Seòmar agus comataidhean

When determining applications for marine and European Protected Species licences in respect of unexploded ordnance clearance, Marine Scotland – Licensing Operations Team (“MS-LOT”) includes conditions on the licences to control the methods, as well as conditions which require the licensee to provide reports with specific detail on the methods used. When the reports are submitted, MS-LOT then reviews the reports against the conditions to understand whether the activity has been conducted in accordance with the licences.

On receipt of the reports submitted by Seagreen Wind Energy Limited as requirements of its marine and European Protected Species licences in respect of unexploded ordnance clearance, Marine Scotland – Licensing Operations Team (“MS-LOT”) sought advice on the reports from NatureScot, the statutory nature conservation body, and Marine Scotland Science which provides internal scientific advice to MS-LOT. No concerns were raised as regards the craters identified within the reports.

The next meeting of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands is scheduled to take place on Monday 3 October 2022.

The Scottish Government does not hold statistics on the number of people staying in community based bail accommodation. Officials are currently exploring what further data could be practically recorded beyond the current information collated annually on total bail orders by gender and age and bail supervision cases by Local Authority areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening alternatives to remand and this year, alongside introducing electronic monitoring for bail, increased investment by £3.2m. We are continuing to work with partners to explore improvements, including the potential to further develop community based bail accommodation in the future .

Meetings of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands are open to the public and MSPs are welcome to attend and observe the proceedings.

On 19 July 2022, Circularity Scotland Ltd announced that it has signed a contract with Biffa to become Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme’s logistics service provider.

The award of this contract is a key milestone in the roll out of the scheme and the agreement is expected to create around 500 jobs in Scotland. It comes after several months of close collaboration between Circularity Scotland and Biffa as they progress towards DRS going live in August next year.

Work is also underway to deliver the IT infrastructure for the scheme, and I expect the contract for IT services to be finalised very shortly.

The Scottish Ferries Plan, 2013-2022, which can be found at the following link, https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-ferry-services-ferries-plan-2013-2022/ provides, in Appendix 3, maps showing Scottish Government routes, Local Authority routes, private routes and other subsidy routes. In addition, Appendix 4 provides a complete table of all these routes and responsibilities.

As the member will know, disruption to the network in early 2022 linked directly to weather conditions and Covid impacts. Whilst no specific analysis of the financial and economic impacts from this ferry disruption on the Uist community has been undertaken, the Scottish Government recognises the impact these disruptions have on island life.

CalMac forms part of the local resilience partnership and prioritises the shipment of essential supplies during disruption to minimise welfare issues on the islands. Transport Scotland works with CalMac to monitor the impact of cancellations, listening to feedback directly from island communities and local resilience partnerships as well as transport operators.

The Scottish Government is prioritising those routes associated with live investment projects as set out in the answer to the question S6W-06702 on 8 March 2022, namely Mallaig – Lochboisdale Vessel Replacement Project, Oban – Craignure and Gourock – Dunoon – Kilcreggan. 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 .

At this time the work has been prioritised to support active live investment projects with the remaining work continuing throughout 2022 and into 2023.