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The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that high quality, person centred bereavement care and support is available for those who need it. It is important to reflect that each individual and family’s experience of bereavement is unique as are their support requirements. That is why we undertake a broad range of work to improve the bereavement care and support available for those who need it, particularly at this difficult time.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has funded Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to provide support to individuals and families who have been bereaved. This Fund has been extended to end March 2022 to provide greater stability to organisations and we will announce in due course plans for funding the third sector from April 2022.

In 2020 we awarded a contract to Includem to establish a Scottish childhood bereavement co-ordinator who will ensure effective provision of bereavement support and care for children and young people.

Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, published in October 2020, sets out a number of commitments to support the mental health of people following bereavement and we will continue to engage with providers of bereavement support, and people with lived experience, to design improvements. Through the work of our National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group we are supporting the piloting of suicide bereavement support services and pilots will launch in Highland and Ayrshire & Arran in the coming months.

We will continue to work closely with NHS Boards, Integration Authorities and third sector organisations to continually revisit our work in this area and respond to the additional needs of people and families arising from the pandemic and provide additional support where needed.

A number civil service jobs in the Scottish Government and associated Agencies and bodies are already undertaken outwith Edinburgh and Glasgow. For example, Social Security Scotland has an office in Dundee, Scottish Public Pension Agency and Accountant in Bankruptcy are based in Galashiels and Kilwinning respectively, and the Scottish Prison Service and Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service have a number of locations across Scotland.

Working from home remains the default position for the majority of Scottish Government staff during the pandemic. As noted in the Strategic Framework published on 22 June 2021, there will be a phased return to more office working from Level 0 onwards but with continued support for working from home where possible and appropriate. Once the easing of restrictions allows more staff to return to buildings, our expectation is that we will introduce a hybrid working model which will enable Scottish Government staff, where the role allows, to have more flexibility in their work location across Scotland and include a mix of home and office working.

In March 2021, the Scottish Government’s Population Strategy recognised that these changes to working norms may offer new opportunities to support civil servants who wish to live and work in locations outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow. As part of this, the Scottish Government committed to actively considering its workplace footprint and exploring the opportunities of distributing its workforce in greater detail. This work is in its early stages. However, as a first step, the Scottish Government will be piloting local hubs outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow so that staff can work at office locations closer to their home.

The Scottish Government, working with Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and other partners, developed a vision and action plan to support sustainable, green datacentres, terrestrial digital connectivity and international subsea fibre connectivity in Scotland.

Scotland’s Vision and Action Plan for Green Datacentres & Digital Connectivity was agreed by Ministers on 09 March 2021 and launched by Mr Wheelhouse at the Rural, Economy and Connectivity (REC) Committee on 17 March 2021: Green datacentres and digital connectivity: vision and action plan for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

This provides a roadmap for this important sector – considering the supply and demand for data hosting facilities across the country and in support of Scotland’s wider digital ambition.

We are in the process of setting up a Cluster Management Organisation (CMO) which will look at supporting the growth of Scottish Datacentres - enhancing links with other existing and emerging cluster groups in Scotland, for example: Scotland’s Data Cluster, Scotland’s Cyber Cluster, Technology Scotland etc.

The additional £5 million funding allocated in the 2020-21 budget has been used by Transport Scotland to support the rail decarbonisation programme which includes the work currently being undertaken to electrify the routes between Glasgow and Barrhead, and Glasgow and East Kilbride.

These enhancement projects will see the respective railway lines transformed to accommodate quieter, more environmentally friendly electric trains, whilst increasing capacity of services and improving network resilience. They will have a transformative effect on the railway and will deliver wide-ranging passenger benefits.

In addition, the funding supported the platform extensions at Milngavie, which enabled the introduction of a performance-enhancing timetable in 2020, as recommended in the Donovan Review, with the consequence that there is no longer a requirement for any additional infrastructure within the Milngavie area, though, of course, this will kept under review.

The Scottish Government is aware that issues are being raised on the minimum age to enter a marriage or civil partnership and that a Private Member’s Bill has been lodged at Westminster to increase the minimum age in England and Wales: Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

The Scottish Government will obtain more information on this issue and discuss the minimum age with key stakeholders. Before any steps were taken to raise the minimum age for entering a marriage or civil partnership in Scotland, there would need to be a full public consultation. If the member has any points she would like to discuss on the minimum age, I would be happy to meet her.

The details of the levels of active travel capital funding for the next five years will be discussed and agreed as part of the annual budget process.

Proposals to the Bus Partnership Fund were scored against the following criteria, which were published when the Fund opened on 9 November 2020:

• Evidence of congestion and ideas to reduce congestion, through improved emissions (25%)
• Partnership strength and demonstrated commitment, which will include match in kind (20%)
• Deliverability: the ability of the lead local authority and its partners to deliver the proposed developments, including local political buy-in (15%)
• bus services (40%)
• How the proposal fits with the partnership area’s overall strategy for integrated transport, to encourage a modal shift from cars to more sustainable transport and reduce

I held discussions with the Minister of State for Transport on 28 June 2021 to discuss progress with the High Speed (Crewe to Manchester) Rail Bill. This proposed phase will build on the benefits of HS2 phase 1 and 2a, bringing further reductions in journey times between Glasgow Central and London when implemented.

Now more than ever it is essential that we are well connected to the rest of Europe and the rest of the World and our ambition is to help airports restore 2019 levels of connectivity as quickly as possible. We are working with airports, including Glasgow Airport, on route recovery, to help rebuild connectivity for business and tourism once we are able to safely lift travel restrictions. This will help win back routes and employment opportunities. Transport Scotland, working in partnership with VisitScotland and SDI, has a well-established process in place to help Scotland’s airports recover routes lost as well as help secure new ones. We provide support to airlines in the form of attractive co-operative marketing packages, and also provide market intelligence and data to airlines on the potential of the Scottish market.

We have extended the 100% non-domestic rates relief for the aviation sector for another year with Glasgow Airport being one of the largest beneficiaries.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Government worked with Unite to support training for staff in the aviation sector which included support for Glasgow Airport ground staff through the National Transition Training Fund. Over 250 Glasgow staff benefitted from a range of training.

Scottish Ministers have now approved a continuation of support for this sector in 2021-22 and we are working with Unite again to agree what training will add most value to recovery of the sector and support the protection of jobs. Glasgow Airport staff will again benefit from this training offer.

The emissions pathways for Transport are set out in the Climate Change Plan update and, as with all sectors, have been determined by the TIMES model alongside other evidence and assessments.

The CCPu, published in December 2020 includes a commitment to a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030 (against a 2019 baseline). This was arrived at through consideration of a range of analysis, including published academic material and UK Committee on Climate Change assertions on mode shift away from private car use. Moreover, Transport Scotland commissioned research via consultants (Element Energy) which helped inform this. The Element Energy work modelled a number of scenarios to account for the many uncertainties between now and 2030, including the disruption to transport demand brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and including the 20% reduction.

The Element Energy research will be published in due course.