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We recognise that hospitality, alongside other sectors within the economy including construction and food and drink are hampered by difficulties in attracting, recruiting and retaining workers. This has been exacerbated by Brexit and the loss of people from the EU leaving Scotland, as well as the problems caused by the pandemic.

We funded the ‘do what you love’ advertising campaign last year, to encourage people to consider a career in our valued tourism and hospitality sector, which was developed in partnership with industry. We are looking at how we build on this, as well as continuing our work to improve conditions and promote fair work in the sector, to make it more attractive to potential employees. We continue to work closely with the sector, to address the challenges it faces.

However, the Scottish Government does not have all of the levers it requires to address these challenges, and we continue to call on the UK Government to commit to establishing a Joint Task Force on Labour Market Shortages with the Devolved Governments.

We are greatly concerned by reports of children and under-age young people obtaining vaping products.

There is an increase in reports from schools, stakeholders and the media of young people vaping. Initial findings from the Growing Up in Scotland study for 2019-20 when participants were 14 years old suggest that 21.5% had vaped, which is of concern.

The Scottish Government has a precautionary approach to vapes. Vapes and other nicotine products are part of a range of cessation tools available to existing smokers to help stop tobacco use. They should not be used by non-smokers, in particular by children and young people. They should not been used or promoted as a lifestyle accessory.

Our recent Vaping consultation, which closed at the end of April, sought views on tightening rules on advertising and promoting vaping products. The results of this consultation will be published soon and will inform our Tobacco Action Plan refresh.

We are working with a range of stakeholders to ensure that our Tobacco Action Plan discourages and reduces the use and visibility of vaping products by all non-smokers, including children and young people.

Officials from all four UK administrations are engaging on the issue of sustainable long-term alternatives to the control of bracken. At this time, plans for stakeholder engagement have not been finalised. Initial talks with the Bracken Control Group have taken place and their advice on other interested parties will be considered. Those involved will include representatives from farming, environment and wildlife.

The Scottish Government has invested over £50m in developing the ChargePlace Scotland Network. We are now working with the private sector to invest a further £60m in coming years. Through our investments, electric vehicle owners in the South of Scotland have access to 590 public charge points, and this number is set to grow significantly through a combination of public and private investment. In the year ahead, the Scottish Government is directly supporting the installation of a further 73 charge points, as set out in the following table.

We are committed to become a world leading, innovation nation, which will help us grow our economy and create sustainable, green jobs. As the recent figures from the UK Innovation Survey show, there is still work to be done.

That is why this year we will publish new innovation strategy which will ensure that our businesses, people and institutions are ready to meet the global economic challenges and opportunities we face over the next 10 years.

The Strategy will build on the support already available to businesses through our Enterprise Agencies, who since 2017 have distributed around £600m directly to businesses to build their capacity and capability to innovate, and initiatives such as the Digital Development Grant, which since September 2020 has invested almost £50m to over 5,600 SMEs to help them utilise digital technologies and enhance workforce skills.

Since 2007 Scotland’s business R&D expenditure has doubled, whereas the comparable figure for the UK as a whole was only 29% growth over the same period.

We recently commissioned The Scottish Council for Development and Industry to undertake research on the specific barriers to innovation faced by Scottish businesses. The findings from the report, together with our engagement with industry and key stakeholders, will inform a reformed package of support within the Strategy to ensure our businesses realise their innovative potential.

The Scottish Government considers renewable, nuclear, bioenergy and energy from waste generation technologies to be low carbon. This is consistent with the definition used by the UK Government (BEIS).Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type, and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification. Lifecycle emissions are used to classify bioenergy as low carbon, because whilst bioenergy is not necessarily low emissions at the point of generation, it is low carbon over its lifecycle.

Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.

The Scottish Government is committed to continue working closely with local authorities in tackling the global climate emergency. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. This includes decision making around which carbon accounting tools to use.

The award of public contracts is regulated by law. Any future awarding of Scottish Government contracts for carbon accounting tools would be subject to open and genuine competition, including adequate publication of the contract opportunity, in line with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

The Scottish Government is committed to the recruitment of a minimum of 1,500 additional staff to support the operation of Scotland’s National Treatment Centres (NTCs) and is supporting a range of activity to achieve this.

The recruitment data we collate is management information and not suitable for publication. NTC Recruitment is the responsibility of each NHS Board. It is therefore for NHS Golden Jubilee to provide detail regarding their recruitment.

The following table provides a breakdown of the core activity undertaken at the National Eye Centre at NHS Golden Jubilee, by month, since it opened in November 2020 up to the end of June 2022.

This does not include activity undertaken in main theatres at the NHS Golden Jubilee University National Hospital in 2020-21 prior to the National Eye Centre opening, nor any activity carried out in the National Eye Centre as part of the current independent sector contracts.

The following table shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 12 September 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.