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Getting the Best From Our land: A Land Use Strategy for Scotland 2016-2020 is a cross-portfolio policy and is taken forward by a number of policy areas across the Scottish Government, using existing budgets rather than a specific budget for implementing the strategy. Decisions on whether there will be a second phase of pilot projects and on the establishment of any regional land use partnerships are still to be taken.

The Scottish Government is in discussion with a wide range of stakeholders from the veterinary profession, pet industry, animal training and animal welfare sectors with a view to bringing in tough new regulations on the use of electronic training collars for animals in this parliamentary term.

Between 8 January and 19 August, there were 2,903 separate incidences of skip-stopping reported to Transport Scotland. This is 0.6 percent of the total numbers of services planned to be run over this period (474,570 in total). A table providing a detailed listing by station is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 59042).

Through the Scottish block grant, Scottish Government will receive £221m in 2017-2018 as consequentials from the UK Apprenticeship Levy representing a per capita share for Scotland. As public sector organisations will pay an estimated £73m to the Levy in 2017-2018 its introduction has reduced public sector spending leeway in Scotland by approximately £30m. The Scottish Government has been clear that this largely replaces money previously received and will continue to be invested in skills, training and employability to meet the needs of employers, the workforce, young people and Scotland’s economy.

The Scottish Government is providing support for more Modern Apprenticeships than ever before, in line with our ambition to make available funding for 30,000 new starts per year by 2020. Employers of all sizes and across a broad range of sectors already take on Modern Apprentices as new recruits, and also recruit from existing staff, therefore upskilling their existing workforce. We are also expanding Graduate Level Apprenticeships which support the education and development of employees to acquire the skills, knowledge and competence required to work and progress in the labour market. Investment in Apprenticeship programmes in Scotland is in excess of £90m in 2017-2018.

The recently launched £10m pilot Flexible Workforce Development fund is available to levy-payers in Scotland. It is delivered through Scotland’s college sector bringing it together with industry to better support in-work training through up-skilling or re-skilling of existing employees. Establishing the new fund is in direct response to the level of employer support expressed in the consultation we undertook last year. The fund aims to address skills gaps and contribute to increased productivity.

To further support those in employment earning £22,000 or less and those not in employment to gain additional qualifications to aid their progress, we are providing £4 million per year for Individual Training Accounts to better meet the needs of people within the evolving labour market.

Employers and the workforce in Scotland are encouraged to consider how to make best use of the publicly funded package of skills, training and employability programmes available to improve performance and productivity across their workforce.

The Franchise Agreement sets contractual benchmarks to minimise instances of cancellations and part cancellations (i.e. skip stopping) to scheduled services. These benchmarks are not enforced via financial penalties, but by contractual measures to incentivise performance. Failure to meet the targets set in Schedule 7.1 (Train Operating Performance) of the Franchise Agreement can result in a contravention of the contract, which if unremedied, can ultimately lead to early termination of the Franchise Agreement.

The Heads of Terms for the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal were signed on 20 July 2017 and we will continue to work with partners to establish the details with a view to setting these out in the final Deal document. The arrangements for the Transport Appraisal Working Group and initial discussion around how the work of the group will feed in to the STPR process will be part of these more detailed discussions.

It is not possible to identify a specific number of full-time equivalent staff contributing to the delivery of Getting the Best From Our Land: A Land Use Strategy for Scotland 2016-2020. This is a cross-portfolio strategy and a wide range of officials in policy areas, such as environment, land reform, environmental quality, planning, agriculture and climate change, contribute to the delivery of the policies and proposals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10045 on 26 July 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

Scottish Ministers welcome the aims of the Hansford Review to facilitate investment and improve efficiency of infrastructure delivery, and are considering how these could apply in Scotland. We will continue to work with the rail industry in Scotland, including the ScotRail Alliance, to look at how we could deliver projects in a way which delivers high quality services for passengers and freight customers and maximises efficiency and value for money.

Around £200m of the £255m announced by the UK Government is expected to result in an increase to Whitehall departmental allocations, on which there should be Barnett Consequentials. The remaining £55m was previously announced at the 2015 UK Spending Review and is specifically for 5 English cities with air quality issues. Details of any consequentials should become clear once actual plans are detailed in the UK Autumn Budget.