Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25428 on 4 March 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 .

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water has published its Improving Urban Waters Routemap ( https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Urban-Waters-Improvements ) which outlines the process to identify and plan future investment for the highest priority Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges (UIDs). This planned approached is agreed in conjunction with the environmental regulator SEPA.

Each financial year (Apr-Mar) it reports UID figures within an Annual return to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) and as at March 2023 the figure was 776. This number is revised each year as improvement projects address UIDs and on-going studies identify new UIDs. The figure for 2023-24 will be published later this year.

Scotland now has the highest number of designated Bathing Water sites ever, with the vast majority classified as good or excellent and 98% overall achieving the bathing water quality standards. Under the Bathing Water (Scotland) Regulations 2008, Scottish Ministers are required to designate an area of surface water (coastal or inland) as a bathing water where they expect a large number of people to bathe, having regard to past trends and infrastructure and facilities provided, or other measures taken to promote bathing.

The Scottish Government is not currently planning on revising the bathing water site designation process and continues to work with Environmental Standards Scotland in line with the Summary Report on Designation of Bathing Water Sites published by Environmental Standards Scotland published on 4 December 2023.

Further to the answer provided to PQ S6W-23536, the timeline and development of the governance review of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership (CMPP) is a matter for the CMPP. While it is the role of Scottish Government to provide support to regional partnerships in development of their draft regional marine plans, changes to the membership, governance and constitution of the CMPP is the subject of paragraph 1 in the Schedule of the Clyde’s Ministerial Direction. When and if changes are finalised by the partnership, they will notify Scottish Ministers of these as soon as reasonably practicable and without delay as per Schedule 1 of the Delegation of Functions (Regional Marine Plan for the Scottish Marine Region for the Clyde) Direction 2017.

The Scottish Government welcomes the model of early intervention being piloted as part of the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC) ‘No Time To Wait’ project. We will continue to engage with ECHC as the ‘No Time To Wait’ pilot continues and look forward to learning more from the evaluation of the model in due course.

We recognise the important role third sector organisations, such as ECHC, play in supporting and improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. That is why we fund a variety of organisations and services with a focus on prevention and early intervention to ensure all of Scotland’s children, young people and families receive the right care and support, at the right time, in settings which best meets their needs. In this financial year (23-24) we have invested a further £15 million into community mental health services for children, young people and families through our local authority framework to achieve this aim.

To comply with the UK’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU, that states each party shall respect and make best use of relevant international standards including the OECD Guidelines on corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, the business is required to operate on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government abides by international law and guidelines. Ministers do not intervene in commercial operations of the airport.

I visited the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity’s (ECHC) wellbeing centre, The Hub, based in the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, on 24 October 2023. During my visit I met with some of the charity’s team members and spoke to them about their new wellbeing and resilience service, The Haven, based in East Lothian.

In addition, Scottish Government officials are currently liaising with ECHC staff to arrange a visit for the Cabinet Secretary of NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, who has recently been invited to the service.

The Scottish Government does not undertake assessments of available community spaces to local community groups and clubs. This is a matter for the relevant public authorities with responsibility for the land or buildings available in their authority area and the decision to undertake an assessment would be for them to consider. Under the Community Empowerment Act (2015), communities are, however, able to request a right to buy, lease, manage or use land and buildings belonging to local authorities, Scottish public bodies or Scottish Ministers. Scottish Government encourages relevant authorities to work with their communities to make sure they can access and make use of available spaces.

As required by Section 103 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, the next report to the Scottish Parliament on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will be published in 2024. The Scottish Government intends to publish the next report in December 2024. Reporting occurs in a 6-year cycle. The last report was published in December 2018, and is available here: Marine Protected Area Network - 2018 Report to the Scottish Parliament - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Routine monitoring is not carried out in all Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Scottish MPA Monitoring Strategy sets out a framework for a risk-based approach to planning and prioritising monitoring activities. Prioritisation of MPA monitoring effort is guided by principles defined in the strategy. These principles firstly identify target features based on criteria including risk from negative impacts, importance within Scotland and functional importance within the ecosystem. Additionally, location of monitoring is prioritised using criteria including site management characteristics, covering feature geographical range and existing data availability.

Evidence-gathering in accordance with the principles of the strategy is then carried out by government, agencies, academics and often supported by citizen science projects. This information underpins assessment and reporting obligations, as well as enabling monitoring of the ecological benefits the network provides.

The annexes to the MPA Monitoring Strategy are regularly updated with details of recent and upcoming surveys. The latest update detailing plans for surveying in the next two years will be available soon on the Scottish Government website: MPA monitoring strategy - Marine environment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .