Chamber and committees

Since July 2023 all recipients of discretionary public sector grants have been required to demonstrate their commitment to our Fair Work First criteria, including mandatory real Living Wage and effective worker voice conditions. While public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions, Statutory Guidance asks contracting authorities to consider, before undertaking a procurement exercise, whether it is relevant and proportionate to include requirements for Fair Work First criteria.

The Scottish Government is currently processing a request for this information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. The response will set out any information held that can be disclosed, subject to the provisions and exemptions contained within the Act. To ensure consistency and compliance with statutory obligations, it would not be appropriate to provide a detailed response to this Parliamentary Question in advance of the FOI process being completed.

The Equality Act 2010, including the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), applies in relation to the protected characteristics set out in that Act. In Scotland, additional specific duties are set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Adoption status is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. The Scottish Government therefore does not undertake Equality Act 2010 or Public Sector Equality Duty assessments solely on the basis of a person's status as an adoptee.

The Scottish Government as part of it’s consultation on proposed Fisheries management measures within Scottish inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) management areas - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space is undertaking a series of in person events at 26 locations across Scotland. The capacity of these events is limited by the venue size, with most able to accommodate up to 60 people at any one time. Due to the sessions being drop-in events, with people not being there for whole sessions, it is not considered venue capacity will be an issue in most cases.

If individuals are unable to attend an in person event there are also 16 on line sessions available for them to join. The majority of these are general sessions with some region specific and one aimed at young people. There is a limit of 20 spaces for each on line session however that provides the opportunity for a further 320 people to find the information they need in order to respond to the consultation. The sessions are scheduled over a range of days and times to allow attendance. However, we are happy to run more online sessions should these reach capacity or if there is a demand for more.

Due to the consultation’s complexity and size, there is an extended consultation period to ensure respondents have a full and fair opportunity to have their say. The consultation is open until 18 January 2027.

The management of airspace within the UK is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government has therefore not had any discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority or the Department for Transport regarding the Edinburgh Airport Airspace Change proposals.

The Scottish Government as part of it’s consultation on proposed Fisheries management measures within Scottish inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) management areas - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space undertook a socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA). The SEIA considers the effects of the proposed measures at individual site level for MPAs and at regional level for proposed PMF management areas. It considers the impacts on each of the 11 marine regions with respect to the economic impacts on fishing activities – both for a vessels’ home port and port of landing. This full SEIA is available through the consultation platform.

The Scottish Government accepts that there are compliance monitoring challenges with the implementation of fisheries management measures for Inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features. This is why compliance officials have been involved in the process from the start and continue to be so. They are currently developing procedures to ensure effective monitoring and control of any measures imposed.

The proposed measures exclude creel and pelagic midwater trawl vessels which significantly reduces the number of vessels requiring monitoring and most other vessels already have monitoring devices, including Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) for all scallop dredge vessels and Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) on vessels over 12m. Work is underway to make it mandatory for all under 12m vessels to have tracking devices and we are exploring what other technology may assist including drones and automation of monitoring. Inshore MPAs and PMF monitoring will form part of a wider Compliance strategy and risk assessment process.

The Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate is responsible for the enforcement of fisheries regulations in the Scottish zone. Officers investigated the incident, including analysis of the Remote Electronic Monitoring system (REM) from a vessel identified in the area at the time, no illegal fishing activities were identified and the investigation was closed.

There are no plans introduce an urgent Marine Conservation Order, the area is included in the Scottish Government’s consultation on proposed Fisheries management measures within Scottish inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) management areas, which opened recently and runs until 18 January 2027. The Scottish Government encourages interested parties to contribute to this.

The Independent Care Review was clear that adoption has an important role in providing permanent, loving and nurturing homes.

Information on the number of people diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is currently not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The recording of diagnoses and the datasets used for reporting are matters for individual NHS Boards. Information on what data is collected and whether local reporting is available should therefore be sought directly from the relevant NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to commission an active case ascertainment study. However, work underway to improve the identification of people with learning disabilities will provide information which will inform any future discussions on FASD data.