The Scottish Government is a full partner in the Glasgow City Region Deal, now in its delivery stage, and is contributing £500 million over 20 years to the Infrastructure Investment Fund.

The Deal empowers Glasgow and its City Region partners, including Renfrewshire Council, to identify, manage and deliver a programme of investment in infrastructure underpinned by a financial agreement with both Governments and in line with the assurance framework.

The refreshed digital strategy, “Realising Scotland’s Full Potential in A Digital World” was published on 22 March 2017. This paints a picture of our country as a vibrant, inclusive and outward looking nation with a successful digital economy, comprehensive access to connectivity, an education system focussed on digital skills and a public sector based on modern, digital ways of doing business. It provides not just a vision, but a platform where collective action from the public, private and third sector is needed to pursue our digital ambitions, ensure that nobody is left behind, and that we all remain safe, secure and confident about the future.

It also recognises the challenges that digital presents to our society, particularly changes to the nature of work and concerns about protecting our rights and privacy.

The Scottish Government has introduced a package of measures for 2017-18 which will benefit businesses in North Ayrshire, including a 3.7% reduction in the poundage rate; an increase in the rateable value threshold that the large business supplement becomes payable from £35,000 to £51,000; an increase in the Small Business Bonus Scheme threshold for 100% relief from £10,000 to £15,000; and a bill rise cap of 12.5% on bill rises for hotels, pubs, cafes and restaurants.

Additionally all local Councils in Scotland have powers under the Community Empowerment Act to create their own local business rates relief schemes.

The Scottish Government is very proud, and very supportive of both the growing space sector, and our vitally important tourism sector.

Innovation in tourism is key to ensuring that this important sector of the economy remains relevant and competitive. The development of potential spaceports in Scotland would not only emphasise Scotland's cutting edge technological reputation, but increase the number of inbound tourists to Scotland who would subsequently embark on spare tourism flights.

Business events related to space are an excellent means to showcase Scotland as a place to invest, study, live, work and visit - and to encourage repeat visits. As well as delivering direct economic impact (through delegate and venue expenditure), business events represent exceptional opportunities to build worldwide links and networks for the key industry sectors in Scotland, including space related industries.

The Scottish Government was delighted by the decision to create the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications, as part of the Satellite Applications Catapult, at the Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University. We continue to give our support to other clusters of research excellence in the space sector, including STARDundee at the University of Dundee and the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.

As well as this, the Scottish Government, through the enterprise agencies, promotes and supports the more than 120 companies operating in the space sector in Scotland. Scotland accounts for 18% of UK employment in the space sector, in other words nearly one in five UK Space jobs are in Scotland and we have ambition to grow the sector further.

The report by Peter Brett Associates was published on the Transport Scotland website on 20 March 2017. The port operators and Councils have been invited to make comments on the report by 3 April 2017.

The final decision on the future of the service will be made once comments on the report have been received and considered.

The Scottish Government has committed to invest £500m into the £1.13 billion Glasgow City Region Deal. As part of this Deal, detailed options to improve surface access to Glasgow Airport are being progressed by Glasgow City and Renfrewshire Councils. The options being considered through the City Deal will provide improved access to Glasgow Airport.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the services, support and care available to people who are deaf. Our long-term strategy, ‘See Hear’, commits to ensuring that children, young people and adults enjoy the same access to opportunities and public services as everyone else, including health care, social care, employment, education, and leisure. The strategy was jointly endorsed by COSLA and is being implemented through local partnerships of statutory and third sector partners.

The Scottish Government’s new draft British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan includes long-term goals to improve outcomes for young people who use BSL. This covers the early years, school and post-school education.

The report by Peter Brett Associates was published on the Transport Scotland website on 20 March 2017. The port operators and Councils have been invited to make comments on the report by 3 April 2017.

The final decision on the future of the service will be made once comments on the report have been received and considered.

The Scottish Government’s vision is to use data systematically to improve decision making: saving lives, money and time. In doing so, we will enhance Scotland’s reputation for the safe, secure and transparent use of data for public benefit; rapidly translating our strengths into benefits for citizens, businesses and communities. To achieve this the Scottish Government is collaborating with a range of public sector organisations and academic institutes such as The Data Lab, Urban Big Data Centre, Farr Institute and Administrative Data research Centre to deliver a number of data innovation projects.

These collaborations have already delivered benefits. For example, sharing data between FE colleges, Universities, the Department for Work and Pensions has helped Skills Development Scotland better target its services and deliver an increased number of young people engaged in work or study.

The Scottish Government is also collaborating with these organisation to explore the potential to apply predictive analytics to support the shift to prevention. This includes, for example, the application of predictive analytics to large datasets such as linked health datasets to inform and support a reduction in delayed discharges from hospital. This project uses data about people who arrive in hospital to predict when they will leave, whether they will need social care and the care they will need.

The Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care (SFA) was developed in collaboration with key stakeholders, including Marie Curie, and outlines the key actions to be taken that will help ensure that everyone in Scotland can access services that respond to their individual palliative and end of life care needs.

The National Implementation Support Group on Palliative and End of Life Care (NIAG) regularly considers reports on progress on the implementation of, and provides advice to the Scottish Government on, how best to take forward the commitments set out in the SFA. The NIAG last met in December 2016 and will next meet on 29 March 2017.