Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Marine Directorate - Licensing Operations Team of the Scottish Government has not granted any seal licences for imperative reasons of overriding public interest, including those of a social or economic nature under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. No seals have been killed or taken under this licensable purpose.

While entries have been increasing, rising from 88 in 2017-18 to 172 in 2022-23, no specific targets have been set for the uptake of this qualification.

The National Progression Award (NPA) in Rural Skills is one of a wide range of qualifications related to the land-based sector. Skills for Work and other National Certificate courses in related areas are also available.

With the support of Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the Scottish Government funds a pre-apprenticeship programme through Ringlink Scotland - providing work experience linked to jobs in the local economy particularly relevant in rural areas.

The Commission for the Land-based Learning Review published its report in January 2023 including 22 recommendations on how to improve learning pathways to equip more people with the skills and knowledge needed to work in Scotland’s land-based and aquaculture sectors. Scottish Government is currently considering its response.

The Scottish Government provide annual funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST) who are an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency. EST then deliver the EV infrastructure fund on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

EST publish stats on their website which cover the number of chargepoints installed in Local Authority areas across Scotland and the total amount of funding paid per financial year, the link can be found here - Domestic chargepoint funding - Energy Saving Trust .

The specific information you have requested can be found in the following tables:

Domestic Chargepoints funded in Island locations based on postcode data:

The Scottish Government do not hold any information on domestic chargepoints that are (a) currently reported as faulty and (b) no longer in use.

Domestic chargepoints for private use, are not publicly available and are the sole responsibility of the home owner.

The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 specifies that before NatureScot can apply to Scottish Ministers for a Land Management Order, they must first have sought to agree a Management Agreement with the respective land manager. It is for this reason that Land Management Orders are only used as a last resort. Since 2019, 58 Management Agreements have been put in place to restore natural features on protected areas and no Land Management Orders have been used.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 . The schemes submitted revised procedures in October 2019 and were reapproved in November 2019.

Should any additional companies wish to operate a tenancy deposit scheme in Scotland they would be required to apply to Scottish Ministers for approval demonstrating they can meet the requirement of the Regulations before they can operate.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes were introduced to deal with the problem of landlords and letting agents who unfairly withheld deposits from tenants. In Scotland a custodial scheme is operated by 3 schemes approved by Scottish Ministers.

Tenants benefit from having deposits safeguarded by an independent third party. Section 33 and 34 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 sets out the requirements for all approved schemes to provide a free and independent dispute resolution service, so that the deposit can be returned quickly and fairly.

Scottish Government cannot intervene with individual deposit disputes and cannot intervene in decisions made by the independent adjudicator in relation to a tenancy deposit case.

Restoration orders can be issued as an additional disposal to people convicted of charges under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 Sections 19(1), 19(3), 27(1) or 36(2). As of 31 December 2022, no restoration orders have been issued as a disposal in a criminal court.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 and the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard: Q3 2022-23.

We cannot specify the precise number of victim observations which took place at any one given time during the development of the independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme because the number of requests will have varied throughout the drafting process.

The Parole Board for Scotland has provided the following information on the number of victim requests to observe parole hearings to 30 May 2023 – both approved and denied. It should be noted the first period coincides with the Board’s wish to consider and protect the safety of all parole hearing participants as they emerged from Covid restrictions, therefore no applications were approved during this time.

Local authorities were responsible for the administration of the Tenant Grant Fund given their knowledge of local need. Each local authority provided the Scottish Government with quarterly returns showing spend against their funding allocation. Data on full versus partial mitigation of arrears was not provided routinely by all local authorities.

The quarterly information collected was published on the Scottish Government website here: Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and is summarised below.