Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining high standards of animal welfare. The Scottish Government is currently working closely with the other GB administrations on potential improvements to animal transport legislation and consulting stakeholders through a series of workshops, to ensure all options are fully considered before any specific proposals are brought forward.

The Scottish Government remains committed to consulting on proposals to phase out cages for gamebirds and laying hens, as well as farrowing crates for pigs. The consultations will be prepared and brought forward in due course.

The Scottish Government holds regular meetings with COSLA covering a number of issues.

The increasing energy costs are a concern across a number of businesses in Scotland. Scottish Ministers are clear that the powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel and energy bills, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. The Scottish Government has continually urged the UK Government to use all the powers and fiscal headroom at its disposal to address the costs crisis.

The membership of the panel is agreed between Scottish Government and COSLA and consists of a number of organisational representatives. A list of those organisations and current members is as follows.

Scottish Government   David Cowan (Co-Chair)

COSLA       Calum Lindsay (Co-Chair)

SURF Scotlands Regeneration Forum Laura Black

Scottish Futures Trust   Mhairi Donaghy

Highlands & Islands Enterprise Douglas Cowan

South of Scotland Enterprise Bryan McGrath

Scottish Enterprise     Gillian Adam

SOLACE – (Chief Executives) Russell McCutcheon

SLAED (Economic Development) John McCrone

HoP ( Planning)     Beverley Smith

Directors of Finance   vacant

The full analysis of the responses to the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill consultation has been completed and a report of the findings will be published on the Scottish Government website shortly.

Aberdeenshire is home to over 8000 (one third) of all private water supplies in Scotland, more than double those in Argyll and Bute, and almost triple those in the Highland Council region. Given the prevalence of water scarcity in the North East of Scotland and the numbers of Private Water Supplies in Aberdeenshire and hence the acute challenge, we decided to pilot in this area to inform any future interventions.

In the first year of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults in 2021-22, the Scottish Government provided funding to the following organisations which operate specifically in Aberdeen Donside:

The specific information requested is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10892 on 20 September 2022 which provides information on funding for extra-curricular activities for young people and activities for young carers. 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

In addition to reporting requirements associated with our delivery partner’s (Youth Scotland) Offer of Grant and their own associated progress monitoring and reporting, the National Islands Plan itself has governance structures, including the NIP Delivery Group (which includes representation from the YIN), the Islands Strategic Group and our requirement to produce an Annual Report on the implementation of the National Islands Plan to Parliament.

Scottish Government officials are meeting with NHS Education Scotland on 27 September to explore primary care cancer education. This follows the recent cessation of Cancer Research UK’s Clinical Engagement Team that played a key role in delivering cancer education across NHS Scotland in recent years.

To date the Scottish Government has paid £160,000 to deliver the Young Islanders Network.