Chamber and committees

The UK Government’s own economic modelling shows that the agriculture and semi-processing sectors will lose out because of the UK-Australia trade deal. The approach taken in the negotiation of that deal also does not align with our Vision for Trade, which references the benefits of trade agreements but makes clear that these must include appropriate safeguards for our producers in sensitive sectors, like beef and lamb. The former Secretary of State for DEFRA, George Eustice MP, who was in post while these recent trade deals were negotiated, expressed a similar view when he said in the UK Parliament on 14 November 2022 that “Wedid not need to give Australia or New Zealand full liberalisation in beef and sheep – it was not in our economic interest to do so”. Also, and in sharp contrast, the recent EU trade deal with New Zealand seems to have secured significantly stronger protections for domestic EU producers.

Overall, the gains for Scottish food producers of the UK-Australia trade deal are marginal. While tariffs will be removed on a range of exports, these only benefit certain products such as Scotch Whisky. These gains are offset by the liberal market access the UK has agreed which will allow the import of agri-food products, often produced on a mass scale and to lower standards of production than in Scotland. This will have an adverse impact on our agri-food producers and economy.

Tariff liberalisation may benefit consumers by marginally increasing choice and reducing the price of imported products, for example red meat, wine, dairy and eggs. However, there is a greater risk to the Scottish economy if this displaces domestic products.

Ultimately, these Trade deals go nowhere near replacing the lost trade from the disastrous Brexit deal the UK Government negotiated with the EU.

Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company is leading on carrying out remediation of the wider Shawfield area. To date, 13.5 hectares of land have been successfully remediated. The Scottish Government is in active discussion with Clyde Gateway to explore potential solutions to deal with the remaining contamination across the Shawfield area.

Health Boards are responsible for the health and safety of NHS staff. Scottish Government officials have been assured by NHS Greater Glasgow and Cycle (NHS GGC) that they have the necessary controls, protocols and support in place to protect staff. We will continue to work closely with NHS GGC to monitor the safety and wellbeing of staff at the Langhill Clinic.

NHSScotland has joined the multi-agency Your Safety Matters (YSM) initiative, led by Police Scotland. YSM aims to minimise incidents of violence and aggression in workplaces, through campaigns, sharing resources and good practice.

Abuse towards NHS staff is unacceptable, and the courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who carry out such appalling behaviour on emergency workers.

We will bring forward further proposals on snaring in good time to allow any necessary consultation and introduction at Stage 2 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

While the operation of transport links across the Corran Narrows is the responsibility of The Highland Council and any decisions on maintenance, upgrades, or options to replace ferries the I recently met with them to hear more about the Council’s plans for the route.

The Scottish Government’s ambitious 10-year cancer strategy is nearing completion, with publication planned this Spring. The strategy will be under-pinned by action plans which will evolve with the changing cancer landscape. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

It will encompass a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland and will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers, including liver cancer.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the participation of people from BAME backgrounds in politics. In 2016 the Scottish Government published the Race equality framework for Scotland 2016-2030. One of its aims is to ensure minority ethnic participation and representation is effective, fair, proportionate, and valued at all levels of political, community and public life.

This ambition is also reflected in the commitment in the Bute House Agreement to encourage more people to register to vote, to stand as candidates and to remove barriers some people experience so they can vote independently.

The Scottish Government funds a post based in CoSLA until March 2024, to support the work of the Cross-Party Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group. The group involves elected members from each of COSLA’s Political Groups, and seeks to identify changes in culture and practices, and support our ambition to deliver greater equality and diversity within local democracy.

We recognise that pay may be a barrier to some people standing to become a councillor. The Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly committed to undertake an independent review of Councillor remuneration. The inaugural meeting of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) was held in April 2023. A report with recommendations for Ministers will be published at the end of November 2023.

The difficulty of getting reliable data on the participation of under-represented groups, including people from BAME backgrounds, is an issue that stakeholders raised during the electoral reform consultation in 2018. In response, the Scottish Government worked closely with a range of stakeholders, including the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, the Electoral Commission, COSLA and the Improvement Service to run a candidate survey for the 2022 Local Government elections.

The Local Government candidate diversity survey suggests that among those who responded (28% of candidates responded, which is lower than we would want but represents a typical response rate for this kind of survey), 6.7% of candidates in 2022 identified as “Asian” or “All other ethnic groups” (rather than “White” or “Prefer not to say”). For those who went on to be elected the figure was 4.0%. We are looking at ways to improve the collection of data in the future as the voluntary approach clearly has its limitations. This survey does however confirm the view that people with BAME backgrounds are under-represented in local government.

Clearly work remains to be done to encourage more people from BAME backgrounds to take part in politics. We are open to ideas to ensure that all members of society have the opportunity to participate in politics and to become elected representatives.

Across Scotland safety cameras are deployed through the Scottish Safety Camera Programme primarily where they have the greatest potential to reduce injury collisions and where there is evidence of both collisions and speeding. This is in accordance with criteria contained in the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook.

There are a range of sites along the A75 where mobile safety camera resources are deployed.

An annual site prioritisation exercise is underway to assess the performance of all existing safety camera sites across Scotland and to identify locations which meet minimum criteria requirements. If new locations are identified on the A75 which meet minimum criteria requirements then consideration will be given to deploying additional camera resources on the route.

In the Statement to Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, on the 26 January 2023, a Delivery Plan for STPR2 to provide further insight on the prioritisation of the recommendations will follow later this year, and this will set out the investment priorities over 20 years.

Whilst it is important to note that progress is already being made on 38 of the 45 recommendations, it has not been possible to fund all of our current commitments from the existing capital spending review. Thus, it is important that the Delivery Plan is developed in the context of the on-going cost of living crisis and the Scottish Government’s fiscal outlook. These financial challenges have a bearing on the investment pipeline of projects and programmes, both pre-existing and STPR2 recommendations, plus statutory and legal commitments.

The Scottish Ministers, in exercise of their powers under Section 88 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, offer to give to the Scottish Police Authority an annual grant in connection with delivery of the operational policing aspects of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. These operational aspects are undertaken by three regional safety camera units covering the north, east and west of Scotland.

The value of the grant for the 3 year period 2020-2023 is set out below.