Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to free school meal expansion and continues to work with partners in local government.

Information on the number of P6 & P7 pupils who are in registered for free school meals is published annually, and can be found in table 2.22 of our pupil census 2023 supplementary statistics: Pupil census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

At present, there are no license requests for seabed mining in Scotland’s inshore or offshore waters.

Deep sea mining refers to the exploration for - or extraction of - minerals from the seabed at depths greater than 200 metres. Most of Scotland’s waters of this depth or greater fall within existing MPAs. Existing Conservation and Management Advice for the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area from Joint Nature Conservation Committee: West of Scotland MPA | JNCC - Adviser to Government on Nature Conservation, which covers the majority or our deep waters and seamounts, advises against seabed mining in such waters.

Any licensing request relating to seabed mining within Scotland’s seas would be subject to the licensing requirements set out in the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 for inshore waters (between 0 and 12 nautical miles), and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 for offshore waters (between 12 and 200nm), as well as statutory environmental assessment requirements and the policies set out in Scotland’s National Marine Plan, which covers both inshore and offshore waters. Consideration of any licence application would be based on best available evidence.

Scotland’s National Marine Plan 2015 sets policies for the sustainable development of our seas and marine resources. Aggregates Policy 2 states that decision makers should ensure all the necessary environmental issues are considered and safeguards are in place when determining whether any proposed marine aggregate dredging is considered to be environmentally acceptable. Any licensing request relating to seabed mining in Scotland’s seas would be subject to this policy.

The National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2), which is currently being developed, will support sustainable development of our seas, protect our marine environment, and deliver for our coastal communities. NMP2 is considering our marine economy, local communities, and the environment together by adopting a Blue Economy: A Blue Economy Vision for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This will help get the right planning framework in place to balance the need for protection and enhancement of the marine environment, and sustainable development of existing and emerging sectors.

The Scottish Government recognises the serious erosion issues to the sand dunes in Montrose and the impact this could have on flood risk for residents.

Through our Dynamic Coast project, we have worked closely with local authorities to help them plan for coastal adaptation and in our Programme for Government 2020 we announced a new £11.7 million capital budget over four years for coastal change adaptation, starting in 2022-23.

In 2024-25, funding of £2.7m will be distributed to local authorities in two ways. £1.65m in direct allocation to coastal local authorities and £1.05m will be made available for local authorities to bit for to undertake case studies. Angus Council, where Montrose sits in, will receive £56,375 for coastal change adaptation in 2024-25.

In addition, Angus Council submitted a proposal to fund a case study and an additional £440k will be distributed for this, which is the largest allocation for any local authority to undertake a case study.

Local authorities can choose to additionally fund coastal protection work from their general capital grant allocation.

Scottish Government officials have attended two Four Nations meetings regarding the ban on single-use vapes within this time period, during which implementation was discussed - on 14 August and 24 July. We have corresponded with the UK Government regarding the implementation of a ban on 9 August, 26 July, 18 July, 16 July, 15 July and 11 July. These discussions have focused on our respective legislative timelines, and on preparing guidance for Business.

The Scottish Government issued a general call for evidence on the Scottish Government’s X Account on 10 July. In addition, since announcing the review on 6 March at a visit to the Heart of Newhaven project in Edinburgh, we have emailed stakeholder and community groups who have engaged with Community Right to Buy to seek their views.

This initial call for evidence will inform a full formal consultation in summer 2025, which will give everyone the opportunity to comment. The response to which will be published and summarised in accordance with standard consultation practice.

The review will consider all of the previous work that has been carried out in exploring the various community rights to buy. The Scottish Land Commission will be involved in discussions along with a wide range of other stakeholders and community groups, throughout the review.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29121 on 2 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 has allocated (a) £42m in 2020-21 (b) £52m in 2021-22 (c) £63m in 2022-23 (d) £61m in 2023-24 and (e) £88m in 2024-25 to local authorities through the general capital grant to invest in flood protection and resilience measures.

However, the vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on flooding protection, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The funding has been distributed as follows:

The Flood Resilience Strategy consultation document refers to there being an estimated 284,000 properties across Scotland exposed to flooding. This figure was derived from the most recent version of the National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA), which was prepared by SEPA. The figures per local authority from the NFRA are as follows:

The reasons for not approving the four most recent late applications are detailed in the decision notice for each. These can be found in the Register of Community Interest in Land (RCIL), which is held on the Registers of Scotland website. It is free to access. The four cases were:

Broomhill Community Trust Hub Limited (Ref:CB00263) – September 2023

Kinlochard (Cottages) Residents Association Ltd (Ref: CB00248) – January 2021

Kinlochard (Cottages) Residents Association Ltd (Ref: CB00247) – November 2020

Carty Port Community Company (Ref: CB00234) - April 2018