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A total of £48 million has been committed to reach the target of 60,000 households. The proportion allocated to each is:

(a) devices – 36%

(b) data – 54%

(c) training and support – 6%

Due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a two phased approach to the second Strategic Transport Projects Review. Phase 1 recommendations, which were published on 3 February 2021, identify short-term investment priorities in line with the five year spending review; to help ‘lock in’ some of the sustainable travel choices observed over the past year and provide a step change in investment which supports the priorities and outcomes of the second National Transport Strategy.

Phase 2, which looks beyond the spending review period, is aligned with National Planning Framework 4 highlighting the critical nature of transport and land use interaction. As such Transport Scotland will complete the review in Autumn this year, thereafter it will be published for formal public consultation.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and adults who have hearing loss, sight loss and dual sensory loss to access the health services and social care they need through its National See Hear Strategy .

See Hear provides a strategic framework of action for meeting the needs of people with a sensory impairment and since 2014, the Scottish Government has provided almost £4.5m to establish and support a national network of See Hear Leads and local partnerships between statutory and third sector organisations across every local authority area in Scotland. See Hear partnerships are responsible for identifying local priorities, developing work streams, timescales and implementation plans, based on local priorities and need.

In addition, the Scottish Government provides funding for the Scottish Sensory Hub, based in the ALLIANCE which was launched earlier this year. It hosts the See Hear National Coordinator, along with deafscotland, and the Scottish Council on Visual Impairment (SCOVI). It will facilitate collaboration between the Deaf, Deafened, Hard of Hearing, Deafblind and Sight Loss sectors and develop a rich resource base of expertise, skills and knowledge for people with sensory loss and those who work in this field.

The Scottish Government also continues to fund and support the contactSCOTLAND - BSL online interpreting Video Relay Service, which enables Deaf and Deafblind British Sign Language (BSL) users to telephone, via video relay interpreters, private sector numbers as well as statutory and third sector numbers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Further, the British Sign Language (BSL): National Plan 2017-2023 sets out in detail the actions the Scottish Government is currently taking, and working towards, to help ensure deaf and deafblind BSL users are fully involved in all aspects of daily and public life. The BSL National Plan can be accessed online here: British Sign Language (BSL): National Plan 2017 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

At present there is little evidence to show that gamebirds are causing damage to protected areas in Scotland, however NatureScot will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Gamebird releases within European protected sites are controlled through the Operations Requiring Consent (ORC) list. This means that land managers need to apply to NatureScot for consent to release gamebirds within the boundaries of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), where this may have an impact on the special features of nature conservation interest on the site. If the SSSI overlaps with a Natura site (which can be either a Special Protection Area or a Special Area of Conservation), NatureScot must carry out a Habitats Regulations Appraisal before consent can be given.

NatureScot’s Site Condition Monitoring Programme measures the health of the notified features across all of Scotland’s protected areas, including European sites. The Programme also identifies underlying causes for unfavourable condition of features in order to inform management actions. Gamebirds are mentioned in around 0.2% of these assessments and gamebird releases have not been identified as the cause of any features on protected sites being in unfavourable condition.

Phase 3 of Connecting Scotland will launch on Monday 7 June 2021.

The Scottish Government is developing policy to deliver our manifesto commitment to ban the sale of peat related gardening products, and is already working with the horticulture industry to understand the challenges for transition to alternative growing media.

We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on many people’s mental health. The Scottish COVID-19 Mental Health Tracker study provides data which, alongside other sources, the Scottish Government use to track the mental health and wellbeing of the Scottish population. This provides insight into the potential impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and restrictions on mental health and has allowed us to tailor our mental health policy response to the pandemic as needs evolve. We published Wave 1 of the Tracker Study in October 2020, and Wave 2 in February 2021.

In line with emerging needs, we published the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan on 8 October 2020. The Plan outlines the Scottish Government’s response to the impacts of COVID-19 and addresses the challenges that the pandemic has had, and will continue to have, on the population’s mental health. The Plan is comprehensive and contains over 100 actions, including actions on suicide prevention. We continue to work with our National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group and other key stakeholders on the Plan’s implementation.

There is currently no clear evidence on the pandemic’s impact on suicide rates in Scotland. Annual suicide statistics for 2020 will be published this August by National Records of Scotland. We recognise the importance of timely data on probable suicides to support local suicide prevention planning and are working closely with Public Health Scotland who will roll this out over the summer.

The total number of suicides recorded by National Records of Scotland from 2016 to 2019 are presented as follows:

The Scottish Government carried out a public consultation in late 2019 to gather views on the future use of Scottish Ministers' powers under section 5 of FOISA to extend coverage of the Act. We published our analysis of consultation responses in March 2020 and undertook to further develop and set out the Scottish Government's proposed approach to the future use of these powers. That work was suspended following the coronavirus outbreak but is now resuming, and we hope to set out proposals on the use of the section 5 powers later this year. Our work on extension of FOISA will consider the areas highlighted in the consultation analysis, which include health and social care services provided under contract to Scottish public authorities.

As Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise I am seeking an urgent meeting with Lord Grimstone, UKG Minister of State for Investment with responsibility for the Office for Investment, to clarify the status of UKG engagement with Tesla. Scottish Enterprise officials are also engaging with the Office for Investment in addition to the planned Ministerial engagement. I visited Tesla in California previously to discuss inward investment opportunities and SDI engages with them.