Seòmar agus comataidhean

Figures for the area of woodland and the areas of new planting / restocking in Scotland on land owned by the Scottish Government and/or its agencies are published annually as National Statistics by Forest Research and are available from the Forest Research web site at https://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8w3lv3 .

The Scottish Government is committed to building resilience to the locked-in impacts of climate change, as part of a just transition.

The approach to planning for adaptation in Scotland follows the statutory requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Alongside continuing to deliver the wide range of actions set out under the current statutory Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (2019 – 2024), the Scottish Government is also now developing the next such Programme for publication in 2024. This Programme will respond to the full range of current and future climate risks for Scotland, as independently identified by the Climate Change Committee in its evidence base for the January 2022 update to the statutory UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

As part of preparing the next Adaptation Programme, the Scottish Government is currently looking at options for early actions to enhance responses in the highest priority risk areas identified by the Climate Change Committee. These priority risk areas include both the impacts on food supply chains and distribution networks from climate-related disruption and those on human health, wellbeing and productivity from increased exposure to heat in homes and other buildings.

The UK immigration system is not working for Scotland’s economy, our public services or our communities. While responsibility for immigration rests with the UK Government, the Scottish Government will do all we can to attract and retain people in Scotland. That is why we have committed to launching a Talent Attraction and Migration Service that will attract people to come and live in Scotland, help those moving to Scotland settle into their communities and support employers to navigate the immigration system.

We are currently designing the service to ensure it achieves these outcomes and once we have completed this phase, will launch the service during 2023.

The Talent Attraction and Migration Service will play a key role in attracting and retaining people who chose to move to Scotland. The investment in the service will match our commitment to ensuring people are attracted to, and want to stay in, Scotland. The budget for the service is still being finalised but the service will be appropriately resourced, including ensuring the staffing levels meet the needs of those using the service.

Following consultation, the Scottish Government is amending economic link provisions to deliver greater socio-economic benefit to our coastal communities.

Scotland’s fishing quotas are a national asset and deliver sustainable economic benefit beyond those at sea involved in catching.

Each year around £100 million of fish is landed outside Scotland by our fishing vessels. Often for species for which we have ready domestic processing capacity.

We want to ensure that those fortunate enough to be allocated fishing opportunities for Scotland’s key species provide a significant economic return to our nation.

That is why from 1 January 2023, vessels fishing for key Scottish species will have two options for satisfying economic link licence obligations.

1 - land a minimum set percentage into Scotland

or

2 - give back fishing opportunities for us to allocated to others in the Scottish fleet

These proportionate amendments will help ensure that there is a significant socio-economic benefit from Scotland’s fishing opportunities - Including to Scotland’s processing sector and supports industry aspirations voiced by the Scottish Pelagic Processors Association.

For more information please see: Consultation on a proposal to amend the economic link licence condition - Scottish Government - Citizen Space

This independent Review was tasked with reviewing our mental health and incapacity legislation in light of developments in international human rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to consider where improvements could be made.

The final report will be published on the Review’s website on 30 September; https://mentalhealthlawreview.scot/

The Scottish Government will then carefully consider the recommendations within the report to ascertain how to better fulfil our obligation to promote and protect human rights within mental health settings and to ensure that rights and protections for those that need it most are upheld.

Ernst and Young did consult Transport Scotland on the benchmarks proposed to be inclusion in the framework of options. Transport Scotland provided some suggested operators for consideration as comparators, but the decision on which to include in the final report rested with Ernst and Young.

The power to implement Workplace Parking Licencing schemes was provided in The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 (Part 7), and The Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022 were laid before parliament in January this year. The regulations, which provide technical framework for local authorities, came in to effect on 4 March 2022. Decisions on whether to implement a Workplace Parking Licencing scheme will be made by local authorities. To date, no local authority has formally proposed a scheme under the regulations.

Whilst we continue to face economic challenges and a cost of living crisis the Scottish Government remains committed to investing in employability and training to help the economy recover. We are committed to transforming employment support to simplify the landscape and deliver better outcomes for people who are further removed from Scotland’s labour market to achieve their full potential.

Through our No One Left Behind partnership approach we are delivering employability services that are flexible, person-centred, integrated and aligned with other key services including health, justice, housing and advice services. As support is tailored to meet individual need, the offer will vary from person to person, However, examples of employability support offered through No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland, our first iteration of devolved employment provision nationally includes, but is not limited to; debt and money advice, CV writing and interview preparation including mock interviews and sector-specific training, advice and guidance on childcare options and financial assistance towards immediate costs, financial support towards clothing and travel costs for interviews. In-work support is also offered, ensuring support and guidance is available to both individuals and employers as appropriate to help the individual sustain employment.

The Scottish Government remains committed to our vision of an affordable, zero carbon and modern transport system. Section 3.3.32 of the Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032 (released in December 2020) committed that “30% of Scottish Government owned ferries will be low emission by 2032”, and so this pledge remains extant.