Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31866 on 11 December 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.

I have not recently met any of the local authorities listed to discuss the impact of major electricity infrastructure or energy infrastructure consenting reforms.

The Scottish Government is working closely with public sector delivery partners to identify priority investment opportunities designed to mobilise private investment in ports, manufacturing and fabrication, to maximise the economic opportunities from offshore wind. As set out in our Offshore Wind Focus paper, the approach to prioritisation is underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities, considering the combined impact of a programme of public sector investments. We are working with delivery partners to target funding at projects that will have a catalytic effect on wider economic growth, and identifying and prioritising those with potentially high Benefit Cost Ratios.

Local authorities are responsible for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes in Scotland. Decisions on the allocation of funding for flood resilience are made jointly by Scottish Ministers and COSLA leaders, informed by SEPA flood risk assessment and a subsequent prioritisation process.

SEPA has categorised all viable flood protection schemes put forward by local authorities for the 2021 Flood Risk Management Plans. The Ballater scheme, as put forward, has been assessed as category 3. There are 28 flood protection schemes in category 1 or 2, and 25 in category 3.

Since 2008 Scottish Government has made £42 million available each year to local authorities to invest in flood risk management. Scottish Government has also committed an additional £150 million over the course of this parliament.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have convened a working group that will consider the future funding and governance model for flooding, including the approach to these 53 schemes.

The Ministerial led Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce met on 11 December and agreed a number of recommended actions to be included within its final report which will be published early in the new year.

The 2023-24 Official Statistics on attendance and absence show a slight increase in attendance and reduction in persistent absence. It is acknowledged that the rate of attendance has decreased prior to this as a result of the impact of Covid-19.

The overall attendance rate for 2023-24 was 90.3%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on 2022-23. The rate of persistent absence for 2023-24 was 31.4%, a reduction of 1.1 percentage points on 2022-23.

The Scottish Government recognises these slight improvements in the most recent data and will continue to implement the national strategic approach to supporting education authorities and schools to improve attendance and reduce absence through engagement and support of children, young people and their families.

As part of this approach, which follows the deep dive on attendance and absence which I commissioned and which was published by Education Scotland in November 2023, there are a range of actions in place to support improved attendance.

Every Local Authority in Scotland has school attendance as a stretch aim, as part of their work on the Scottish Attainment Challenge, and every council in the country has identified action they are taking at school level. This work is being supported by the Pupil Equity Fund.

Education Scotland have developed and published a range of updated practice advice and guidance, established a professional network, and are providing bespoke support to authorities as part of a phased approach to improvement.

The Scottish Government has added additional analysis of data and is publishing data more frequently to support education authorities in understanding their local picture, as part of monitoring and review.

Finally, as I announced in December, there will be a national marketing campaign in the coming year to further enhance the support available.

The Scottish Government routinely analyses data on economic inactivity published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and publishes this data on the Scottish Government’s website.

The Labour Market Trends: December 2024 publication was released on 17th December 2024, and contains statistics from ONS’s Labour Force Survey. These show that Scotland had an estimated economic inactivity rate of 24.0% for August to October 2024.

The latest Scotland’s Labour Market Insights statistical publication was released on 28 October 2024, containing statistics from ONS’s Annual Population Survey. This reported that an estimated 786,300 people aged 16 to 64 were economically inactive in Scotland in July 2023 – June 2024. An estimated 32.0% of inactive people gave their reason for being inactive as “long-term sick or disabled”. The second most common reason for being economically inactive was being a student (24.6%), followed by looking after “looking after family / home” (16.1%).

Economic inactivity due to ill health is a key concern, and the Scottish Government published analysis in September 2024 on supporting those with longer-term health conditions and disabilities to remain economically active. This is available at: Economic inactivity in Scotland: supporting those with longer-term health conditions and disabilities to remain economically active.

The Scottish Government routinely analyses data on economic inactivity published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and publishes this data on the Scottish Government’s website.

The latest Scotland’s Labour Market Insights statistical publication was released on 28 October 2024, containing statistics from ONS’s Annual Population Survey. This shows that an estimated 17.3 per cent (135,700) of inactive people aged 16 to 64 reported that they wanted to work during the period July 2023 to June 2024.

The Scottish Government recognise that stock exchanges can be an alternative platform for some companies seeking to raise substantial capital for growth investment, whilst also offering investors the opportunity to contribute to the development of listed companies.

The establishment of any stock exchange in Scotland is a commercial matter for those seeking to do so.

The Scottish Government recognises that supporting labour market participation and reducing economic inactivity requires a concerted approach from a range of services, including employability, health and childcare. We are currently taking action to support this, and have committed to doing more through our Programme for Government. For example, we have set out plans to improve access to health services by April 2025, and to implement specialist employability support for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions across all 32 local authorities by Summer 2025.

We publish statistics on the impact of our devolved employability services on a quarterly basis. The most recent publication, which covers up to June 2024, shows that Fair Start Scotland has supported 22,875 job starts since April 2018, and that No One Left Behind has supported 20,743 people to enter employment since April 2019. Although Fair Start Scotland has closed to new referrals, those on the service continue to be entitled to the full offer of support.

No One Left Behind reports on the economic status and long-term health conditions of participants and at the point of accessing services, with 14,025 reporting as economically inactive and 16,594 people reporting a long-term health condition. We will begin to include data on the outcomes achieved by those who are economically inactive at the time of entering No One Left Behind in the coming financial year.

Furthermore, the latest ELC census shows that uptake of the funded ELC offer for 3 and 4 year olds remains near-universal at an estimated 95% of children within that age group, and the latest parent survey shows the 74% of parents using funded ELC said that the funded offer enabled them to work or look for work.