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The Scottish Government does not hold statistics on incidents or crimes of animal theft. The data we receive from Police Scotland is a count of the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, split by local authority, and the number cleared up by the police. The Scottish Government does not receive further details on the characteristics of these crimes. This means we are unable to identify how many reported thefts involved animals being stolen.

In 2019, we introduced a uniform approach to recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools, supported by guidance. All local authorities and schools are expected to be using the new approach.

It is the responsibility of school staff and local authorities to decide how to address bullying in their schools. We expect that all local authorities have an anti-bullying policy that covers all of their schools and each school should develop and implement an anti-bullying policy in line with this. The policy should indicate how incidents will be dealt with and recorded.

Therefore, this information would need to be requested from each local authority directly.

The Scottish Government recognises that physical bank branches provide an important service for many individuals and businesses across Scotland. The closing of branches in Scotland raises concerns around access to cash and banking services - particularly for rural communities, vulnerable individuals and digitally excluded customers

I engage regularly with the banking sector through bilateral ministerial meetings and the Financial Services Growth and Development Board, engagements in which concerns around the ability for consumers to access cash and banking services are raised. Following the Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announcement in March to shut 19 Bank of Scotland branches, I met with LBG representatives to discuss their decision and Governments concerns on the potential impacts on affected communities.

The responsibility for the regulation of the financial services industry is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene in the commercial decisions made by banks. HM Treasury announced their intention last year to legislate on “access to cash” and in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022, “ensuring continued access to cash across the UK” is referenced as an intended outcome of the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

The Scottish Government is ready to work constructively with the UK Government on this matter to ensure that Scotland’s communities have fair access to convenient, local cash and banking services.

We recognise the importance of upgrading the energy efficiency of homes in order to make them more affordable to heat. Regulation of energy efficiency in the social housing sector has already ensured that it has the most energy efficient housing stock of any tenure, and this will continue to improve as the sector works to comply with EESSH2. This requires that all social housing meets, or can be treated as meeting, EPC Band B (Energy Efficiency rating), or is as energy efficient as practically possible, by the end of December 2032, within the limits of cost, technology and necessary consent.

In addition our Social Housing Net Zero Head Fund is making at least £200 million available to registered social landlords to help install zero emission heating systems and improve energy efficiency in social housing during this parliamentary session.

We also recognise that social housing tenants are more likely to experience fuel poverty than the general population. That is why we have been working in partnership with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to ensure a proportion of our Fuel Insecurity Fund can be distributed through social landlords directly to their tenants who are struggling with their energy bills. £4.4 million has been delivered in this way since 2020-21 and we have recently allocated a further £10 million to the Fuel Insecurity Fund to allow it to continue during the current financial year.

The Scottish Government’s annual report on our Vision for Trade recognised the widespread concerns about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in free trade agreements (FTAs). We have consistently called on the UK Government to ensure that any ISDS mechanism does not prevent Scotland and the rest of the UK from regulating on health, social, environmental and economic matters.

Any ISDS system must be transparent, based on judicial procedures, and permit meaningful representations by all parties with a potential stake in the matter. Provisions in this area have the potential to impact Scotland significantly, limit the ability of the Scottish Parliament to regulate in devolved areas and constrain action to achieve our net-zero goal.

We have made our position on the inclusion of ISDS in UK accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) clear to the UK Government, through ministerial and official contact.

The annual report on Scotland’s Vision for Trade can be accessed here: Scotland's Vision for Trade: annual report - March 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government Officials are in contact with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy about the current Energy Charter Treaty negotiations with a view to identifying any impact on Scotland .

The Scottish Government’s annual report on our Vision for Trade recognised the widespread concerns about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in free trade agreements (FTAs). We have consistently called on the UK Government to ensure that any ISDS mechanism does not prevent Scotland and the rest of the UK from regulating on health, social, environmental and economic matters.

Any ISDS system must be transparent, based on judicial procedures, and permit meaningful representations by all parties with a potential stake in the matter. Provisions in this area have the potential to impact Scotland significantly, limit the ability of the Scottish Parliament to regulate in devolved areas and constrain action to achieve our net-zero goal.

The annual report on Scotland’s Vision for Trade can be accessed here: Scotland's Vision for Trade: annual report - March 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This information is not available in the form requested.

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) explores the physical condition of Scotland’s homes as well as the experiences of householders. Data from the SHCS provides estimates of the main heating fuel used and method of central heating across the housing stock at national level, based on a single year of data. Due to sample sizes, analysis at the local authority level requires three years of data averaged to produce an overall figure. Due to the impact of Covid–19 the 2020 SHCS was postponed and there was no 2020 SHCS publication, therefore the most recent local authority data set is from 2017 to 2019. Additionally, due to sample sizes and low prevalence, it is not possible to produce robust local authority level estimates of all the above heating fuels and methods of central heating distinctly. As such heating fuels have been grouped into 4 categories: Gas, Oil, Electricity, and Other which mirrors the groups used in the SHCS annual publication while the percentage of dwellings which have heat pumps or are part of communal heating are given at the national level only.

Percentage of dwellings by Local Authority by primary heating fuel

Average 2017-2019.

During the Cabinet meeting of 24 August 2015, the First Minister was informed that a preferred bidder had been selected for vessels 801 and 802.

Since the contract award in 2015, the First Minister announced the preferred bidder status of Ferguson Marine on 31 August 2015, met with Jim McColl on 31 May 2017 and attended the launch of 801 on 21 November 2017.

15 of the 16 Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID) Area Offices are currently open for face to face appointments. The exception is the Area Office based in Galashiels, which is currently closed due to building works. The RPID Area Offices have other customer support offers including phone calls, MS Teams calls, web chat or emails. Officials in Galashiels have also offered, in a very small number of specific of cases, to support the customer face to face in a location outwith the Galashiels Area Office.