³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Despite Scotland voting to remain in the European Union, EU citizens are being forced to apply to retain their basic rights. This Government is supporting EU citizens through the . Our has relaunched and includes adverts on radio and in local newspapers, helping to reach those not online. Officials have engaged with a wide range of organisations, including religious organisations, parent groups, unions and prisons, to raise awareness. We have worked closely with local authorities and care providers, including funding a caseworker at COSLA and placed a particular focus on vulnerable groups such as the elderly, looked-after children and the homeless. We also deliver an , with Citizens’ Advice Scotland, to support EU citizens applying for settlement.

The governance applied to the Marine Fund Scotland will deliver on the Future of Fisheries Management policy document published last December. This will provide a clear framework to manage fisheries, balancing environmental, social and economic interests, adopting an ecosystems approach to fishing which follows the science.

This approach will ensure that all sea fisheries catching activity is in balance with the available opportunity in the exploitation of wild fisheries stocks. In addition, scallop dredge fishing activity is also controlled by other measures such as the limited availability of licence entitlements which have been capped following the removal by Marine Scotland of latent unused licences ensuring there is no increase in scallop dredge capacity.

Scottish Government funding for the OGTC as part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal was set out in 2016 in tripartite agreement with regional partners and UK Government. There are no plans to review the terms of the Deal within the current Parliamentary session.

The stated purpose of the OGTC is to support the oil and gas industry to develop and deploy technology to accelerate the transition to an affordable net zero North Sea.

The Oil and Gas industry is a significant component of Scotland’s economy and remains an important player in ensuring energy security for Scotland and the UK . It can contribute to a sustainable, secure and just and inclusive energy transition, ensuring that a green recovery and a just transition is created that supports good green jobs, skills and expertise and critically leaves no-one behind.

The aim of the Scottish Government’s annual £10 million International Development Fund (IDF) is to support and empower our partner countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and Pakistan. The COVID-19 Pandemic has greatly impacted our programme over the past year. On 01 September 2020, the Programme for Government set out our intention to review our approach to International Development to ensure that we were focusing our work on areas where we could make the biggest contribution and difference in our partner countries against the backdrop of the Pandemic, further information on the Review can be found here ( ). In December 2020 the Scottish Government provided £2 million of funding to UNICEF for their response to the Pandemic in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia ( ).

We have also tried to mitigate the effects of the Covid Pandemic on our project partners by making available total funding of £991,594 from the IDF and Humanitarian Emergency Fund where we were able to do so. In terms of other support, Scotland is sending life-saving oxygen and ventilation equipment to India ( 100 oxygen concentrators and 40 continuous positive airway pressure ((CPAP) ventilators ) as part of a UK-wide effort to support them in the fight against COVID-19.

We have also committed to not only maintain, but in fact increasing our International Development budget by 50%, to £15 million, which is intended to assist with Covid preparedness in our partner countries. This is in contrast to the UK Government's ODA funding being cut from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5% of GNI which will have such disastrous effects on the world's most marginalised and vulnerable communities at a time of great need.

The Scottish Government is keen to encourage wide-ranging and inclusive dialogue on this subject, particularly concerning how to best manage and present elements of our contested or hidden heritage. While local authorities are responsible for public statues, reflecting their accountability to local residents, the Scottish Government will continue to champion a fresh consideration of how we understand and present Scotland’s history to ensure the full story is told. We are aware of City of Edinburgh Council's ongoing review and would encourage all local authorities to consider similar action.

The Scottish Government recognises Scotland’s part in historic injustices like the transatlantic slave trade and Empire and is determined to acknowledge and learn from the our past. Recent activity includes our partnership with Museums Galleries Scotland alongside race equality and museum sector stakeholders to identify ways to reinterpret aspects of Scotland’s hidden or contested heritage to present a more accurate, complete picture of the past. This includes a commitment to establish a museum to address Scotland’s historical links to the slave trade, alongside celebrating the many and varied positive contributions that minority ethnic communities have made and continue to make to Scotland.

The Scottish Government has committed to promote and support the teaching of Black and Minority Ethnic history and the importance of tackling racism in society today. As part of a programme of work on Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education, the teaching of Scotland’s colonial history in schools - and how it, and anti-racism education, can be better delivered as part of the curriculum - is a core focus. We are working with the race equality sector, education practitioners and young people to consider how best to address this commitment.

