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The Scottish Government is currently engaging with stakeholders taking into consideration their ambitions and priorities to develop an International Education Strategy which works for Scotland.

As immigration is reserved to the UK Government, the Home Office is responsible for the operation of visa schemes and application processing. The Home Office has been supporting approved labour providers for the Seasonal Worker Scheme to complete applications to the Ukraine Extension Scheme on behalf of Ukrainian workers, to process the visas as quickly as possible and monitor the process more effectively. The Scottish Government will continue engaging closely with the Home Office and other partners to ensure that workers displaced by the crisis in Ukraine are able to access the support they need while they are here in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has had and continues to have discussions with key stakeholders to understand their priorities and requirements for an International Education Strategy which works for Scotland.

Agricultural workers from Ukraine are critical in the production of soft fruit and vegetables in Scotland. The seasonal worker Labour Providers have a contractual and data sharing agreement with the Home Office. Numbers relating to Seasonal Workers are only shared by labour providers with the Home Office as part of this. Following engagement with officials in the Home Office and DEFRA our best assessment of the information available is that there are approximately 500 Ukrainian Nationals on seasonal work visas currently residing in Scotland.

Agricultural workers from Ukraine are critical in the production of soft fruit and vegetables in Scotland. As a result of the conflict, there are significant concerns about the needs of these workers and JustRight Scotland's new Worker Support Centre, supported by £41,000 from the Scottish Government will provide independent outreach and legal support for seasonal workers in Scotland. The Centre follows models used around the world to offer temporary migrant workers advice and support in times of crisis. In addition, The Scottish Government also funds the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI) which has long-established connections to the wider agricultural community and related support services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will engage with all bidders for Green Freeport status, to examine relevant opportunities and build on the strategies they have set out.

As Co-Chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), I am leading on work to implement the five key recommendations in the Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) published in 2021, starting with the creation of a Scottish Offshore Wind Port Cluster.

On 11 May, we published the Offshore Wind Collaborative Framework Charter. 24 developers signed up to the Charter, which includes all active developers in Scotland and encompasses all 17 ScotWind projects.

The Charter builds on the 2021 SIA recommendations adopted by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), and is a clear way to support and enable developers’ collective supply chain commitments. The Charter will help forge effective partnerships to deliver on the potential that offshore wind presents in the coming years particularly those that present via our ports and harbours.

Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) will continue to be delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of the Scottish Government, which Parliament were informed of in February 2019. Consultation and survey responses indicated that replacing Severe Disablement Allowance, which has been closed to new applicants since 2001, would cause unnecessary disruption to the approximately 1300 clients in Scotland who continue to receive it.

Safety and security on our railways is reserved to UK Government and as such it would be inappropriate for me to comment on resourcing or operational plans for British Transport Police. However I have asked my officials to request BTP (D-Division Scotland) contact you directly to advise of its current and future plans to tackle anti-social behaviour on our rail network.

There is currently a shortage of drivers for bus and lorries due to the COVID pandemic, creating a backlog in processing applications and testing which is being compounded by the consequences of BREXIT, as it prevents people from the EU coming here to work freely. We have repeatedly sought a formal role in determining what occupations are in shortage in the devolved nations, but the UK Government has denied this. As such, bus drivers are not included in the Shortage Occupations List (SOL). I understand that the UK Government will be reviewing this later this year and we have asked for full involvement in that process.

The problem is clearly causing issues for local and national bus services across Scotland. To address the workplace issues, my officials are working with bus operators and our partners across the public sector to promote the bus sector as a place to work while recognising that many of the levers are reserved to the UK Government. We have provided up to £210 million in funding to support bus services during the pandemic and an additional £40 million to support recovery this year. My predecessor also wrote to the UK Government about the consequences of the delays affecting the recruitment and training of potential drivers, which continues to be a concern for the bus industry.

I know that the majority of bus services in Scotland are operated on a commercial basis by private bus companies. But I would strongly encourage operators and local authorities to work together to ensure that connectivity is protected and maintained.

There have been two Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) specialised committee meetings so far this year:

• The Specialised Committee on Energy, on 30 March 2022
• The Specialised Committee on Fisheries, on 27 April 2022

Scottish Government officials accepted invitations as observers to these meetings from the UK delegation.

In 2021 Scottish Government officials accepted invitations, from the UK delegation, as observers to 18 TCA specialised committee meetings:

• Social Security Coordination, on 6t July
• Fisheries, on 20 July
• Energy, on 14 July
• Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, on 22-23 September
• Customs Cooperation and Rules of Origin, on 7 October
• Trade in Goods, on 8 October
• Services, Investment and Digital Trade, on 11 October
• Level Playing Field for Open and Fair Competition and Sustainable Development, on 12 October
• Regulatory Cooperation, on 13 October
• Air Transport, on 14 October
• Technical Barriers to Trade, on 15 October
• Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation, on 19 October
• Fisheries, on 27 October
• Trade Partnership Committee, on 15 November
• Aviation Safety, on 23 November
• Road Transport, on 24 November
• VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties, on 15 December
• Participation in Union Programmes, on 21 December

There were a further two TCA specialised committee meetings during 2021 that Scottish Government officials did not observe:

• Public Procurement, on 12 October
•  Intellectual Property, on 13 October