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The war in Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the global food system and the impacts are being felt by producers and consumers in Scotland. This has compounded the challenging operating environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit.

I committed to support active farming and food production with direct payments - which provides certainty to the industry - and we delivered 2021 Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) payments to schedule with over £564 million issued to date. In addition, this year, to support farmers with the cost of living, the Scottish Government has brought forward the advance payment start date to as early in the year as is practicably possible. The intention is to support businesses, as far as possible, with immediate cash flow challenges.

The Scottish Government is also monitoring the impacts of energy prices and other input costs on agriculture, fisheries and food sectors. For example, in March, we set up the Short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce jointly with industry to monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to food security and supply, as a result of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Its report was published in June 2022: .

The First Minister has issued a letter to the Prime Minister calling for an emergency meeting of the 4 Nations’ Heads of Government Council and has convened the Scottish Government Resilience Committee, which will now meet weekly. However, it remains the case that the powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. Scottish Ministers have repeatedly called for the UK Government to urgently take further, tangible action.

The Fair Fares Review was established to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares as we recover from the pandemic.

The review is being undertaken in a phased approach, to enable options to be considered and announced/ trialled or delivered throughout the course of the review. I expect interim options to be presented by Transport Scotland this year, given the cost of living crisis. The full review will conclude in early 2023.

The majority of private investment relationships are entered into, and managed, by Scottish Government agencies and NDPBs.

Investment relationships not managed by public bodies are overseen by the core Scottish Government. The officials responsible will vary depending on the policy area an investment sits under. It is for the accountable officer to ensure that their area complies with guidance issued by Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts also include a complete list of all nationalised companies where Scottish Ministers are the sole shareholder as well as providing information on other organisations and companies where the Scottish Ministers have an interest. The accounts are published on an annual basis with the most recent set of accounts covering the 2020-21 financial year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09230 on 11 July 2022, the Scottish Government does not maintain a record of the number checks undertaken using the Guidance on due diligence: human rights. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09230 on 11 July 2022. The Scottish Government does not maintain a record of the number checks undertaken using the Guidance on due diligence: human rights. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

We continue to carefully consider the report and recommendations made by the previous Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee as regards regional marine planning and are working to finalise our formal response, which will be published this Autumn.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information however the Scottish Legal Aid Board does record applications for legal aid in Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act (DASA) 2018 cases applied where Section 22(1)(dd) of the Legal Aid Act (Person accused of certain offences) applies.

This classification does not specify the circumstances of the grant, only that the grant was made. Therefore it cannot be determined from the data below what ratio of those applications came from court appointed solicitors. This designation under section 22(1)(dd) is also not exclusive to DASA cases but is also applicable to all cases where an accused cannot represent themselves i.e. cases involving sexual offences, child witnesses, vulnerable witnesses, Abuse Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016, and trials in absence.

The annual figures for all section 22 (1)(dd) cases are as follows:

The Scottish Government is providing over £30 million this financial year to accelerate the shift to zero emission transport. This includes support for zero emission community transport and car clubs in addition to funding interest free loans for electric vehicles. This approach is designed to support more people and households on lower incomes to make the switch to electric.

In January we also announced a new fund that would enable £60 million investment in the public charging network over the next four years, anticipating over half of this investment will come from the private sector. The fund aims to ensure the right level of investment in public charge points across all of Scotland, including in settings, where lower demand for electric vehicle charging means that there is less opportunity for commercial investment.

The Scottish Government has allocated the following amounts to the Low Carbon Transport Loan from 2016 to 2022.

2016-17 £7,800,000

2017-18 £8,200,000

2018-19 £20,063,222

2019-20 £46,458,263

2020-21 £43,000,000

2021-22 £62,700,000

2022-23 £28,000,000 up to 03/08/22

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09230 on 11 July 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .