The ChargePlace Scotland Single Framework Agreement between Transport Scotland and SWARCO eVolt Ltd will be published by the end of March 2022. All personal data and commercially sensitive information will be removed prior to publication.

Our geography means that air travel plays an important role in providing connectivity within Scotland and to other parts of the UK. It is particularly important to our island communities, enabling access to services and helping deliver our National Islands Plan. In addition, on some domestic routes, flying is a lower emission option than the quickest alternative.

Hydrogen/electric aircraft have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of domestic aviation and as part of our work to develop an Aviation Strategy we asked for views on how we can best work in partnership with industry to have low/zero-emission domestic air services which meet the needs of communities and help deliver sustainable economic growth. We are now in the process of analysing responses.

Mr Dey met with Heathrow Airport on the 23 September 2021 and the note of this meeting has been published in response to the freedom of information request FOI/202100255769, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100255769/

This response included a list of all the meetings, calls and correspondence between Scottish Ministers and representatives of Heathrow Airport which have taken place in 2021 until 16 November 2021.

As the Minister for Transport, I will be attending the future meetings with Heathrow Airport on the memorandum of understanding.

a) The ChargePlace Scotland Single Framework Agreement between Transport Scotland and SWARCO eVolt Ltd will be published shortly.

b) The ChargePlace Scotland Single Framework Agreement contains Key Performance Indictors (KPI), it is the KPIs which Transport Scotland use to monitor the contractor’s performance. These KPI’s have been published on the ChargePlace Scotland website and are updated monthly. The Framework Agreement describes the service levels which the contractor is expected to deliver in Schedule 1 of the document.

The Scottish Government expects to lay commencement regulations in early May 2022 that will bring into force the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021 this summer.

Yes.

We have been engaging closely with the UK Government to establish that Scottish stakeholders can provide feedback and ensure that the Turing Scheme better reflects their needs.

In Turing Scheme’s first round of application results, each nation within the UK received less funding than previously secured under Erasmus plus. This highlights the need for the Scottish Government to consider how best to offer staff and learners further opportunities for mobility exchange.

The development of a Scottish Education Exchange Programme is a Programme for Government commitment and will help maintain Scotland’s place as an outward looking, internationally connected destination for work and study.

We are engaging with stakeholders from across the education spectrum including higher and further education, community learning and development, youth work and adult education, schools and sports and are developing the programme ensuring it is fit for Scotland.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table details the (a) average occupancy (b) design capacity and (c) the occupancy rate of each prison over January 2021;

JANUARY 2021

The occupancy rate and the design capacity rates provided are the average for the calendar month.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following tables detail the (a) Average occupancy (b) Design capacity and (c) the Average occupancy rate of each prison over 2019, 2020 and 2021.

2019