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Neither the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Social Care, nor Scottish Government officials have engaged with ServiceNow. NHS National Services Scotland are responsible for the development and operational performance of the Service Now platform which is used as part of the overall digital solution for Covid Vaccinations, and it is for NHS National Services Scotland to manage the performance of their suppliers.

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 as Scotland emerges from the Covid-19 restrictions. The viaducts carry 150,000 vehicles per day in normal times, which would be difficult to accommodate by other routes or modes. As a result, there are no engineering or urban planning options currently being considered as an alternative to the structural repair of the viaducts. Two lanes of traffic will be maintained in both directions and we will work with operational partners to maximise traffic flows through the site, managing impacts on the M8 and adjacent local roads.

We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the additional support that they need to reach their full learning potential.

We published our joint response to the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning in October 2020. Angela Morgan’s report sets a clear direction in how we can continue to build on progress in this area. The joint action plan sets out the measures we will take to implement her recommendations. The action plan and governance arrangements for this work are available from .

The Kinlochleven hydro-electric power station was built specifically to power the Kinlochleven Aluminium Smelter. Since the smelter closed in 2000 all the electrical power produced at Kinlochleven has been exported to the national grid and no power is dispatched to the Fort William smelter directly. The Kinlochleven power station has no connection to the Scottish Government’s Lochaber guarantee and the Kinlochleven power generation assets are not included within the Government’s Lochaber security package.

We continue to analyse a number of options around signalisation and prohibition of movements in order to understand the wider impacts of this on the surrounding local and trunk road network. This is a complex task, which aims to balance the need to reduce conflict at this location along with minimising any reduction in operational performance of the A702 corridor.

We have commissioned specialist traffic modelling consultants to carry out a detailed modelling exercise to assess the effectiveness of different junction option scenarios including road closures/banned turning movements in conjunction with new traffic signal arrangements. This detailed modelling exercise is currently ongoing and is expected that this work will be concluded in summer 2021.

The Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) are required, by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, to produce a transport strategy for their area. The Act sets out what the strategy should cover, including the future needs of the region and what can be achieved taking account of funding and practicability. The Act also requires regional transport strategies to have regard to the National Transport Strategy produced by the Scottish Ministers.

Scotland’s second National Transport Strategy was published in February 2020 and sets out an ambitious vision for or Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years. The Strategy sets out the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy to inform future investment decisions and ensure transport options that focus on reducing inequalities and the need to travel unsustainably are prioritised. The Strategy also embeds the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy into decision making, by promoting walking, wheeling, cycling, public transport and shared options in preference to single occupancy private car use. We are aware that the RTPs are at varying stages of development in producing new strategies for their region. The regional transport strategies are approved by the Scottish Ministers before they can come into effect.

Regional Transport Partnerships work with Local Authorities and others stakeholders across their areas to input into infrastructure investment plans, for example through Growth Deals. They are also engaged in the Scottish Government’s second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) through Regional Transport Working Groups. They have provided valuable input and evidence to the Review which will to help inform strategic transport investment in Scotland for the next 20 years.

Despite the Scottish Government being ready to launch, the UK Government has yet to agree to a joint bidding process for implementation of the green port model in Scotland. However, in the draft applicant prospectus published on the Scottish Government website on 18 March 2021 we made it clear that we would welcome bids from applicants or multi-applicant partnerships. This would include joint bids from trust ports.

To support delivery of the National Infrastructure Mission, in early 2019 Scottish Ministers established an independent, short-life, Infrastructure Commission to examine and advise on the right vision, ambition and priorities for infrastructure in Scotland to meet our 30-year economic growth and societal needs. The Commission published two reports during 2020, which are available online at:

The Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26 was published on 4 th February 2021. It recognised the value of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland’s expertise and insight to the discussion on how we develop our long-term infrastructure strategy. The Plan also committed to giving further consideration to the most appropriate approach to Scottish Minister’s receiving independent advice to set longer term priorities. We will set out further details of the steps we will take to explore this later this year.

The following data is based on an HGV being defined as a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes:

For A77 trunk road (from south of M77 Junction 8 to junction with A75 at Stranraer)

Work on a planned public energy company was halted during the pandemic. As set out in the SNP manifesto, Ministers will now focus government efforts on a new dedicated national public energy agency. This will coordinate and accelerate delivery of heat and energy efficiency work, inform and educate the public on the changes required, provide expert advice to national and local government, and work with public, private and third sector partners to deliver this transformative national project. Further details will be set out to Parliament in due course.