Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government held a meeting with children and young people’s organisations on 19 February to discuss safe and meaningful ways to gather the views of children and young people on relationships and behaviour in schools. Plans are currently being developed for how to take appropriate work forward.

This information is not centrally collected. When NHS Scotland treats someone who has suffered harm from a non-surgical cosmetic procedure that has gone wrong, NHS Scotland will not necessarily record that this was the result of that procedure as there is no specific code to record this. This means that it is difficult to assess the cost to NHS Scotland of treating harm or complications that may have been caused.

This information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact Trading Standards Scotland directly for this information.

As set out in answer S6W-25192 on 20 February 2024, the 2024-25 Scottish Budget will provide an uplift of over half a billion, bringing the budget for NHS Boards to over £14.2 billion, of which NES will receive £550.2 million. Health boards are responsible for ensuring best use of available resources to support delivery of services and strategic objectives.

NES plays a critical role in supporting the education, training and wider development of the NHS Scotland workforce, and in particular the medical workforce where target training numbers have already been confirmed for 2024-25. As part of this, the Board is actively contributing to a number of wider policy developments as set out in Programme for Government, the NHS Recovery Plan and the National workforce Strategy. The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering the National Workforce Strategy and achieving the overall vision for “A sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices and fair work where all are respected and valued for the work they do”.

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 .

Published forecast figures on green job numbers are derived from projects where funding from the Green Jobs Fund has already been agreed and, in financial year 2024-25, support will continue for projects where commitments have been contractually agreed.

It is important to recognise that the Green Jobs Fund forms a relatively small part of the Scottish Government’s broader investment in the transition to net zero. This includes many institutions, funding packages and investment vehicles which provide advice, support and financial assistance for businesses at the forefront to building Scotland’s green economy. The forthcoming Green Industrial Strategy will provide further strategic direction on how such investment should be directed in future.

SEPA have been regularly monitoring the Fruin Water since 3 January 2024, following reports of a small quantity of light crude oil surfacing from an underground pipeline. They will continue to do so until the clean-up is concluded.

The exact scale of the leak, the extent of contamination and the duration of the remediation work, will not be known until the results of the ground investigation have been presented to SEPA alongside the remediation options appraisal. This is expected by May.

The Glen Fruin road (C70) was closed by Police Scotland as a precaution following the discovery of an oil leak on 2nd January 2024. However, access through Glen Fruin will remain unaffected during the remediation phase.

Minor localised environmental impacts have been recorded and a range of precautionary measures have been installed at SEPA’s request. No significant impact has been detected with respect to water quality, migratory salmonids (salmon/trout) or to other wildlife within the Fruin Water or Loch Lomond.

Options are currently being explored for spending models on nature restoration that can encourage greater responsible private investment while maximising the value of public spending. This includes consideration of ‘blended finance’ mechanisms where public funding is used in a more targeted way to support increased nature restoration activity by attracting responsible private investment.

The Scottish Government has not assessed potential public expenditure or contingent liability implications for its budget to de-risk or otherwise sufficiently underwrite private investment in nature. Budget implications would be published in line with usual processes.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. While not all of the aesthetics sector is currently regulated, HIS do regulate independent clinics, which would include aesthetics services, provided by a doctor, dentist, nurse, midwife or dental care professional. You may wish to contact HIS directly for information on registered independent clinics.

There can be many reasons for delays in determining applications including requests for and submission of additional information, delays with responses from statutory consultees and the requirement for a legal agreement. The specific reasons for the time taken to determine individual major planning applications would be held by the individual planning authority making the determination.

The average timescale for all major applications determined without a processing agreement was 35.2 weeks in Q1 and Q2 of 2023-24. Due to the low number of applications involved, average determination timescales are volatile and can be affected by one or two lengthy cases. In the same period, 23 of the 57 major applications not subject to processing agreements were determined within the statutory timescale, and 46 of those 57 major applications determined within the same period were determined in a time faster than the national average.

I last met with representatives of Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) on 14 September 2023 to discuss its funding level for 2023-24. Regeneration officials met with CRT on 27 November to build on discussions from that meeting and are in ongoing discussion with CRT.