In addition, during the last year, we reviewed our approach to international development and announced the outcomes in March this year. Our new Principles – co-developed with input from civil society and academics in our partner countries and Scotland – will lie at the heart of how Scotland seeks to set an example in addressing the issue of systematic racism and inequality in international development. As part of this, discussions have focussed on how to support a shift in power to partner countries, towards increased localisation of development.

The Scottish Government has engaged with the UK Government throughout the Events Research Programme. We await the final report of Phase 1 of the Programme and will consider the evidence contained in it to help inform our route ahead, including for live music settings.

Meantime, the Scottish Government is reviewing physical distancing and an announcement of the outcome of this review is due shortly.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work with Creative Scotland to ensure that further rounds of the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund and the Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund can launch as soon as possible and that awards are made swiftly. The schemes launched on 10 June, with the first payments being made in early July. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy announced on 2 June that the budget for these funds will be £25 million.

No decisions have yet been made on the allocation of the remainder of the expected £40 million culture consequentials, because this funding has not yet been confirmed fully by the UK Government. However, the Scottish Government is continuing to engage with businesses within the Creative Industries and wider cultural sector, meeting regularly with stakeholders from all parts of the culture sector, to understand their challenges with a view to ensuring that further funding is as effective as possible.

The creative industries, culture and arts sectors have been among some of the hardest hit by the pandemic and will continue to face difficult issues as restrictions ease. The Scottish Government has provided more than £140 million of additional funding for culture and heritage since the start of the pandemic and we are absolutely committed to working with the sector to ensure we deliver a cultural recovery.

The Scottish Government currently have no plans to legislate in relation to whiplash injury claims, however, through dialogue with the Ministry of Justice, we will monitor the impact of the provisions recently commenced in England and Wales and keep the issue under review.

It is not possible to retrieve all carcasses in suspected predation incidents as sea eagles generally take prey back to their nests.

Between 2015 and 2019, 12 lamb carcasses were sent by NatureScot for post-mortem analysis by Scotland’s Rural College vets in Inverness, of those 6 were found to likely have been predated by either sea or golden eagles. Further details of the analysis can be found on NatureScot’s website at .

In recent years NatureScot has moved away from a policy of verifying individual predation incidents as it is accepted, as a result of a range of evidence from different sources, that sea eagles can predate lambs and attack adult sheep.

One of the new measures included in the revised SEMS is enhanced shepherding which aims to provide more detailed information on WTE interactions with sheep flocks to be recorded and reported back to NatureScot from the shepherded areas, as well as providing a scaring element through the additional presence of shepherds on areas of the hill. NatureScot published its Summary Report on Enhanced Shepherding in 2020:

The Scottish Government is supporting the commitment set out by Sandy Begbie, that every young person aged between 16 and 24 in Scotland will be guaranteed either the opportunity to study at university or college, take part in an apprenticeship programme, take up a job or work experience, or participate in a formal volunteering or training programme according to their own personal circumstances.

We are committed to offering support to every young person who requires it. In addition, as per our response to question S5W-33395 on 2 December 2020, due to the uncertainties regarding the labour market, impact of Brexit and the furlough scheme we have not set targets for the Guarantee. Details on the number of opportunities created through the initial funding has been made available in response to questions S6W-00024 on 25 May 2021 and S5W-34612 on 1 February 2021.

As restrictions begin to ease, we will continue to work closely with our delivery partners to maximise the number of young people being supported into opportunities and to enable partners to respond flexibly to meet the needs of young people during this challenging time. The duration and level of support required by young people to access and sustain their employment will depend on their needs.

Our initial activity plan published in November 2020, sets out the steps we are taking to progress the Guarantee. Our equality action plan also details specific activities we are completing to ensure young people from all backgrounds are able to access the Guarantee.

We are also considering progress made on each of Sandy Begbie's initial recommendations for the Young Person's Guarantee, and will produce a report to set out this progress and the future priorities for the Guarantee in Autumn 2021.

We detailed our commitment to producing a detailed Measurement and Evaluation Framework in response to questions S5W-35911 on 24 March 2021 and S5W-34614 on 1 February 2021. As part of this process we are developing a set of Key Performance Indicators that will help us understand the cumulative impact of the Guarantee. These are due to be finalised in Summer 2021.

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