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Exploring the introduction of a digital sales tax in Scotland will be progressed in line with the Scottish Government’s fiscal and tax policy making cycle and will monitor closely the UK Government’s planned forthcoming consultation on the arguments for and against an online sales tax, following the conclusion of their fundamental review of business rates this autumn.

Scottish Ministers, alongside Scottish Government officials, have been in regular contact with the UK Government to bring forward legislation to implement the Ivory Act 2018 later this winter. The ban is then expected to come into force in Spring 2022.

The Scottish Government is required to obtain approval from the Scottish Parliament to proceed with proposals by Scottish Ministers to consent to the making of UK secondary legislation affecting devolved areas. I wrote to the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee in September with notification of our intent to proceed with this secondary legislation. Formal consent to proceed with the legislation is then possible, once the Committee has given it due consideration.

The following table below shows the number of directly employed staff on Fixed-Term appointment contracts at 30 June 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, broken down by Directorate. 30 June has been selected for consistency with PQ S6W-03819 on 8 November 2021 which contains 30 June 2021 data.

The following table shows the number of directly employed staff on Fixed-Term appointment contracts at 30 June 2021, broken down by Directorate. These are our most recently published data.

For Bands A-C (junior to middle management grades) the Scottish Government does not use external recruitment agencies to fill temporary or permanent posts where the worker is employed by SG directly. At senor civil service level recruitment agencies are sometimes used to identify potential candidates for such roles.

The table provides this information for temporary and permanent employed roles in the senior civil service from 2018 onwards broken down by recruitment agency.

Once the Clyde 2020 initiative’s remit is agreed then the appropriate level of financial and administrative support will be identified along with the associated timeframe for this support.

The Clyde 2020 initiative has brought together both scientific research and practical measures to improve the marine ecosystem of the Clyde. It has achieved a range of outputs and outcomes since 2014, for example to improve the public and stakeholder understanding of current scientific evidence in the form of a Layman’s Guide, analysed scientific outputs from assessments and their impacts, and operated as a sub-group of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership to provide scientific advice and input to the process of developing a regional marine plan for the Clyde marine region.

We are aware that bus operators are reporting increasing shortages of bus drivers which is affecting bus services in some areas. These shortages are linked to wider workforce pressures such as high demand for drivers in the HGV and other sectors as well as ongoing staff sickness due to COVID-19. We are working with the industry to monitor the impact on service levels and officials are also in regular contact with the Department for Transport to identify and address issues delaying licence applications and driver testing which is a reserved matter. We continue to support operators to run services despite continuing reduced demand due to the pandemic with up to £210 million in additional funding being made available since June 2020.

The Clyde 2020 initiative is currently considering their remit moving forward. As a sub-group of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership, the partnership are drafting a proposal on how Clyde 2020 will evolve, contribute and support the Clyde marine planning process. It is anticipated that the Clyde 2020 group will play an important role in the future governance of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership.

The UK Government is responsible for determining which airline or country is allowed to operate flights into the UK and there is no role for the Scottish Government in approving any flights.