Chamber and committees

There was no discussion at the Heads of Devolved Governments Council regarding the UK’s Military presence in Scotland.

However, we have previously highlighted to the Scottish Affairs Committee decisions made by the UK Government on defence, which is a reserved matter, can have far reaching implications for Scottish communities who we support.

In the Scottish Government’s written evidence to the Committee, we proposed that the UK Government commits to meaningful engagement with the Scottish Government through clear structures that facilitate discussion leading to productive outcomes.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with National Records of Scotland and adoption agencies to understand further the challenges in accessing adoption records.

We have also commissioned research to explore the unmet needs of those people affected by historic forced adoption, and what services we could put in place to support them. Access to records forms a key part of that research which is due for publication in late autumn.

We anticipate that the research will be published in late autumn and thank the people who have bravely shared their story as part of this work. Their voices will continue to shape the support that we put in place to help those affected by these historic practices.

We are considering the calls for a meaningful and fitting recognition of the pain and trauma suffered by those with experience of historic forced adoption. It is Scottish Government policy that the costs of creating and maintaining memorials are not to be met from public funds. We will, however, continue to engage those affected and be led by their views on the most appropriate form of commemoration and validation for these past injustices. We would be happy to support to any specific initiative raising funding in this area.

The Access for All scheme is a UK Government scheme and as such is managed by the UK Department for Transport (DfT).

The Scottish Government has made a case for Springburn railway station to be nominated for Access for All scheme funding for Control Period 7 (2024-2029). We will continue to make representations to the UK Government on this matter.

The Department for Transport is expected to announce which stations will be prioritised for funding through the Access for All scheme this Autumn.

The Scottish Government have not undertaken work to ascertain how many tour operators have removed guaranteed departure products as a result of disruption to CalMac operated ferry services.

Transport Scotland is considering future ferry fares policy as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan alongside our wider Fair Fares Review, which will report by the end of 2023 and recommend a package of measures which can be considered for implementation from 2024-25 and onwards to address the wider issues of cost and availability across all modes of public transport.

Meantime, we are continuing to take action on ferry fares with fares on the Northern Isles and Clyde & Hebrides ferry networks to remain frozen until the end of March 2024.

Any introduction of new RET measures on lifeline ferry services in Scotland would now need to comply with the requirements of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and there have been extensive discussions on the Subsidy Control Act 2022 but no separate specific discussions on RET with the UK Government.

Transport Scotland has conducted extensive analysis of the carbon benefits of transport modal shift in Scotland. However, there has been no flow-specific analysis on the Edinburgh/Glasgow to Belfast corridor.

Since the STEM bursary scheme (now known as the Teaching Bursary Scheme) was introduced in 2018, the number of bursaries awarded in each year is as follows:

Since the STEM bursary scheme (now known as the Teaching Bursary Scheme) was introduced in 2018, the costs the Scottish Government has provided is as follows: