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Following the Grenfell Tower fire the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings . Additionally, in February 2020, to assist those with responsibilities for providing personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs), the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises . This guidance provides information on the formulation of PEEPs in appropriate settings. The guidance also provides links to the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for the Evacuation of Disabled Persons from Buildings .

Retail sector turnover figures are available from surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. There are no retail SIC codes specific to fireworks which means it is not possible to estimate figures on the number of F2 and F3 fireworks sold in Scotland from official statistics.

However, in their report published on 3 November 2020 the Firework Review Group, established by myself in 2019, estimated that there are around 250,000 sales of fireworks every year in Scotland.

We know that the cost-of-living crisis is having a huge impact on individuals and families across the country, and we continue to have conversations across the range of challenges faced. We are using our regular engagement with the UK Government to ask that more sustainable support is provided to those in greatest need, given that most of the levers currently remain reserved. Just last week my colleague Ms Forbes raised cost-of-living with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and urged the UK Government to do more to address the root cause of increasing fuel costs. We will continue to press the UK Government to use all of the powers and fiscal headroom at their disposal to address the cost-of-living crisis.

Scotland’s biotechnology sector is developing at a remarkable rate. In fact, last year the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre reported that we were on track to meet the targets in the 2019 National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology ahead of 2025.

As such, the final refresh of the National Plan, launched on 6 June 2022, increased the 2025 targets even further to: over 220 active companies, increasing associated turnover to £1.2 billion and over 4,000 direct employees in Industrial Biotechnology in Scotland.

The sector, and its strength, is also recognised in our National Strategy for Economic Transformation as a current and future key industry for Scotland, that will contribute to us delivering our Net Zero targets by 2045.

Scotland’s Zero Emissions Mobility Industry Advisory Group have today published their report on the growth of this important sector for Scotland.

Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (ZEM IAG) was established in 2019 to bring together industry stakeholders to advise on shaping a collective approach to the development of the zero emission mobility sector.

The purpose of the group was to explore and advise on the strategic interventions, collaborations and investments required to substantially grow Scotland’s automotive sector, with emphasis on sustainable, zero (CO2) emission technologies and business models.

The IAG set a vision in 2019 for Scotland to become:

• a global player in supply chains for zero emission mobility for heavier and niche vehicles
• an international centre of expertise in energy-transport system integration
• a global destination for innovation in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

The report is informed by research carried out by Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise on key strengths and opportunities in zero emission mobility in Scotland as well as supporting studies by consultants KPMG commissioned for the group.

The report sets out the group’s vision for a decarbonised sector under 8 key themes:

• Innovation ecosystem development
• Skills
• Inward investment and capital investment
• Trade and export
• Public procurement for innovation
• Supply chain opportunities
• Collaboration
• Infrastructure

The report also recommends some key actions required to progress towards this vision.

One of these recommendations is that an innovation fund should be considered to provide support for innovators to scale up their manufacturing capability in Scotland and bring the development and testing of new technologies to Scotland, with a particular focus on batteries, fuel cells and zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

Today the Scottish Government is launching the Zero Emission Mobility Fund. This will provide £28 million across the next four years to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of heavy duty zero emission vehicles.

The Zero Emission Mobility Innovation Fund, administered through Scottish Enterprise, links to other national funding programmes for manufacturing and supports Scotland’s Mission Zero for transport.

The new Fund has been developed in consultation with industry leaders through Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group. This new funding approach responds to their call for innovative funding models to drive net zero transformation across Scotland’s heavy duty vehicle supply chains.

We are working alongside local authorities and partners to help displaced people from Ukraine integrate into communities and support them to settle here. Local authority caseworkers are in place to enable access to services including healthcare, education, employment and benefits advice.

Our New Scots strategy provides a clear framework for integration and it assists partners to make the best use of resources and expertise by promoting partnership approaches, joined-up working and early intervention.

We have also provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service, funding to JustRight Scotland to enable them to provide free and confidential legal advice to Ukrainians seeking safety in Scotland and providing a funding uplift for Edinburgh Third Sector Interface organisations; EVOC and Volunteer Edinburgh, to ensure the continued provision of volunteers to give a warm Scots welcome to tired and often traumatised people as soon as they arrive in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has prepared a draft Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

To ensure that the draft Code is fair and workable for all users we will seek views from consumer facing bodies and land owning land maintenance companies before we progress to publication.

Plans for engaging are underway.

It has been heart-warming to see the groundswell of support from our communities, pubic services, third sector and partners for people fleeing Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We have worked closely and collaboratively with partners to stand up our Warm Scots Welcome response, ensuring that all those arriving from Ukraine are accommodated and supported as soon as they arrive in Scotland.

In collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council, we have delivered three public webinar sessions for hosts. Scottish Government officials regularly engage with community groups working to support people fleeing the war in Ukraine, and those who have volunteered to host displaced people in their homes.

Under this government (since 2007), the number of Psychiatric Consultants across all Specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 21.6% to 548.8 whole time equivalent posts as of March 2022.

In 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Scottish Government has invested in increasing the number of trainee places on Core and Specialist Psychiatry training programmes. The number of posts advertised for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry specialist training increased from 6 in 2020 to 10 in 2022.

The Scottish Government are working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Royal College of Psychiatry to better understand the challenges associated with recruitment and retention in Psychiatry and encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist. This work includes the ‘Choose Psychiatry’ campaign, undergraduate taster sessions, and improved psychiatric placements at Foundation level.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training

Recruitment information regarding this trainee group has been recorded since 2013. The following figures refer to successfully recruited candidates and represent the cohort trained each year.

Recruitment to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Specialist Training - Year 4)

Contract negotiations with Dr Veronikis are a matter for NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and, are subject to commercial confidentiality. NSS met with Dr Veronikis most recently on 21 June and the Government hopes that negotiations will be positively concluded imminently.