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The Scottish Government launched its Suicide Prevention Action Plan: Every Life Matters in 2018. Our National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) is driving forward implementation and reports annually on progress, both on the Action Plan and on the supplementary recommendations and actions agreed since the Action Plan was published. Its most recent annual report was issued in September 2020. A supplementary two-year review of progress made under the Action Plan was published earlier this year.

Many of the key deliverables of the Action Plan have been achieved to date, including the launch of Scotland’s social movement: ‘United to Prevent Suicide’; production of learning resources to support suicide prevention; pilot services to support those bereaved by suicide; and guidance to encourage, inform, and support local suicide prevention approaches.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the NSPLG and partners to prioritise work on the Action Plan and on the key activities on suicide prevention set out in our October 2020 Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan.

The Scottish Government has already paid £32.7 million to more than 21,800 taxi drivers through the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund. We committed to paying those taxi drivers who previously received a grant, a further grant of £1,500, taking support to a total of £3,000 and the Finance Secretary announced on Wednesday we have allocated a further £62 million for taxi drivers and operators, bringing the total support for the taxi sector during the pandemic to more than £90 million. Local authorities will begin to process the second driver payment during week beginning 7 June.

For taxi operators, local authorities will contact all eligible vehicle licence holders this month to brief them on their potential entitlement and will aim to make payments promptly within a maximum four week period. Amounts payable will be based on the number of vehicle licences each owner/operator holds with operators receiving grants between £4,000 and £15,000.

Public health measures have been implemented at borders to minimise the risk of importation of the virus from foreign travel. Recently, this has included alignment on the traffic light system for international travel which came into effect on 17 May 2021. This applies to all arrivals with a few limited sectoral exemptions where necessary to ensure essential or emergency work can be resumed in Scotland. People returning from overseas charity work are currently not exempt from the restrictions and should refer to the guidance provided. All decisions regarding exemptions are kept under review by the Scottish Government and assessed in the light of the latest scientific evidence.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): international travel and managed isolation (quarantine) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

As of 13 May 2021, 36,064 devices and 32,332 data packages have been provided. All Connecting Scotland customers have access to training and support. Interim results from our follow-up survey indicate that around half of Connecting Scotland customers found this support helpful in improving their digital skills.

The Active Nation Commissioner, Lee Craigie, was appointed to her role in December 2018 for a 3 year term. There are currently no plans to put the role on a statutory footing.

As Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise I am seeking an urgent meeting with Lord Grimstone, UKG Minister of State for Investment with responsibility for the Office for Investment, to clarify the status of UKG engagement with Tesla. Scottish Enterprise officials are also engaging with the Office for Investment in addition to the planned Ministerial engagement. I visited Tesla in California previously to discuss inward investment opportunities and SDI engages with them.

Transport Scotland published the draft Phase 1 recommendations and an update on the second Strategic Transport Projects Review on 3 February 2021. This included National and Regional Case for Change Reports which contained a list of transport options that are being considered further in Phase 2. We invited stakeholders and the public to feedback with a closing date of
‎ 31 March 2021.

As a result of our engagement we received a total of 461 responses, of which 333 are on the Phase 1 Recommendations report and 128 on the Case for Change reports. Given the substantial amount of feedback we have received we are now carefully considering how this will inform Phase 2 of the review.

We will share these key points with the Regional Transport Working Groups in the first instance, and use them to inform the ongoing appraisal, prior to publishing later in the Summer.

The Scottish Government carried out a public consultation in late 2019 to gather views on the future use of Scottish Ministers' powers under section 5 of FOISA to extend coverage of the Act. We published our analysis of consultation responses in March 2020 and undertook to further develop and set out the Scottish Government's proposed approach to the future use of these powers. That work was suspended following the coronavirus outbreak but is now resuming, and we hope to set out proposals on the use of the section 5 powers later this year. Our work on extension of FOISA will consider the areas highlighted in the consultation analysis, which include health and social care services provided under contract to Scottish public authorities.

Phase 3 of Connecting Scotland will launch on Monday 7 June 2021.

The Scottish Government is developing policy to deliver our manifesto commitment to ban the sale of peat related gardening products, and is already working with the horticulture industry to understand the challenges for transition to alternative growing media.