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Following the publication of the Rail Services Decarbonisation Plan, Transport Scotland is working in partnership with developers of hydrogen fuel cell trains to accelerate fleet development within the wider Scottish Government objectives for Hydrogen powered Transport.

We have committed £3.5 million to deliver phase 2 of the zero emission train project which has already begun at Bo’ness. This will see a hydrogen fuel cell train converted in Scotland and develop a local supply chain to support longer term zero emission fleets introduction.

We recognise that globally, as well as here in Scotland, the aviation industry faces one of the longest recovery periods given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on route networks. Which is why we have proposed to extend the 100% non-domestic rates relief for the aviation sector for another year (2021-22).

We will continue to work with the aviation industry to identify appropriate support packages to mitigate the impacts of Covid on international travel.

We are investing significantly in communities that face disadvantage. For example, last year more than £1.96 billion was spent in targeting support at low-income households, including over £672 million to support low income families with children.

We have committed to establishing a new Place Based Investment Programme which will be backed with £275 million capital over the next five years, supporting community regeneration, place, town centres, and 20 minute neighbourhoods ambitions right across Scotland. These plans include the continued delivery of the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund to which we recently announced a further £25 million worth of investment in 2021-22, including support for two new community regeneration projects in Greenock town centre.

We are also supporting investment through the £500 million Glasgow city region growth deal, in which Inverclyde Council is a full partner.

The Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Schemes have made over £7.3 million available to Inverclyde Council across the Parliamentary term. This funding has allowed over 900 homes in fuel poor areas to benefit from energy efficiency upgrades.

In addition, we have made more than £26 million available to Inverclyde Council through the attainment Scotland fund, of which £6 million is available this year.

In 2021-22, Inverclyde Council will receive a total funding package of £188.6 million to support local services, which includes an extra £4.3 million to support vital day to day services, equivalent to an increase of 2.4% compared to 2020-21. The day to day service funding includes £1.2 million to compensate the council should they choose to freeze council tax levels, helping to protect households. Inverclyde Council will also receive their share of the £259 million in 2021-22 to support COVID-19 pressures, which they will be able to spend as they see fit for the maximum benefit of their community.

SIMD data is a helpful tool that supports us to target resources across the public sector, and we will continue to work in partnership with local government and others to support work to reduce inequality and the regeneration of towns and cities.

We already know that the university sector in Scotland has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation remains dynamic, evolving as time goes on and the Scottish Funding Council will continue to monitor the position in order to present up-to-date sector information to Scottish Government, universities and the wider public. The most recent analysis (January 2021) suggests that the position is improving, with a forecast operating deficit for universities for Academic Year 2020-21 of round £50m compared to initial analysis in May 2020 of a forecasting operating deficit of between £384m and £651m.

Throughout the pandemic we have worked closely with our universities and their representative body, Universities Scotland, other stakeholders including trade and student unions and through the Further and Higher Education Covid-19 Ministerial Leadership Group, to build an understanding of both the immediate and longer term impact across teaching, research, staff and student issues. We have sought to act quickly and decisively to ensure universities are supported. The result of this is that our Higher institutions will receive over £100 million in additional financial support directly related to Covid from the Scottish Government across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years.

We have also engaged regularly with the Scottish Funding Council and via the review commissioned by the Minster for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, will continue to explore future funding models and options for our university sector that will ensure they are viable and sustainable in the long-term. The outputs of the review will form an important part of the Government’s thinking on the future strategy for tertiary education and university research in Scotland as we look to our Universities to be at the heart of recovery, and seek to emerge from this crisis even stronger.

The Scottish Government intends to collect the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels data in June this year, as planned. This will be subject to ongoing suppression of the virus to enable all pupils in P1, P4, P7, and S3 to attend school. The data will provide helpful information on the impact that COVID-19 has had on attainment and the equity gap.

The Scottish Government’s dedicated resilience operation monitors weather and flood alerts all year round. It can be activated in advance of severe weather and ensures Ministers are kept fully updated on any developing issues.

This operation also works closely with Scotland’s network of Resilience Partnerships, which bring together emergency services, local authorities, health boards, power companies and others, as well as Transport Scotland, to ensure that we understand any challenges happening on the ground and could offer support and guidance wherever necessary.

This process enables strong and decisive management of any challenging situation, and ensures that practical public safety guidance is issued as required.

The protocols for each Covid-19 vaccine have been communicated to healthcare officials but an official date of publication has not yet been confirmed.

Local authorities have already recruited more than 1,400 additional teachers and over 200 support staff this year with the additional funding provided by the Scottish Government.

In addition, a further package of £45 million of new funding was announced in January to support the delivery of remote learning. This funding is sufficient to employ an additional 2,000 teachers during this financial year, and a further £25 million has been made available to local authorities to support this to the end of the school year. To ensure that local authorities and schools can recruit the staff they need most to support our children and young people depending on local circumstances, the new funding can be used flexibly by local authorities to recruit teachers, classroom assistants, administrative staff, home/school link workers or other support workers who are vital to education recovery.

This money is additional to the £160m that we have already committed for education recovery since the start of the pandemic.

Performance information for the Ardrossan – Brodick route is available in the public domain and accessible on the CalMac website by following the link: .