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Amey is the operating company with responsibility for the A77. Acting on behalf of Transport Scotland, they are currently undertaking a route assessment of all junctions between Monktonhead and Smithston.

Amey have recommended an approach to identifying short-term future demand by taking information from Transport Assessments prepared to support new development in the area, this is currently being consider by Transport Scotland.

For longer term forecasts, Transport Forecasts 2021 will be published later this year, these are currently in development and are being used in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review.

These will update the published Transport Forecasts 2018, which build in committed development and Local Plan Development allocations from the local authorities, along with committed transport interventions. Since the previous publication, the demand for transport has been considerably impacted by COVID19 leading to unprecedented changes in how we access employment, services, leisure and goods.

Work on a planned public energy company was halted during the pandemic. As set out in the SNP manifesto, Ministers will now focus government efforts on a new dedicated national public energy agency. This will coordinate and accelerate delivery of heat and energy efficiency work, inform and educate the public on the changes required, provide expert advice to national and local government, and work with public, private and third sector partners to deliver this transformative national project. Further details will be set out to Parliament in due course.

As the UK Government’s own recent White Paper on rail acknowledges, the current structure of the industry was supposed to bring ‘greater efficiency and innovation’, but ‘little of this has happened’. Rather, ‘the system does not always encourage the different part of the sector to work together’.

We saw this in Scotland where a lack of co-ordination led to late and over budget delivery of projects, as flagged in our Major Projects Review 2016. We have worked hard with the industry to rectify these issues through the Team Scotland approach, making best use of the limited powers that we have. In putting arrangements in place for ScotRail services beyond March 22, we will use the opportunity to place an emphasis on the integration of rolling stock and train service plans with infrastructure works, improving the efficient whole system delivery of the Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Scottish Ministers continue to believe that a devolved railway, public sector controlled and operated in the service of the public, fully integrated and truly accountable, will deliver better and more efficient services for our people and our communities. As part of the Rail Review, the Scottish Ministers and officials presented a clear case for the full devolution of rail powers. The UK Government has chosen to refuse this reasonable request.

Consideration of potential improvements to all strategic transport infrastructure across the whole of Scotland continues to be undertaken through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). Through the STPR2 Regional Transport Working Group covering the Edinburgh area, Transport Scotland have ensured there are synergies between this and the ongoing improvements at Sheriffhall, being progressed as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

STPR2 will create the evidence basis for future transport investment decisions by the Scottish Government for the next 20 years. It will set out how the recommended investments will contribute Net Zero, Inclusive Growth and our vision is for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

At the core of STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy. We will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to Infrastructure Investment Plan. It is through this Review, that potential improvements on the A720, in addition to the work at Sheriffhall, will be considered within the appraisal process.

STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

As announced in March, the recommendations from the Review will be taken forward by an Implementation Group which I am pleased to announce will be Co-Chaired by Dennis Robertson and a clinical lead that will be confirmed shortly.

I am also pleased to announce today that we are providing £5 million of funding to respond to the recommendations from the Review in this financial year. The majority of this funding will be provided to NHS Boards to support them respond to the increase in eating disorder presentations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is Recommendation 1 from the Review. This funding is being provided from the £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund.

In addition, in response to Recommendation 6 (Self-help Resources) and Recommendation 13 (Families and Carers) from the Review, we are also providing funding to Beat, the UK’s Eating Disorder Charity, to provide a wide range of support options such as support to families and carers of those with an eating disorder, support for children, young people and adults who are currently waiting to be seen by services and peer support services. We will shortly announce further details of this package of support.

The Scottish Government’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan was published in 2018. Many of the key actions in the Plan have been delivered, including the launch of Scotland’s social movement: ‘United to Prevent Suicide’; production of learning resources to support suicide prevention; and guidance to encourage, inform, and support local suicide prevention approaches. Pilot services to support those bereaved by suicide will go live this summer and work continues to develop processes for reviews of all deaths by suicide.

Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan sets out our commitment to work with COSLA and stakeholders to produce a new long-term suicide prevention strategy for Scotland. The new strategy will be outcomes-focussed, and its development will be directed by the voices of lived experience. It will be informed by data and evidence, and adopt a cross-government approach to ensure the Government continues to take all actions it can to reduce the number of people who die by suicide. The new strategy will be published in September 2022, supported by a full delivery plan.

In the meantime, continued focus, pace and evaluation on suicide prevention will be achieved by extending activities under the current Action Plan for a further year, up to the point the successor strategy is published. This approach has full backing from partners, including COSLA and the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group. This approach will be backed by additional spending on suicide prevention in 2021-22, through our £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund.

I want to thank our health and care staff for their magnificent work to date. The last few months have been enormously challenging, with the expansion of our vaccination programme and the on-going demands of continuing to provide vital services to those requiring care.

While we have made great strides forward in dealing with the challenges that the pandemic has brought, the spread and impact of Covid continues to urge the need for caution in protecting the capacity of the NHS. Case numbers have continued to increase slowly over the last few weeks and our vaccination and Test and Trace resources have had to flex in response to emerging issues. All of this is taking place while our NHS continues to recover and so I want to continue with a measured and consistent approach to remobilising and renewing the vital services that we all rely upon. Additionally, we continue to be mindful of the impact on health and care staff, many of whom have been on the frontline of the Covid response for a considerable period.

It is clear that we need to continue to balance the capacity of the NHS to deal with Covid as well as the demands of emergency, urgent and planned care. With this in mind, I have decided that the NHS will remain on an emergency footing until at least 30 September 2021.

During the pre-election period Scottish Ministers only met with SQA when both attended the the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG): https://www.gov.scot/groups/covid-19-education-recovery-group/ . I continue to attend these meetings alongside SQA Chief Executive Fiona Robertson.

I attended a meeting which Fiona Robertson also attended on 24 May. We had a brief phone call on 3 June. We will have a formal introductory meeting on 24 June.

Officials meet regularly with SQA on a range of matters relating to the delivery of SQA’s functions.

The Scottish Government recognises that a diverse and successful ports sector contributes significantly to national, regional and local economies. We continue to work with the ports sector to explore avenues of funding for diversifying and reducing the carbon impact of port operations.

Scotland’s ongoing programme of planning reform is refocusing planning on improving the quality of our places. We are undertaking a review of National Planning Policy in Scotland with a view to publishing National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in 2022. This will be Scotland’s long-term development strategy, the direction of travel for which is set out in the NPF4 Position Statement published in November 2020. Permitted development rights (PDR) refer to those types of development for which planning permission is granted by national legislation, meaning they can be carried out without needing to submit a planning application. Port operators in Scotland already have broad PDR under Part 13 of Schedule 1 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992. As we noted in the draft Green Port Applicant Prospectus published in March 2021, the Scottish Government will consider whether port operators’ existing PDR remain fit-for-purpose.

Despite its forthcoming launch, there has been little detail shared or dialogue with Scotland on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It remains unclear how much Scotland will receive or on what basis our allocation will be decided. It is extremely disappointing that the UK Government has again decided to use the powers it has given itself in the Internal Market Act to introduce a scheme which bypasses the Scottish Government and stakeholders.

Despite the Scottish Government being ready to launch, the UK Government has yet to agree to a joint bidding process for implementation of the green port model in Scotland. However, in the draft applicant prospectus published on the Scottish Government website on 18 March 2021 we made it clear that we would welcome bids from applicants or multi-applicant partnerships. This would include joint bids from trust ports.