Chamber and committees

Yes.

We are conscious of the ongoing global issues affecting construction which are impacting the pace of housing delivery and remain focused on our target of delivering 110,000 high quality, energy efficient affordable homes by 2032. The £80m over two years announced on 26 April takes our investment in affordable housing in 2024-25 to nearly £600m, which will deliver social and affordable homes across Scotland, including acquisitions.

The recently established Housing Investment Taskforce will, over the course of financial year 2024/25, work to identify actions that will unlock both existing and new commitments to investment in housing across all tenures, bringing together key interests of investors and investees.

Following recent legal proceedings, we will shortly provide a message to stakeholders relating to policy 16 of National Planning Framework. In addition, we are working with stakeholders on a series of cross-sector actions to ensure those involved collectively play a positive part in housing delivery.

The Scottish Government recognises the strength of feeling of beneficiaries in Scotland about the future of the current Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme (SIBSS), which has been important both in supporting people, and in providing a service they value, over a number of years.

The UK Government set out its proposals for an infected blood final compensation scheme, and the setting up of a new UK-wide Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), on 21 May. The UK Government proposes that support scheme payments, such as those currently provided by SIBSS, will continue to be paid on an ex-gratia basis until 31 March 2025. From 1 April 2025, SIBSS payments will be taken into account in calculating final compensation awards. Infected and affected people will have a choice of receiving their compensation as a lump sum or as periodic payments. The UK Government has also said that it will ensure that no one will receive less than they do now. In addition, Sir Robert Francis, interim chair of the IBCA, published a Statement of Intent on 29 May 2024 making clear that Regulations setting out details of the compensation scheme will be laid in the UK Parliament on or before 24 August 2024. Currently, he is consulting with infected and affected communities and their representatives.

The Scottish Government will continue to represent the views of Scottish stakeholders to the UK Government during these consultations, including on the question of whether SIBSS members who opt for periodic payments should get those ongoing payments from the support schemes or the IBCA. Having campaigned for years to achieve these outcomes, we do not want people to now feel they have no say in how compensation is paid.

The SQA publish information on the number of entries to Higher subjects by male and female candidates on the attainment statistics pages of their website: Attainment Statistics - SQA

Based on this the percentage of entries to Higher computing science by female candidates in each year between 2021 and 2023 can be found in the following table.

Table: Percentage of entries to Higher computing science from female candidates, 2021 - 2023

The Scottish Government was approached by NHS Lothian, the City of Edinburgh Council and Public Health Scotland to make it aware of issues regarding Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedures taking place in Edinburgh.

The Scottish Government invited an environmental health officer from the City of Edinburgh Council to the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group meeting on 25 March 2024 to provide the group with further details.

The decision to issue a public warning regarding these procedures rested with, and was made by, the City of Edinburgh Council.

The public consultation on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt closed on 21 May 2024. Consultation responses are now being analysed and the feedback will be used as part of the policy decision-making process, alongside a range of other available information and evidence.

A suite of impact assessments is also being developed to consider and understand as far as possible how different population groups may be impacted by the policy. This includes an Equality Impact Assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty assessment, which will consider, amongst other things, potential impacts in respect of cost of living pressures.

The Digital Start Fund was established in 2019 and ran for three years. Scottish Government provided SDS with £3,083,383 for the Digital Start Fund programme.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

The Scottish Government’s High Level Output Specification (HLOS) strategy requires Network Rail to take full advantage of maintenance and renewal works and timetable development processes to enable ScotRail to achieve improved journey times. It is also a requirement of the ScotRail Policy Compendium and Grant Agreement that ScotRail works with Network Rail to deliver a high performing railway, with competitive journey times.

Office of Rail and Road's Annual Assessment of Network Rail, which is published on its website, provides information on average national journey time for year 2022-23:

Annual Assessment of Network Rail - April 2022 to March 2023 (orr.gov.uk) , which the member might find of interest.

(a) The eligibility criteria for the Digital start fund required applicants to meet at least one of the following conditions:

? Unemployed

? In receipt of a low income benefit such as Universal Credit

? Employed on an income of £16,000 or less

? Experience two or more barriers or disadvantages as defined by Scottish Government’s European Structural and Investment Funds Participant Guidance .

SDS, who administered the fund, do not hold the data necessary to determine how many participants met each of these specific criteria.

(b) Over three years, the Digital Start Fund supported 468 individuals with 380 candidates completing training. Their employment status when starting the training is broken down as follows:

? Year One: unemployed individuals 55.7%; employed 28.7%

? Year Two:unemployed individuals 71.3%; employed 18.3%

? Year Three: unemployed individuals 50.9%, employed 35.3%

Through Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government provides a range of different types of support to Alexander Dennis Ltd, including for the development of zero emission buses.