Chamber and committees

The legal responsibility lies with parents to ensure their children receive a sufficient education. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people, including those from Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities, have access to the support they need to achieve their full potential.

Local authorities have primary responsibility for ensuring that Gypsy/Traveller children can access education and remain engaged in learning. The Scottish Government supports this work through funding the Centre for Education for Traditionally Nomadic Communities (STEP). STEP works with local authorities to promote flexible and culturally responsive approaches to attendance and engagement, including Gypsy, Traveller and Roma children and young families maintain links with their school and continue their education while travelling.

Our existing introgression monitoring undertaken between 2018 and 2023 was consistent with the recommendation as set out in the recently published paper “that future studies place equal weight on the development of genetic methods and obtaining representative and interpretable samples of wild fish populations, making use of the latest approaches for survey design on river networks”. The Scottish Government will consider the wider findings of this research as it relates to any future monitoring programmes.

The potential impacts of pumped-storage hydro developments on wild Atlantic salmon populations are assessed and considered as part of the statutory consenting and environmental assessment processes for individual proposals, including section 36 (Electricity Act 1989) consenting for projects over 50 mega-watts, Environmental Impact Assessment, Habitats Regulations Appraisal where required, and SEPA’s environmental authorisation process.

In determining section 36 applications, Scottish Ministers must, so far as possible, avoid causing injury to fisheries or fish stocks and obtain SEPA’s advice where regulated water activities are involved. Where an appropriate assessment is required under regulation 48 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994, the Scottish Ministers must consult NatureScot and have regard to its representations.

Where relevant, decision-makers will also have regard to National Planning Framework 4 policies on biodiversity, natural places and renewable energy development alongside the statutory consenting and environmental assessment processes.

Separately, pumped-storage hydro schemes require environmental authorisation from SEPA for activities affecting the water environment. SEPA assesses impacts, including those on wild fish stocks, hydrology and morphology, and may impose conditions requiring mitigation and monitoring. These processes support delivery of the Wild Salmon Strategy by helping to avoid or reduce additional pressures on freshwater habitats, migration routes and wild smolt production, including cumulative effects. SEPA is also consulting on draft guidance setting out the environmental information, assessment and mitigation expected for storage and pumped-storage hydropower schemes.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect information on the number of planned new-start patients commencing hybrid closed-loop (HCL) systems in each NHS territorial board and therefore does not hold this data.

Responsibility for the funding and delivery of HCL systems rests with NHS Territorial Boards, and projected uptake is not collected centrally. Consequently, the Scottish Government is unable to provide the figures requested for 2026 or compare them with 2024 and 2025.

The Thistle Safer Drug Consumption Facility operates from 9:00am to 9:00pm and plays an important role in supporting people to access a range of health, treatment and support services, including referral pathways to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT).

The impact of the service will be considered through an independent evaluation led by the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The evaluation will assess the facility's impact on health and social outcomes, including the use of drug treatment services.

There are currently no plans to extend the facility's operating hours or introduce a 24-hour model. Any future changes would need to be informed by evidence and considered alongside workforce, operational and resource implications.

While escaped farmed fish do not always result in impacts on wild populations, the Scottish Government recognises that fish farm escapes have the potential to adversely affect wild salmon through interbreeding (genetic introgression) and competition. As with any development activity, some impacts can be expected, which is why Scotland’s regulatory framework is designed to minimise the risk of escapes and mitigate potential effects. This includes assessment by local authorities through the fish farm consenting process and ongoing regulatory oversight, including monitoring and inspection of containment measures by the Scottish Government Fish Health Inspectorate.

Importantly, this analysis quantified the magnitude of introgression effects at national and regional scales, but not the impacts of introgression on wild salmon populations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-02523 on 15 September 2026. 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.

The Victims and Witnesses Commissioner for Scotland will be an independent SPCB supported officeholder. Recruitment will be undertaken by a cross-party selection panel. The successful candidate will be appointed by His Majesty, on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament. 

This will be a high-profile public appointment. The selection panel will have an important role to play in ensuring that a high calibre candidate is appointed and we therefore need the interview process to be thorough and robust. 

The Presiding Officer has appointed the cross-party panel and the role is expected to be advertised in September 2026. If a successful candidate is identified as part of this recruitment exercise it is hoped they will be appointed by the end of the year.  

The Scottish Government continues to work with Skills Development Scotland, Historic Scotland and other partners to explore solutions to increase traditional skills provision in Scotland, attract future talent, increase capacity in the sector, train people in traditional skills and provide a sustainable model for traditional skills development.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) employ modern apprentices who are undertaking training in traditional skills including glazing, architectural joinery, and stonemasonry. In addition, HES are currently piloting a ‘host’ model for craft apprenticeships, with apprentices employed by HES and placed to work within micro businesses.

The statutory guidance accompanying the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 was comprehensively updated in 2022 and further refreshed in 2025, following engagement with stakeholders. It promotes outcomes-focused, person-centred support, community participation, and choice and control for supported people.

Alongside the guidance, a range of resources support implementation, including the Self-directed Support Framework of Standards, Learning and Improvement Framework, Practitioner Toolkit, SDS Library, communities of practice, and information for supported people and carers. Collectively, these support creative, outcome-focused planning. We do not currently consider further revision necessary, as the guidance is intentionally outcomes-based rather than prescriptive.

The Self-directed Support framework does not prescribe specific activities, allowing flexibility to meet agreed outcomes. Where sport or physical activity supports those outcomes, it may already be considered through support planning.

I wrote to members of the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) in August to confirm that the Board would no longer continue. At that time members were informed that the Scottish Government was forming a new stakeholder group, the Land, Agriculture and Nature Delivery (LAND) Group which will be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs.

The LAND Group will be multi-disciplinary, made up of 12 member organisations reflecting the mix of key interest areas. These include agriculture, forestry, peatland, biodiversity, wildlife and species management and water. It will meet three times a year and will take forward strategic discussions around how land use can be integrated to deliver the multiple benefits needed to achieve the wider ambitions of ‘Scotland PLC’ and its people.

The Land, Agriculture and Nature Delivery (LAND) Group is not intended to be a direct replacement for the ARIOB but instead reflects the strategic understanding of our land as an interactive system and the expanded responsibilities in the current Climate Action and Rural Affairs portfolio. This approach ensures our stakeholder engagement is structured to provide a truly holistic approach to land use issues.

Additionally, the Agriculture Policy Development Group (APDG), which was originally set up to support the ARIOB, has been expanded and has met a number of times since the last meeting of the ARIOB. I attended their meeting in May to make clear the APDG is an essential part of our engagement with the industry on agricultural reform and the Scottish Government will rely on it to help get us into the delivery phase of the Agricultural Reform Programme. I will chair the Group going forward and we will continue working towards positive outcomes for agriculture in Scotland.