as a result of the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme, remain higher than those in the south, we have not had any specific discussions about national network pricing. However, we remain closely engaged with the UK Government and industry regulator, Ofgem, on network charging issues – including, for example, Ofgem's Targeted Charging Review, where we have highlighted the importance of charging arrangements that support the continued development and connection of Scotland's vast renewable resources, including on the Scottish islands.

The UK Government also retains the relevant powers in respect of retail energy prices, but has repeatedly failed to provide the competitive and fair market which hard-pressed consumers deserve. We continue to call on UK Government to ensure that the energy market works fairly for all customers alongside short-term price protection.

The Scottish Government is working to secure a fair deal for all Scottish energy consumers. In Spring 2019, we will publish a plan that sets out how the Scottish Government, working with partners, will empower people to take advantage of opportunities created by changing markets, smart technologies and energy efficiency measures. The plan will specifically aim to protect the most vulnerable and disengaged people living in Scotland during the low carbon energy transition. We want to ensure that benefits are universal and socially inclusive, regardless of individual circumstance.

We also recognise the need to tackle fuel poverty and poor energy efficiency as means of promoting consumer interests. On 27 June this year, we published a draft Fuel Poverty Strategy, alongside the introduction of the Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition & Strategy) (Scotland) Bill to Parliament. These took account of the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force report, which examined the full range of issues around fuel poverty in rural areas, including national network charging proposals.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with QMS and other stakeholders regarding quality assurances and activities of programmes that encourage food chain efficiencies and promotion of the Scotch brands. Whilst these discussions will collectively help make a contribution to lowering emissions from red meat production, we have not had any specific discussions regarding the identification and promotion of low-emissions meat.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland’s children and young people are protected, safe and supported in the online world whilst being able to enjoy the internet.

Our National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People , published in April 2017, sets out a range of action to help children and young people develop the necessary skills to stay safe while using the internet and support parents and carers to be more aware of the potential risks. This includes work with partners to encourage safe, responsible use of the internet including endorsing the 5Rights coalition which promotes the rights of children and young people online and in digital technologies.

To help support children online Curriculum for Excellence has been refreshed to include explicit expectations for learning and progression related to Digital Literacy. A key strand of this is Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety which covers topics such as using technology to communicate safely and securely; and developing an understanding of responsible digital behaviour. In addition, the ‘ Be Internet Legends’ curriculum, which has been developed by Parentzone in partnership with Google, is currently being rolled out at primary schools across Scotland. This programme provides resources for schools to support children to develop the skills they need to be safe and confident online.

Any decisions to legislate the regulation of the internet is currently reserved to the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as they develop a new Internet Safety Strategy. This includes active participation and representation by Scottish Government officials on the Executive Board of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS ).

Inter-islands ferries within Orkney and Shetland are wholly the responsibility of the Local Authorities.

The Ferries Plan made an offer that the Scottish Government would assume responsibility for Local Authority ferry services, at no net detriment to the Scottish Government. It noted that ultimately a transfer may not go ahead as the Scottish Government cannot guarantee to be in a position to provide additional funding. This offer to consider a transfer remains under the same principles.

We understand the significant financial challenges that can fall on individual local authorities and remain committed to the principle of fair funding in the provision of ferry services and ferry infrastructure.

Discussions regarding internal ferries are on-going with the leaderships and officials of local authorities, including Orkney, Shetland and Argyll and Bute, as well as Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. An update will be provided in due course.

The spiking of a drink, for whatever means, is a cowardly and dangerous act.

The Scottish Government work closely with a number of key partners including Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC), Crimestoppers and Police Scotland to promote and share messages on how to keep safe.

Examples include the Best Bar None Scotland ‘Good Night Out” campaign, Crimestoppers 7 tips for a good night out, previous seasonal safety messages and the supply of anti-drink spiking devices for bottles available to venues on request.

The Scottish Government is aware of the ongoing campaign from Girls Against Spiking who are working with the University of Strathclyde to provide anti drink devices for cups and glasses, and we are engaged with the SBRC and Police Scotland regard this campaign.

It is imperative that the advice from the Committee on Climate Change is considered by the Scottish Parliament prior to the Bill being finalised. The Scottish Government is aiming for the Bill to complete its passage during this Parliamentary year, which is why we asked for the advice by March 2019, but we would not want the Bill to proceed without that advice.

The advice was requested by the end of March 2019. This is set out in the request to Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, on 15 October which can be read at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment
_data/file/748489/CCC_commission_for_Paris_Advice_-_Scot__UK.pdf .

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill proposes targets to reduce actual emissions of all greenhouse gases by 56% by 2020, 66% by 2030 and 78% by 2040. The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has statutory targets for all greenhouse gases as ambitious as these for the years outlined.

The Bill also proposes a target to reduce actual emissions of all greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050. That will mean achieving 100% reduction of carbon dioxide by the same date, which means that Scotland will be carbon-neutral.

In addition, the Bill proposes that annual targets are set mechanistically by calculating percentage figures that would create a “straight line” of targets between the 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050 targets. Annual targets mean that progress has to be immediate and constant. The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has statutory annual emission reduction targets.

There are several other factors that make Scotland’s climate change targets world leading:

• all of the targets include all greenhouse gases.
• all of the targets include emissions from land use, land use change and forestry.
• all of the targets include a fair share of emissions from international aviation and shipping.
• none of the targets can be met through the use of international off-set credits, unless Ministers bring forward affirmative procedure secondary legislation, which the Parliament then approves. The proposal in the Bill is that a maximum of 20% of the year on year change to be accounted for by credit purchase. Based on current information, that limit means that less than 0.2 megatonnes per year can be accounted for in this way for any year from 2020 to 2050. (Sweden’s legislation allows for up to 15% of the overall target to be made up through credits. If Scotland followed this approach, come the 2040s more than 50 times the limit proposed in the Bill could be accounted for through credits.)

The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has such an ambitious, comprehensive and stringent set of targets that must be met through domestic effort alone, and therefore considers that the targets set out in the Bill are world leading.