The Scottish Government is providing an initial £490 million of capital in the form of Financial Transactions through the £150 million Building Scotland Fund (over 2018-21) and a further £340 million (over 2019-21) for other pre-cursor Bank investments. These commitments were announced in the 2018-19 draft budget. Further capitalisation of the Bank will be made from future Scottish budgets.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-23167 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W -23163 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Policy Memorandum set out that: “The Bank will lend solely to the private sector” and that: “It will not lend to public institutions including local authorities, government agencies or arms-length bodies.” In this context we have used ‘private’ to refer to sectors out with the public sector. The Bank will be able to provide financial assistance for commercial activities, which may be carried out by a range of bodies such as social enterprises, those in the third sector and cooperatives, as well as other types of body or organisation in the private sector. See also the answer to question S5W-23167 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In referring to “financial assistance to commercial activities” the Equality Impact Assessment is in turn referring to Section 2(1) of the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill and that section mirrors what is provided for in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998. In this context “Commercial” refers to business activities that are profit-making or aim to be profit-making, carried out by business associations of various types, that the Bank may be interested in providing financial assistance to.

The draft implementation plan was published as part of the Scottish Government’s correspondence with the Justice Committee during the consideration of the Bill. This is available at https://www.parliament.scot/S5_JusticeCommittee/Inquiries/J-S5-18-VW-31A-SG.pdf .

This plan will be reviewed and updated by the Scottish Government, working closely with our justice sector partners, on a regular basis.

The power in the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Bill to extend the new rule requiring the pre-recording of evidence, and the related draft implementation timetable, covers extension to adult deemed vulnerable witnesses (covering victims of sexual offences, domestic abuse, stalking and trafficking offences) in solemn cases.

Extending further to all vulnerable witnesses was considered during the Bill process but it was not progressed as the proposals already presented an ambitious programme of reform. The pre-recording of evidence of people to whom the new rule does not apply continues to be available and can be considered on a case by case basis.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a fair and effective justice system that is accessible to all. We recognise that people with learning disabilities may require additional support to enable them to secure that access, and that it is vital to involve them and their representative organisations in work to develop policies relating to this support.

This is demonstrated by our approach to the development of a new statutory Appropriate Adult (AA) service, which will provide support to vulnerable victims, witnesses, suspects and accused, and is scheduled to go live later this year. We have engaged with a number of organisations, including the SOLD Network, People First Scotland and the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability to help us develop the statutory service.

We held workshops where people with lived experience of learning disabilities and mental health issues could learn more about the proposals, provide feedback and make suggestions about the model. Our public consultation on the statutory AA service also sought ideas on how best to obtain the views of those accessing the service and we received a range of responses which are being considered in relation to the quality assessment of the service.

The engagement outlined above provides a strong foundation for any future consultation on measures to ensure that people with learning disabilities have fair and equal access to justice.

UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax forms are returned on a company-by-company basis, with one tax return for all their business in the UK. There is therefore no historic data on APD receipts or passengers paying APD in Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) produces an illustrative forecast of Scotland's share of UK APD revenues.This uses Civil Aviation Authority departing passenger survey data and UK GDP growth and inflation forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility to estimate the number of passengers exempt from the tax and to calculate the tax paid by the remaining chargeable passengers.

The most recent illustrative forecast was set out in the SFC’s December 2018 Scotland's Economic and Fiscal Forecasts (Table 3.43 - p149) : http://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2018/ .

Note that the 2017-16 Figure for APD is not classed as outturn data, it is an estimate of the Scottish share of tax receipts.

Updated forecasts are due to be published on 30 May 2019.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Responsibility for maintaining the Council Tax valuation list in Scotland rests with individual local Scottish Assessors – in this case Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute Valuation Joint Board.