Chamber and committees

A total of 13 applications were received for the post of Chair to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. The appointment process for that post remains on-going. At the same time, the SCCRC advertised a vacancy for a Legal Member, which also attracted 13 applications.

The Scottish Government posted the adverts on the Scottish Government hosted public appointments webpages.

The adverts were circulated to over 1500 individuals and groups who have registered on the public appointments notes of interest contact list. This information is circulated to bodies such as Citizens Advice Scotland, the Equality Network, Women on Boards, and Changing the Chemistry.

Scottish Government officials also reached out to a number of other relevant organisations to draw their attention to the vacancies. These were:

• The Faculty of Advocates;
• Scottish Legal Aid Board;
• The Society of Solicitor Advocates;
• Scottish Legal Complaints;
• The Equalities and Human Rights Commission;
• The Scottish Human Rights Commission;
• The Legal Services Agency;
• Law Centres Network;
• Fair Justice System for Scotland Group;
• Govan Law Centre; and
• The Scottish Ethnic Minorities Lawyers Association.

The vacancies were also posted on the Scottish Legal News website, the Scottish Legal News X page, and advertised via Scottish Legal News’ daily newsletter.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Book Trust (SBT) to deliver the Reading Schools programme which represents an inclusive, whole school approach to embedding a reading culture within schools.

SBT commissions independent evaluations of the programme to examine the impact on pupils, learning professionals and schools. All evaluations are published on the Reading Schools website at: https://readingschools.scot/evaluation

The Scottish Government understands that the most recent report on the 2023-24 programme by Research Scotland will be published in the next few weeks and will be publicly available through the Reading Schools website as referenced above.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is committed to building a diverse and representative workforce. The SPCB monitors and reports on the diversity of its staff, including people with a disability.  Where a group is identified as underrepresented in the workforce, positive action measures are used to remove barriers and increase representation.

The SPCB is one of a small number of organisations in Scotland to be recognized as a Disability Confident Leader. This accreditation recognises the actions taken to actively encourage the recruitment of disabled people and the support provided to foster career progression.  In keeping with this accreditation guidance has been developed for managers to ensure that they take an inclusive approach to recruitment, ensuring that our approach is open and accessible for all.  This includes guidance and resources for managers and staff on creating an inclusive workplace for neurodivergent colleagues.  Where a colleague with a learning disability, autism or neurodivergence requires support to access the recruitment process or work effectively, an adjustment plan is agreed with them to ensure that appropriate adjustments are put in place and updated, as required.

The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), is the preferred source for jobs estimates for industry sectors. The latest available BRES jobs estimates are for 2022 with consistent time series available back to 2015. Jobs estimates for the Accommodation and Food Service Activities sector for 2015 to 2022 are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Estimated jobs in the Accommodation and Food Service Activities sector, Scotland, 2015 to 2022

The Gaelic medium education (GME) sector has distinct development needs in qualifications, teacher support and continuity in secondary education. At all stages, officials in the Gaelic and Scots team have aimed to keep the GME sector aware of developments and encouraged their response to consultations. Most recently, I met with CLAS (Professional Association for Gaelic Secondary School Teachers) on Thursday 12 September.

The replacement of the SQA and changes to our qualifications and assessment approaches have been informed by extensive stakeholder engagement including stakeholders from Gaelic communities. This engagement took place during the Muir Review, the National Discussion on Scottish Education, the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment and consultations on the Scottish Languages and Education (Scotland) Bills.

The advantages for capacity and performance of a new rail loop in the Delmore area are recognised. However, the proposal for a passing loop at Delmore does not feature in the Scottish Government’s current investment programme.

Given the extremely challenging financial climate, and following last year's UK Autumn Statement, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting the budget for 2024-25. This affects our ability to fund any projects which do not yet feature in the current investment programme.

A loop at Delmore remains in consideration for future delivery alongside a number of other potentially valuable schemes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29410 on 17 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government welcomes the innovation, continuous improvement and efficiency that Health Board delivery teams have demonstrated to make best use of resources and funding throughout our national vaccination programmes, which remain a key public health intervention.

The Scottish Government provided £80 million on an National Resource Allocation formula (NRAC) basis to cover local Board vaccine delivery costs for the full financial year 2023/24.

These funds were allocated to the following programmes, the largest of which was the winter Seasonal Flu & COVID-19 booster programme:

• Spring 2023 COVID-19 programme
• 6 months – 4 years at risk COVID-19 programme
• changes to the COVID-19 primary rolling offer
• COVID-19 vaccination out-with seasonal programmes for the clinically extremely vulnerable and for travel or visa purposes
• Winter Seasonal Flu & COVID-19 booster programme 2023

Boards also used this funding to deliver across the full range of other vaccine programmes. A breakdown of investment provided to each Health Board is as follows.

Scottish Ministers are responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of the trunk road network. The requirements for surfacing materials used on the trunk road network are laid out in the Specification for Highway Works and the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. These documents do allow some use of road planings in certain circumstances. They can be used in the lower foundation layers of all road types, depending on levels of traffic or as a base layer when mixed with a small amount of cement and foamed bitumen. Finally, small proportions of road planings can be recycled into hot and warm mix asphalt, which are generally used in the upper layers of a road.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads’ improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities. Local authorities have a duty to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

Where the maintenance liability for new roads being built within new residential developments is to be adopted by the Local Authority then the relevant local road authority will define the required specifications and standards and these govern what may be used.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Book Trust (SBT) to deliver the SBT Reading Schools programme and therefore SBT is responsible for setting the criteria for core, silver and gold accreditation.

Reading Schools encourages a whole-school approach to establishing a healthy reading culture in schools across Scotland. The Reading Schools Accreditation framework details the key areas considered crucial to building and sustaining a whole-school reading culture and are mapped against How Good Is Our School? 4. In order to be accredited, a school must provide evidence of how they have achieved the standard described under each of the key areas. Schools retain their accreditation for three years, before being required to evidence further developments to sustain reading culture.

The SBT Reading Schools Framework can be accessed online here: https://www.readingschools.scot/framework