Chamber and committees

The Veterans Mental Health Advisory Group was established to progress the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan. Tackling stigma is a key objective.

A Veterans Voice group serves to ensure the views of veterans inform the development and implementation of proposals emerging from the Advisory Group. This lived experience group will play a vital role in ensuring we remove barriers that prevent veterans from accessing mental health support.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has worked in partnership with See Me Veterans | End Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination (seemescotland.org) providing £50,000 to tackle stigma and promote the importance of veterans seeking help for mental health issues.

The Scottish Government has established the Graduate Apprenticeship Enhancement Group. It held its first meeting in April and met again in May. Membership includes Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland, representatives from universities and colleges, Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland, Student Awards Agency for Scotland and members of the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board. Former and current Graduate Apprentices will also be invited to join the group. The Group is developing the workstreams which will support its work.

The operation of e-gates at the UK Border is the responsibility of the UK Government. There is no role for the Scottish Government in the operational or policy matters relating to the UK Border.

This information is not held centrally.

Enforcement arrangements for all elements of the Repairing Standard are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.

It is the responsibility of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) to decide whether the landlord has complied with the duty imposed by the legislation.

Where the First-tier Tribunal decides that the landlord has failed to comply with that duty, it must by a “repairing standard enforcement order” require the landlord to carry out such work as is necessary, specifying the period within which the work required by the order must be completed.

A landlord who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a repairing standard enforcement order commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine which would be determined by the tribunal.

The Scottish Government accepted the Investor Panel's recommendations and published its initial response alongside the Panel’s recommendations in November 2023. Officials have since been working with key partners to progress the development of a properly costed, shaped and prioritised pipeline of projects. The Scottish Government has committed to publishing an update on progress and the development of an investment pipeline will form a key part of this.

Scottish Ministers have no role in the conclusion of voluntary wayleaves in relation to electricity infrastructure and are only able to act on applications made by licence holders for Necessary Wayleaves under the Electricity Act 1989.

Telecommunications is a reserved matter to the UK Government and the framework for wayleaves is legislated for in Schedule 3A of the Communications Act 2003 (The Electronic Communications Code). The Code gives Code operators rights to apply for a wayleave agreement to be imposed by the courts if one cannot be reached voluntarily with a landowner.

The responsibility for the delivery of free school meals is a matter for local authorities. This duty under Section 53 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 sets out that local authorities must provide, or secure the provision of, a school lunch free of charge to pupils who meet the eligibility criteria set out within that Act. The national eligibility criteria for free school meals is available through the following web link: Free school meals - mygov.scot .

We are committed to the expansion of universal free school meals in primary schools. The next step in this expansion is to P6 & P7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment from February 2025, followed by universal provision in P6 & P7 during 2026.

We are also committed to delivering a pilot of universal free school meal expansion in secondary schools. This pilot will provide evidence which will assist us in our considerations of any future expansion of provision.

It is an offence in Scotland, as it is in England and Wales, for utilities to fail to secure the safety of road works by ensuring that those works are adequately guarded and lit and that appropriate traffic signs are placed to guide and direct persons using the road. The Scottish Ministers may issue or approve codes of practice giving practical guidance to utilities in respect of these duties and this is incorporated in the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice 2013. A failure to comply with the Code of Practice is evidence of a failure to discharge the relevant safety duties and accordingly evidence that an offence has been committed. These requirements for utilities arise from the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.

For roads and highway authorities the equivalent legislation is the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (covering Scotland), and the Highways Act 1980 (Covering England and Wales). While the 1980 Act also included a provision for a mandatory Code of Practice on safety, the 1984 Act did not, and so it was not previously possible to prescribe a mandatory Code for Scottish roads authorities on this topic. As this omission predates the formation of the Scottish Parliament, we cannot provide detail of the policy rationale of the time. This was rectified in 2019, when the Scottish Government made the necessary legislative changes to the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to extend the requirement to follow the mandatory safety Code of Practice to Scottish Roads authorities. The legislation which requires Scottish roads authorities to follow the mandatory Code of Practice has now been in force since 10 January 2022. The 2013 version of the Code of Practice is currently under review, which will result in an amended foreword, including Scottish road authorities in the list of bodies the Code applies to.