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The Zero Emission Truck Taskforce met on 4 May 2022 and 23 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 25 August 2022.

Recommendation 36 of the second Strategy Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommends a detailed national audit and review of support for lorry parks to address barriers hampering their development, consider their financial stability and develop adequate standards.

This would include consultation with the freight industry, representative bodies, local authorities, and other stakeholders to collect views on the provision of lorry parks including where and what type of facilities are required and the potential demand for alternative fuel provision zero emission vehicles.

The STPR2 final reporting is due for completion later this year and will follow the conclusion of the public consultation which closed in April. Work on recommendation 36 will commence thereafter.

Transport Scotland has engaged with CalMac and Ministers regarding routine Winter 2022-23 timetable requests and decisions have been fed back to Ferry Committees and local stakeholder groups.

The service continuity measures and alternative timetables during the Uig closure period are yet to be finalised. Transport Scotland continues to engage with CalMac and elected officials on this matter.

CalMac will publish Winter 2022-23 timetables in due course and are proactively engaging with stakeholders to keep them updated.

The Scottish Government is committed to a full rewrite of the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 and this is currently underway. On Friday 22 nd July 2022, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation ( Consultation on changes to the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 - Scottish Government - Citizen Space ) featuring a number of proposals that seek to modernise existing rules and certain procedures. These include, but are not limited to:

• a new procedure for handling non-disclosure information and appointment of a special advocate
• adding ‘refusal to disclose a victim’s body’ as a matter the Parole Board may consider
• a new procedure to allow the Parole Board to review a decision.

Following analysis of contributions to the consultation, reformed parole rules will be laid in parliament in due course.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to contribute towards the transition to a more resource efficient, lower carbon economy. Support and mentorship is available through the Sustainable Procurement Training Framework. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks support the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors.

In addition, we established the National Climate and Procurement Forum and associated work streams with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

The Scottish Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into the role of local government and its partners in financing and delivering a net zero Scotland. In addition, Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) recently launched an investigation into support for local authorities in delivery of climate change targets. Scottish Government welcomes such independent scrutiny and will give the resulting reports and recommendations due consideration

Information about the Zero Emissions Truck Taskforce, including membership and minutes, can be found on the Transport Scotland website at: Zero Emission Truck Taskforce | Transport Scotland.

The Bella Centre in Dundee opened on 1 August and the Lilias Centre in Glasgow is due to open in October 2022.

HMP Stirling, Scotland’s new Women’s National Facility, is due to open by Summer 2023.

Section 7 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill, introduces a new temporary release licence for certain eligible long-term prisoners. Release on this licence would be subject to risk assessment and consultation with the Parole Board.

This licence would be available to Scottish Ministers (in practice, the Scottish Prison Service) in advance of the Parole Board’s consideration of whether to recommend release at Parole Qualifying Date (PQD), or in advance of a subsequent review by the Parole Board if the individual was not released at PQD.

Time spent on this licence will be subject to conditions including curfew (which can be monitored by electronic monitoring) and supervision by Justice Social Work. The licence would also state the period of time the individual was permitted to spend in the community, up to 180 days.

This approach is intended to better support the reintegration of certain long-term prisoners. It is also intended to provide further evidence to the Parole Board to inform decisions on whether to recommend the release.

East Linton station is currently scheduled to open by the end of the current Railway Control Period, which ends on 31 March 2024. The station will be served by all ScotRail services on the route. Timetable planning discussions remain ongoing with other train operators, including UK Government train operating companies, and the wider industry to secure an appropriate service for all stations on the East Coast Mainline. Once these discussion have concluded Transport Scotland will be in a position to advise of the proposed timetable at East Linton station.

Universal Credit is available as support for those unemployed and there are other benefits such as Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), however these are all reserved to the UK Government. Furthermore Employment Law is also reserved to the UK Government and the Scottish Government has no powers over associated policies.

We have provided £240 million of additional investment over two financial years, and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding from April this year, to support the employment of additional teachers and support staff.

We will also fund 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this Parliamentary term – over and above the 1,400 teachers recruited during the pandemic.

We will continue to work closely with COSLA regarding the employment of teachers, to maximise the number of jobs available, including permanent posts.