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The working capital loan made available to Ferguson Marine is expected to be used to ensure that Ferguson Marine has the necessary cashflow to make payments in relation to salaries and VAT as required while they await repayment from BAE Systems for services rendered in line with the terms of the contract.

Scottish Government has followed Scottish Public Finance Manual procedure with regards to the interest rate and is satisfied that the loan will be repaid, should the facility be drawn upon. The loan follows standard practice for working capital requests from a public body.

The rate of interest and repayment date are not disclosed due to commercial sensitivity.

The Scottish Ministerial Code provides clear guidance to Ministers on how they should act and arrange their affairs in order to uphold the highest standards of propriety and is intended to speak for itself. Ministers are personally responsible for deciding how to act and conduct themselves in light of the code and for justifying their actions to Parliament and the public. The First Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister and of the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.

A list of all diesel and petrol vehicle purchases since 2018 is provided in the following table.

The 2 most recent purchases, a Mercedes Sprinter and Vito Minibus Combo are used for specific business related purposes. The Mercedes is used by Marine Scotland to transport shipping supplies and equipment throughout Scotland, whilst the Vito Minibus is used by our Video Production Team to transport team members and bulky audio visual equipment. At the time of purchase, there were no suitable fully electric (EV) or plug in hybrid (PHEV) alternatives available.

Kongsberg have an agreement in place with Cemre Marin Endustri for Fin Stabilisers, with the production facility based in Dunfermline. Fifty-eight companies (overseas or based in England) are also set to provide products and/or services for the new build vessels. Forty of these companies have signed agreements, with the remaining 18 companies obtaining signed agreements as the shipyard build programme progresses.

This is a matter for NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

I have engaged with a wide breadth of stakeholders in the offshore energy sector during this period, in the North East of Scotland and across Scotland. Regarding formal meetings with companies in the North East Scotland region I had the following formal meetings:

12 October 2022 - St Fergus Terminal /Segal Terminal Site Tour which included meeting with St Fergus field visit with North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP), Storegga and Shell attending 26 October 2022 - OEUK UK1 March 2023 - Decom North Sea meeting.

This list is not exhaustive of all the engagement I have with offshore energy companies, I speak with companies and stakeholders at all the events that I attend and take part in. Some of the stakeholder events I attended in this time period include:

2 November 2022 - Speaking at Supporting Scotland's Renewable Energy Supply Chain, Scottish Renewables 22 November 2022 – Speaking at the event International Scotland Report, Fraser of Allander Institute and CMS Partners Event 22 November 2022 – Visit to NESCOL Altens 30 November 2022 – Meeting with the North Sea Transition Forum 10 October 2022 – SEE - Maximising Scotland’s Energy Potential: Achieving a Just Transition Conference 8 December 2022 – OEUK Awards Ceremony

Analysis in the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, published in December 2021, shows that on-the-go drinks purchases are largely driven by consumer convenience, and that switching to large containers in this segment of the market is unlikely.

There are other deciding factors for consumers, such as practicality, convenience, brand preference and presentation of the product. This specific issue was examined by the ECCL Committee in 2019, see Report on the proposed draft Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 (azureedge.net) .

Additionally, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) already operates in over 50 other countries and territories around the world. Evidence from these other deposit return schemes indicates that any effect on product or format switching is small, and it is rare that this can only be attributed to DRS.

Everyone who pays a deposit on a drinks container will be able to reclaim that deposit in full therefore that should not have an impact on inflation. In line with the wishes of business, Scotland’s DRS is an industry-run scheme. It is for drinks producers and retailers to deliver the most efficient scheme possible. As an example of this, in December 2022 Circularity Scotland published new producer fees that are 8%, 30% and 40% lower than originally planned for glass, PET plastic and metal containers respectively.

a) Details of Ministerial travel and gifts are proactively published on a monthly basis and can be found on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .

b) The breakdown by route and calendar year for civil servants is as follows:

The data is due to be published shortly.

The number of planning appeals received, in each of the last five years, on the grounds of *non-determination and where a local authority has been unable to reach a decision within six months, is held in the following table :