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The potential for unintended consequences, including a possible increase in illicit firework sales, has been carefully considered throughout development of the Bill.

In terms of how measures within the Bill have been developed to mitigate against illicit sales, the licensing system does not only cover the purchase of fireworks but also their possession and use; and the Bill introduces a new offence to be in possession of a firework or use a firework in Scotland without a valid licence.

In addition, it will be an offence for a firework licence holder to supply fireworks to an unlicensed person.

A person who commits this offence is liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (or both).

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government

To uphold the rights of children and young people who require secure transport, and to meet the Secure Care Standards and the Youth Justice Standards , the Scottish Government and COSLA led Secure Care Group seek to identify and develop solutions to the issues surrounding secure care transport in Scotland. A service specification is in development which will include an appropriate recording and monitoring process.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on proposed children’s care and justice legislation, including seeking views on whether legislative reform is needed around the use of secure transport.

The Scottish Government intends to commission research into the impacts of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compound emissions from Scotch whisky maturation later in 2022. Updates on progress will be made available as the work is taken forward.

We have an ongoing and unwavering commitment to land reform, and aim to bring forward a new Land Reform Bill by the end of 2023.

We will launch a wide-ranging public consultation later this year on proposals for the Bill. We remain committed to working with all stakeholders, including land owning interests and community representatives, to develop policy and legislative solutions to progress our proposals. We will be engaging widely on the proposals for the Bill, including through further public engagement.

All of the measures within the Bill, including the licensing system, have been developed following a significant programme of consultation, engagement and evidence gathering. This includes the work of the independent advisory Firework Review Group, who considered all of the evidence available and took an options appraisal approach to make a series of recommendations for change to the Scottish Government. The licensing system implements the Group’s recommendation that mandatory conditions should be introduced at the point of sale of fireworks to ensure that the purchase and use of fireworks is a well thought out and planned transaction.

The licensing system has been carefully developed to ensure that robust checks and balances are in place before a member of the public can purchase and use fireworks. This includes a mandatory requirement to successfully complete a training course, which will inform applicants of how to use fireworks in a safe and lawful manner, as well as understanding the impact that fireworks can have on people and animals.

The policy objective of the licensing system is that those who are permitted to purchase, possess and use fireworks in Scotland know how to do so in a safe, lawful and considerate manner. The licence is therefore held by an individual and while this means that there could be multiple licence holders living at the same address, it is considered that this strikes the balance between introducing proportionate measures without placing overly restrictive barriers on the legitimate use of fireworks by members of the public.

Through the Scottish Land Fund, the Scottish Government provides ongoing support for communities to become more resilient and sustainable through the ownership and management of land and land assets. The Fund offers grants between £5,000 and £1 million to help communities take ownership of land and buildings and provides practical support to develop their aspirations.

In addition, the £50 million low carbon Vacant & Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) launched in 2021 will support innovative local approaches to tackling persistent vacant and derelict land and delivering new green infrastructure in support of our ambitions for a just transition to net zero.

With 20 successful projects announced from the first and second rounds of the £50 million low carbon VDLIP, applications are now open for the third round of funding.

It is available on a competitive basis to all Scottish local authorities and Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company who are working with communities and other partners to bring forward suitable project proposals. The VDLIP complements the delivery of Place Based Investment Programme, helping to accelerate our ambitions around place, town centre action, 20 minute neighbourhoods, community regeneration, and community wealth building.

The draft National Planning F ramework 4 consultation closed at the end of March and responses are currently being analysed. It will have the status of development plan for planning decisions once adopted. The draft sets out six spatial principles to build a climate-conscious and nature-positive future. One of those principles is ‘compact growth’, this limits urban expansion where brownfield, vacant and derelict land and buildings can be used more efficiently. This prioritises the re-use of vacant and derelict land and redundant buildings. The draft also sets out that development proposals on greenfield sites should not be supported unless the site has been allocated for development or the proposal is explicitly supported by policies in the development plan, and there are no suitable brownfield alternatives.

The Scottish Government recognises the role that re-introductions of native species can play in nature restoration, but has no current plans to reintroduce lynx or any other large carnivore species into Scotland.

We welcome the publication of the ‘Lynx to Scotland’ report and commend it for its careful and balanced assessment of a complex topic. As the report notes, there are major barriers that would need to be satisfactorily addressed before any such reintroduction could be taken forward. The Scottish Government has always been clear that any reintroduction of a species such as lynx could only take place following full consultation that ensured the views of those who are likely to be most affected are properly taken into account.

It is a criminal offence to release a species such as lynx in Scotland unless the release is licensed by NatureScot.

To date, over £20.3 million has been awarded to 13 local authorities to increase the quantity and quality of recycling in Scotland, marking the beginning of one of the biggest investments in recycling in Scotland in a generation.

Of these awards, £5,267,640 million was allocated in the 2021-22 financial year, with the remainder being phased over subsequent years of the fund, based on the local projects’ spend profiles.

This investment is funding a range of improvements, including more frequent recycling collections, the extension of food and garden waste collections, and boosting Scotland’s capacity to recycle problematic materials, such as plastic films.

This initial investment has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 21,400 tonnes each year - the equivalent of taking 11,400 cars off the road. Further updates regarding new awards will be made in due course.

In the South Lanarkshire Local Authority (a) 5,525 clients received one or more payments for Scottish Child Payment between April 2021 and December 2021, and (b) 3,955 clients received one or more payments for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods between April 2021 and February 2022.

These figures are based on secondary analysis of the most recently published statistics on Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, published by Social Security Scotland. Whilst these include information by local authority area, we do not currently produce information by Scottish Parliament constituency.