Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the rail trade unions who have long campaigned for this Pilot and their members are key to the successful implementation of it to date.

The Scottish Government does not intend to issue a statement on the safety on the MV Alfred, following the publication of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, into the grounding of the vessel at Swona Isalnd on 5 July 2022.

The Scottish Government does not receive nor hold any information related to Car Parking charges at Ardrossan. This is the responsibility of Peel Ports Group (PPG) as the statutory harbour authority and owner of the port.

Any discussions around the charter, including a crew fatigue management plan are solely a matter between the owner of the vessel, Pentland Ferries, and the operator CalMac Ferries Limited.

The procedures surrounding Redetermination Orders are contained within the relevant legislation (The Stopping Up of Roads and Private Accesses and the Redetermination of Public Rights of Passage (Procedure)(Scotland) Regulations 1986.

Transport Scotland undertook a review of the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) process, which included Redetermination Orders, in 2021. Stakeholders consulted during this review included local authorities. As part of the findings of this review Transport Scotland has highlighted that Redetermination Orders are not needed in all circumstances.

For example, if a local authority has made a TRO which effectively determines the means by which the public can exercise their right of passage over the road then it may not be necessary to also have a Redetermination Order to give effect to the restrictions on traffic. However, the decision on whether a Redetermination Order is required for a project ultimately remains with the relevant Roads Authority.

Since 2020 Transport Scotland has received 7 Redetermination Orders for determination where objections have been maintained. 6 of these have received a Ministerial Decision within an average of 4 months without referral to a Public Local Inquiry. One other is under active consideration having been received on the 4 th June 2024.

The Scottish Government is developing a Market Framework to set out a clear long-term policy ambition and coherent policy framework to support our vision for the development of Natural Capital markets in Scotland. It will be published later in the year, following the current extended engagement phase with a wide variety of stakeholders.

Based on registrations for November 2023 Computing Science week, the numbers provided in S6W-27321 are the accurate number of schools registered for each event during this week. It is difficult to be definitive on how many schools engaged as schools may also have participated by watching the recordings of sessions or by creating their own activities.

The Scottish Government does not receive direct payments from the operator of the current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract. Any financial transactions of this nature would be accounted for on completion of reconciliation at the end of each Contract Year.

Education Scotland will continue to work with local authorities and external partners to promote themed weeks. Dates will be promoted from August 2024, through our networks (Computing Science and Primary Computing Science networks on Glow, Local Authority National Technologies Network, professional networks such as ADICOS, Computing at Schools and CompEdnet), stakeholders and Education Scotland and Digilernscot social media.

Education Scotland will hold another Computing Science Event in November 2024. This year there will be 2 weeks – week 1 (4 to 8) will be targeted at computational thinking / no code/low code creative computing activities focusing on ELC and Primary and week 2 (11 to 15) will be focussed on coding activities for primary and secondary. Education Scotland will also be hosting 3 Computing Science Conferences (West, Central and North locations tbc) on 16 November 2024.