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In advance of the emergency legislation we set up a working group with social landlords to help assess the options for rents beyond 31 March and to understand and gather evidence on the impact of the rent cap measures for tenants and the implications for landlord service delivery, business and investment plans. That work is continuing and will inform the first review of the legislation, due to be completed by 14 January 2023. During the passage of the Bill we further committed to giving clarity and certainty to social landlords on rent-setting no later than by the 14 January review point, and to considering all options to keep rents affordable for tenants.

Social landlords have already made substantial investment in energy efficiency to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty and contribute to achieving the Scottish Government’s ambitious climate change emissions reductions targets. The independent Scottish Housing Regulator reports that 88% of social homes already meet the first milestone of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH). We are working with landlords to review future EESSH milestones to ensure that they are aligned with climate change targets.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, which launched in August 2020, has been designed to accelerate the delivery of energy efficiency measures and zero emissions heating systems in social housing across Scotland. It will make at least £200 million available to registered social landlords until 2026.

Acknowledging that the public sector alone cannot bear the long-term cost of converting homes, the Green Heat Finance Taskforce has been established to assess and recommend ways the public sector, communities and private finance can collaborate to scale up investment. A dedicated sub-group has been established to consider the best routes to financing and funding the retrofit of the existing social housing stock.

Ministers were advised by CMAL that there was not sufficient confidence that the vessel would meet the relevant regulatory requirements for operating in UK waters as set out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and by the relevant class society. There were also a number of other uncertainties around the modifications that would be required to meet the requirements for operating on Calmac routes.

As Transport for Edinburgh owns and operates the tram system, any decisions on concessionary travel on Edinburgh trams are for the City of Edinburgh Council to make. We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes.

The Bill does not propose that 75,000 local authority employees would transfer. As the policy memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill makes clear that under the National Care Service, services will continue to be planned, designed and delivered locally because the care boards will plan and commission services for their local area. For social care services currently provided in-house by local authorities, that may continue under a commissioning arrangement with the care board, or the care board may take over direct delivery, with staff transferring to the care board. These will be decisions to be taken locally as the care boards are established. Once the structure and governance of care boards and their localities have been decided, decisions about the employment of staff will be made.

The impact and efficacy of the FPMC scheme is monitored through supervision of the projects awarded funding. This is done in several key ways:

Firstly all beneficiaries are required to submit progress reports with each claim for payment which set out the progress made against achieving the stated objectives of the project. Scottish Ministers have the legal right to take action, up to an including revocation of the grant award if progress is found not to be satisfactory.

Secondly, we operate an inspection regime, which ensures all claims for payment are run through an automated inspection selection process which ensures 5% receive a physical inspection each year. We also have the right to require that an ad hoc inspection be carried out should concerns arise over any project achieving its’ objectives.

Thirdly, all projects awarded funding are subject to an annual monitoring process which seeks to confirm whether or not the project’s objectives in terms of employment, increased turnover and sales have been achieved.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12387 on 29 November 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has decided that these functions are best located in the new qualifications body.

In reaching this conclusion we considered a range of options, including the establishment of a new small non-departmental public body solely responsible for these functions and Professor Muir’s recommendation to locate the functions within the new national agency for Scottish education.

We have sought the views of a range of organisations including nine standard setting organisations, twenty-five Awarding Bodies and a number of other public bodies including the Scottish Funding Council and the SCQF Partnership. Officials also met with other UK regulation and accreditation bodies including Ofqual and Qualifications Wales and discussed options with colleagues across the Learning, Education Reform and Advanced Learning and Science Directorates. We have also drawn on the expertise of the staff who provide those services through discussions with the SQA’s Chief Executive, staff in the Accreditation Team and members of the SQA Accreditation Committee.

On balance, it is clear that there are significant benefits to locating the functions in the new Qualifications Body, as an NDPB, providing a greater degree of independence than within the new national agency. The creation of the new Qualifications Body itself presents an opportunity to make significant changes to the relationship between the awarding and accreditation functions which will further strengthen their independence from one another. We will develop these as part of the Education Reform Bill to be introduced to Parliament next year and as part of the Target Operating Model for the new body.

This decision will ensure the continued provision of a service which is of vital importance across a wide range of sectors of the Scottish economy.

I have no current plans to do so but I wrote to Councillor Archie Dryburgh of Dumfries and Galloway Council on 20 October 2022. In that letter I confirmed that the Scottish Government would honour the commitment I made during my visit on 3 November 2021 to provide financial support to the Council. I set out that the Scottish Government will provide £33,000 of revenue funding and £25,000 of capital support, which represents half of the Council’s additional expenditure, in relation to the recovery and replacement of the two footbridges.

Scottish Government officials make provisional overseas travel plans as part of official government business diary management and planning for Ministers. Until the date of the visit, these are provisional and contingent on Parliamentary Business and other commitments and issues arising. They are also subject to last minute changes.

All Ministerial engagements and travel information (including costs) are proactively released 3 months in arrears and available here Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information regarding the distance of the journeys (miles travelled by air) can be released in response to a PQ or FOI after the event on request, or calculated based on the information released when the visit has been completed.

The responsibility for applying fees for use of the public ChargePlace Scotland network lies with the owners of charge points, which includes public, private and third sector organisations. The Scottish Government’s draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network makes it clear that a shift towards a public charging network largely financed and operated by the commercial sector is necessary. As noted in the joint report published by Transport Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021, the existence of free provision or below market rates does not incentivise commercial investment in the charging network, and it is important that tariffs reflect true operation, maintenance and asset replacement costs. The Scottish Government is taking steps to support the development of the public charging network in line with our draft Vision, including through our EV Infrastructure Fund.