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The Scottish Government is committed to ending our contribution to climate change within a generation. Our Programme for Government sets out our aim to generate 50% of Scotland’s overall energy consumption from renewable sources, and to have decarbonised our energy system almost completely by 2050.

Our vision and roadmap for the energy sector includes a Just Transition Plan for Energy at the heart of our refreshed Energy Strategy, publishing as one coherent document in spring 2022.

On our ambitions for offshore wind, we were clear in our policy statement published in 2020, that we have an ambition of up to 11GW of offshore wind by 2030. ScotWind bids are currently being assessed by Crown Estate Scotland with results of successful bidders known in early 2022 but this will provide us with a strong pipeline of projects. From that we want to ensure that economic benefits and supply chain opportunities are seized upon in Scotland.

This is why in August, the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) published its Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) for Offshore Wind. The report has five main recommendations which are directed at both the sector and government, and the primary recommendation focusses on bringing the manufacturing of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.

I look forward to SOWEC taking forward next steps on the recommendations set out in the report.

The Scottish Government has committed to bringing Free Personal and Nursing Care rates for those self-funding residential care into line with the National Care Home Contract. We are currently consulting on this as part of the National Care Service consultation, which runs until 2 November 2021.

The M8 Woodside Viaducts are essential links in the M8 central Scotland urban motorway, vital for the economy and connectivity of Scotland. Therefore, the repair of the viaducts and removal of restrictions is high priority. A number of potential remedies were considered but the propping solution was assessed as the best option in terms of timescale and value for the public purse. The viaducts carry 150,000 vehicles per day in normal times, which would be difficult to accommodate by other routes or modes. Part of the Underline Project, an active travel corridor route from Cambridge Street to St George’s Road extending below the viaducts, has been deferred to allow the viaducts repair work to be completed. Several excavations are required in this area and it would be abortive to construct this part only for it to be disrupted by the repair works. This has been fully discussed and agreed with Glasgow City Council. On completion, the Underline project will deliver a key cross-Glasgow active travel corridor in line with the commitments given in the motion and contribute to the net zero aims of COP26.

Glasgow already benefits from an extensive rail network. With a total of 155 stations in the Glasgow City Region it is the busiest suburban rail network in Britain outside London. Therefore the focus of investment has very properly been on the development of that network, which has benefited from substantial improvements as part of the more than £9bn invested in rail infrastructure in Scotland since 2007.

These investments have included extensive electrification of routes into Glasgow and substantial new, emission free train fleets serving those routes. Glasgow Queen Street has been rebuilt and transformed, Glasgow Central capacity has benefited from an additional platform, and in 2019, a new station opened at Robroyston to provide local residents with a sustainable travel option.

Further rail enhancements, in Glasgow and more widely across the country, are planned as part of the Decarbonisation Action Plan ( ) with our future transport investment decisions directed by the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). That review will conclude this winter, with publication of recommendations for investment and will be followed by the appropriate statutory consultation period.

accines are approved through an established four nations basis framework and the current approved vaccines are those used by the NHS as part of the UK rollout, as well as those approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or from an eligible country using the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines. We do not currently accept others such as the Sinopharm vaccine at this time. This is based on clinical advice and represents a consistent approach across the four nations.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers
• an approved programme in one of the programmes found on the link below

Those who do not meet the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility criteria must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers

As with the rest of the UK, fully vaccinated travellers arriving into Scotland from non-red list countries are required to take a test no later than the end of day 2 after their arrival. Currently, the test needs to meet a minimum standard which tends to mean that a PCR test is required, although some other tests can meet the standard.

Travellers can choose to purchase a PCR test via CTM, the UK booking portal for international travel, where costs are currently £68 for a day two test and £136 for day two and eight tests, regardless of where a traveller lives in the UK. Alternatively, a traveller can book a test via one of the private providers listed on the gov.uk site. The average cost of these tests are between £55-£65 across the whole of the UK.

From 24 October, fully vaccinated travellers arriving into England from non-red list countries will be able to take a lateral flow test with photo verification for their day 2 test. This will be followed up with a confirmatory PCR test, should they receive a positive result.

We have confirmed we will align with these changes, however we have only recently received details of the proposal from the UK Government and are reviewing these prior to confirming a date for implementation.

The Strategic Board works with the enterprise and skills agencies to improve performance measurement in a number of ways:

• The Board produces its Annual Analysis to coincide with its Strategy Day. This includes a comprehensive analysis of Scotland’s performance against relevant National Performance Framework indicators. Importantly the report also includes consideration of agencies contribution to the outcomes and detail on the agencies progress on delivery of the Board’s missions.
• The Board ensure the agencies plans are aligned - with each other, with Scottish Government and Board strategic direction and with the National Performance Framework. Each of the agency operational plans now share a vision, one which supports the Strategic Board’s Plan and Scottish Government priorities. In addition, the agency operational plans now use common planning assumptions shaped by common economic analysis as well as making clear how agency activity supports the outcomes of the National Performance Framework.
• Additionally, the Board has overseen specific analytical work to help improve performance measurement in relation to key areas of agency activity. The Board’s work on Innovation (working jointly with the Analytical Unit, Scottish Government and agencies) has identified a number of specific cross-agency actions to improve the monitoring and evaluation of activity – including developing consistent approaches and addressing data gaps.

As with the rest of the UK, fully vaccinated travellers returning to Scotland from countries other than those on the red list are required to take a day two test regardless of the length of their trip. The risk of transmission of the virus remains regardless of how long a traveller’s trip was for.

The Scottish Government has confirmed it intends to align with the UK Government’s proposals to relax the required standard of the day two testing.

Details on this are still being finalised and we will continue to engage with the UK Government ahead of confirmation.

Until these changes are confirmed, fully vaccinated travellers returning from countries that are not on the red list will be required to purchase a PCR test via CTM, the UK booking portal for international travel or from one of the private providers listed on the gov.uk website.

Inbound international travel restrictions were eased across the four nations on 4 October. These changes mean that people who have received two doses of different vaccines are regarded as having completed a full course of the vaccine and therefore are treated as ‘fully vaccinated’ for travel purposes. This applies to people who have been vaccinated by accepted vaccines in countries that are already eligible under the vaccinated traveller policy.

Travellers from non-red list countries who have been fully vaccinated in a country that meets recognised standards of certifications will no longer be required to provide evidence of a negative test result before they can travel to Scotland, and will not be required to self-isolate or take a day 8 test. They must still currently take a day 2 PCR test, though we have announced that we intend to align with the UK post-arrival testing regime later in October, with further details to be announced in due course.

Those who are not considered eligible fully vaccinated travellers must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

Further guidance for international arrivals can be read at: