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Under new arrangements that came into place on 1 May 2021, fishing licences were varied prohibiting vessels from fishing for wrasse unless they were awarded a Letter of Derogation from Marine Scotland and signed up to fish in line with certain mandatory conditions.

In addition to the statutory requirements for fishermen to provide landings details on Form FISH1, Log Books and landings declarations, wrasse fishermen must also now submit to Marine Scotland a record of the total number of wrasse, by species landed for each trip made in each given week. Although the new arrangements are still bedding in, fishermen are now submitting these returns as required.

The fishery opened on 1 May but only a small number of vessels have harvested wrasse so far and I am therefore unable to provide the level of detail you seek as that might lead to individuals being identified. But I can provide a summary of landings.

Between 1 May and 19 June there were 78 landings totalling some 1700 kg, mostly in the Oban, Portree and Mallaig landing districts.

The licence conditions applying to all vessels that hold a Letter of Derogation to fish for wrasse require that all wrasse landings, including any that are made to an aquaculture facility, must be reported by fishermen directly to Marine Scotland. It is an offence to fail to do so and where conditions are breached Marine Scotland can take enforcement action which may lead to vessels losing access to the wrasse fishery.

Delays in obtaining an AWI (2) report will result in a delay in a guardianship order application being decided on by a sheriff. An application for a guardianship order can be for both property and financial matters, and for welfare matters. A sheriff will look to see that the principles of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 have been given effect to when deciding on a case and the mental health officer considers these principles when compiling the AWI (2) report.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 will be made today and will take effect on 8 July 2021.

The regulations will reduce the required physical distances to be maintained between persons for the purposes of the Scottish Open golf event at Renaissance Club, North Berwick scheduled to start on 8 July and end 11 July 2021 (or 12 July in the event play cannot be completed on the 11 July).

The regulations will also make a small amendment to provisions relating to stadia and live events: a local authority will now only be required to notify the Scottish Ministers of an application for an exemption on capacity in Levels 0, 1 or 2 when directed to do so by the Scottish Ministers.

The regulations will also remove the area of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council from the areas to which common travel area restrictions apply.

The Scottish Government has been working with a range of sectors and specialist organisations to develop guidance on enhancing ventilation within enclosed spaces.

This guidance includes a range of practical solutions to enhance air flow and can be achieved by straightforward solutions, such as the opening of windows or vents. This seeks to provide cost effective solutions to overcome poorer ventilation, and support employers to consider options to reduce the risk of transmitting airborne viruses for staff and customers.

As we progress through the pandemic, we will of course keep under consideration whether this guidance needs to be supported by discreet funding for such projects.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I will ask its Interim Chief Executive to write to you in this regard.

In 2020/21 the key focus of the National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) was supporting those individuals and sectors affected by the economic impact of Covid-19. As part of this, a number of projects offered support for skills needs linked to the transition to net zero. This included wind turbine safety training, green construction provided through the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, and heat in buildings training such as the installation of heat pumps. Delivery of the Year One projects continues in colleges and universities until the end of the academic year and we will report on the training provided and its outcomes when the full year’s data is available.

In Year Two, NTTF has a broadened remit to address the economic impact of both Covid-19 and Brexit and also to support emerging skills needs to support the transition to net zero.

Of the initial 25 projects in Year Two announced by the First Minister on June 16 2021, a number will support transition, with details set out in the following table:-

The historical deaths reported in the Scottish Sun were shocking in their alleged nature. However, enforcement of the Zoo Licencing Act 1981 is a matter for Local Authorities. In addition, I am aware that Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoo's and Aquaria, and that these incidents are currently the subject of an investigation by BIAZA. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to comment further, or indeed launch a further investigation, at this time.

The Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland issued a range of clinical guidance relating to the discharge of older people from hospital into community settings.

This guidance has been continuously updated and a timeline of the clinical guidance issued is available in Annex A of the Public Health Scotland publication Discharges from NHSScotland hospitals to care homes which is available at https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/discharges-from-nhsscotland-hospitals-to-care-homes/28-october-2020/.

Marine Scotland has spent £115,176 since 2016 on monitoring and supporting science of seabed marine plastics, floating surface microplastics and also beach litter citizen science data collected by the Marine Conservation Society volunteers. These costs do not include the vessel costs associated with monitoring marine plastics at sea as this monitoring is carried out using existing surveys.

Marine Scotland has also spent £213,437 since 2018 on monitoring and maintenance of the marine litter sink case study area of Arrochar to better understand the problem and inform future policies.

In addition, Marine Scotland also funded the Scrapbook project, a partnership between Moray Firth Partnership, Civil Air Support and the Marine Conservation Society, spending £123,000 in 2018/19. This aerial photography project identified marine litter sink hot spots around our coastline, providing a baseline for future monitoring and enabling effective, focused clean-up operations. Marine Scotland has taken the outputs of this project and added this data to the National Marine Plan Interactive (NMPi), which is free to access.

No discussions have taken place about having a dedicated vessel to monitor marine plastic pollution as this is already carried out by multi-purpose research vessels.