Chamber and committees

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 does not grant Scottish Ministers the power to ban single-use items. Section 10 of that Act does provide Scottish Ministers with the power to make regulations to require suppliers of single-use items to charge for specified single use items.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with the OIM and has discussed measures already taken to restrict supply or manufacture single-use items, and will continue to do so in relation to any future policy. However, the OIM has no formal role in approving legislation and the Scottish Government is under no obligation to seek advice on policy development or draft legislation from the OIM.

The Internal Market Act was imposed on the Scottish Parliament without its consent, and radically undermines its powers. Every party in the chamber, barring the Scottish Conservatives, voted for its repeal in October 2023. The new UK Government must now work with the Scottish Government to undo the damage the Act does, and ensure the full restoration of the Parliament’s powers.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member should contact Children’s Hearings Scotland for this information.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Some of this information may be available online in the CHS Board papers, which can be found here: CHS Board Papers

If the information contained here is not sufficient for the member’s purposes, the member should contact Children’s Hearings Scotland for specific information.

The Scottish Government has made £2,877,287.97 of funding available to local authorities to enable them to cancel school meal debts within their respective local areas. This sum represents the entire amounts bid for by each local authority.

29 local authorities made bids to the Scottish Government’s School Meal Debt Fund and we issued grant offer letters to them on 3 December 2024.

The amounts awarded to each local authority is set out within the following table:

This is an operational matter for South of Scotland Enterprise. I have passed your query to Jane Morrison-Ross, South of Scotland Enterprise Chief Executive and asked her to respond to you directly.

Ice accretion is a world-wide problem affecting cable-stayed bridges in colder climates, and there is currently no effective solution for preventing it completely. While closures of the Queensferry Crossing due to ice accretion cannot be prevented entirely, we have taken forward research, which led to enhanced management procedures being developed. Now, when there is a risk of falling ice, a 6-point plan is implemented by our Operating Company BEAR Scotland. The plan includes enhanced patrols; heightened focus on prevailing weather conditions; increased data & intelligence gathering; pre-laying of traffic management and enhanced stakeholder communications.

Investment has been made to improve our capability to predict ice accretion. For example, new ice and climate sensors were installed on the bridge in August 2020. These, together with improved bespoke weather forecasts, have helped deliver early warning of conditions conducive to ice accretion. In addition, infrastructure improvements have recently been completed, which will allow traffic to be diverted onto the Forth Road Bridge more quickly.

The Scottish Government will interact with the UK Government and Ministry of Defence to support the opportunity for any significant contracts with the potential to provide ongoing employment opportunities for shipyards and fabrication businesses in Scotland.

There are several Scottish yards that possess the capabilities and specialist workforce skills needed to deliver this kind of infrastructure project, and we would encourage the MOD to utilise those resources. It is of course a commercial matter for each business to bid for work, however we would support any bid that ensured the work is delivered in Scotland.

Transport Scotland has worked in partnership with its Operating Company BEAR Scotland and industry experts to test potential solutions and mitigation measures for ice accretion on the Queensferry Crossing, including cable cleaning.

This work, supported by laboratory testing, showed that cleaning of the cables stays helps to reduce ice accretion. Whilst a clean cable may reduce ice accretion, this measure cannot prevent it entirely. This was confirmed by detailed inspection during the November 2024 ice accretion event, which found that ice had accreted to stays which had no visual detritus. Notwithstanding this, we believe that cleaning the cables is a worthwhile mitigation measure that should be completed periodically.

I refer the member to the Committee debate of 12 December 2024 where I set out that to help employers address all potential barriers to recruitment in rural and island areas, a whole system approach was required.

The MV Glen Sannox is expected to commence service in mid-January 2025.