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The Scottish Government has provided consistent support for Scotland’s marine energy sector for more than a decade. As a result, Scotland is the most advanced hub in Europe for the testing and demonstration of marine energy technologies and is ideally placed to both shape and benefit from the potential global market for marine energy while helping deliver a net-zero economy.

This support has included the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund, which provided £3.4 million to Orbital Marine Power to build and deploy the O2 tidal stream turbine and £1.545 million to Simec Atlantis Energy to design, fabricate and install a subsea hub for the MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth. This support enabled both Orbital Marine Power and Simec Atlantis Energy to benefit from the recent introduction of ring-fenced support for tidal stream energy projects in the UK Government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme. In addition, the Scottish Government has, since 2014, invested almost £50 million in Wave Energy Scotland and continues to support this internationally renowned programme, which has made significant progress in driving the development of wave energy technology towards readiness for commercialisation.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with the marine energy industry in Scotland and is committed to supporting the further development of the sector.

An analytical exercise, such as the one suggested, would be a significant undertaking and come at a large cost to the taxpayer. As it has been a long standing policy of the Scottish Government not to support the construction of any new nuclear power stations in Scotland, under current technologies, any such analysis would not be value for money and has not been pursued.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the energy sector and continues to provide support in a number of ways. For example:

• £5 million provided through the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund to support tidal energy innovation and deployment.
• £18.25 million funding to support the current Wave Energy Scotland technology programme, the biggest wave energy technology development programme in the world.
• £10 million hydrogen innovation scheme under the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, which will focus on innovation in hydrogen production, storage and distribution technology.
• £75 million Just Transition fund to support the energy sector, including testing and promoting emerging technologies such as EV battery recycling technology, offshore green hydrogen and commissioning.

The Scottish Government has provided consistent support for Scotland’s marine energy sector for over a decade. As a result, Scotland is the most advanced hub in Europe for the testing and demonstration of marine energy technologies and is ideally placed to both shape and benefit from the potential global marine energy market. We will continue to support the sector as it grows, and Marine Scotland will continue to address evidence gaps through the Scottish Marine Energy Research Programme.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led and industry-funded initiative, consistent with the vast majority of similar schemes across Europe. It is the responsibility of all affected businesses to ensure that they are prepared for the scheme’s launch on 16 August 2023. This includes any loss reserve measures.

In the 2022-23 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government renewed its commitment to explore how to ensure the interests of future generations are considered in decisions made today.

Ministers and officials have been engaging with a wide range of organisations interested in embedding wellbeing and sustainable development principles in decision-making. I have met with several key stakeholders to support this work and will continue to do so in the coming months.

The Scottish Government is considering the case for a Scottish future generations commissioner as part of a package of measures to embed the interests of future generations in the creation and delivery of policy. This may include placing duties on public bodies to account for the impact of their decisions on wellbeing and sustainable development.

This work is being taken forward as part of the development of the Scottish Government’s proposed Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill.

We intend to set out more detailed proposals later this year.

The Scottish Government would like to congratulate all the artists, venues, production members and organisers of Edinburgh’s festivals this year. We recognise that overall 2022 was perceived as a ‘recovery year’ for the festivals and was key in bringing back confidence to the wider culture sector, especially with regards to returning audiences.

We have aided the festivals in this recovery and have provided a total of approximately £14.1 million in financial support since the beginning of the pandemic.

Overall, whilst ticket sales were down in comparison to 2019, Edinburgh Festivals were well attended; with a number reporting that they surpassed their 2022 targets. This is a good outcome taking into consideration the many challenges it has been necessary to overcome, and the added caution in programming this year. The Scottish Government will continue to work with festival organisers to build on their success this year, and ensure their continued recovery.

A list of Penalty Charge (PCN) and Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) notices issued to Scottish Government vehicles for each of the last five years is provided in the following table.

The staff member driving the vehicle at the time of the alleged offense is personally responsible for any penalties incurred, therefore we do not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to collect such data.

The Scottish Government recognises that there may be instances where a host relationship breaks down. Where a relationship breaks down, it is the responsibility of local authorities to re-enter a displaced person into the matching process and find a suitable alternative accommodation.

On 22 September, the Scottish Government published its first summary of the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine coming to Scotland through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme visa schemes which provides detail on matching progress: Key points - Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government recognises that there may be instances where a host relationship breaks down. Where a relationship breaks down, the displaced person can make contact with their local authority who will re-enter them to the matching process and find a suitable alternative accommodation.

It is important to recognise that matching people with hosts is a complex process. Time must be taken to ensure that the needs of both the host family and Ukrainians are met, and that both are suitably supported to make a decision that is right for them. Their housing and support needs and preferences will be assessed and the matching service will seek to match them with accommodation suitable for their needs. Where additional needs are identified, they will be directed to specialist local authority support teams.

We have made £11.2m of additional funding available to local authorities, which they can use to bolster their resettlement teams, enhance the pace of host checks, and support refurbishment of properties. In addition we have funded additional staff in local authorities to speed up the process and we are also introducing a new digital matching tool to support the matching process. We are currently reviewing the operation of the super sponsor scheme, including measures to improve matching.