Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is investing record levels of funding for active travel, in particular around schools and places of education. The £150m active travel budget for 2022-23 includes £12.3m of funding for behavioural change initiatives which local authorities can access through our active delivery partners dedicated programmes for schools and communities. The budget also includes a record £35m for the Cycling and Walking Safer Routes fund, which goes directly to local authorities on a pro-rata basis, enabling them to make the changes to the public realm that they see as having most impact for supporting safer daily journeys by walking and cycling.

The Scottish Government does not hold specific information of how many release sites for beaver translocations have been identified.

Following the Scottish Government’s announcement to actively support the expansion of the beaver population in November 2021 much work has been undertaken by NatureScot to support the policy. While there have been no licence applications made by public bodies to date, NatureScot have logged a number of expressions of interest and are liaising with RSPB Scotland and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority in relation to the consultation for beaver translocations in progress for Loch Lomond, and with Forestry and Land Scotland for the consultation in progress for Glen Affric.

The Scottish Government remains committed to funding the expansion of free school lunches to all children in primary and special schools during the course of this parliament. We will also establish a pilot of the provision of free school lunches to secondary school pupils.

As the First Minister stated, during her statement to Parliament on our Programme for Government on 6 September, having delivered free school meals for all pupils in primary 1 to 5, we can now announce that we will start work with local authorities to extend universal provision to all pupils in primary 6 and 7. This work will be supported by £30 million of capital funding during this academic year to support the expansion of catering and dining facilities to accommodate increased uptake.

Where families do not meet the regular eligibility criteria for receiving free school meals, local authorities have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals where families are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances. We would encourage any families experiencing difficulty with meeting the cost of school meals to contact their local council to enquire about what assistance may be available.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) makes clear the planning system should maintain a presumption against further marine finfish farm developments on the north and east coasts, and that local development plans, or supplementary guidance, should take account of Marine Scotland’s locational policies when identifying areas potentially suitable for new development and sensitive areas which are unlikely to be appropriate for such development.

All planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. As a statement of Ministers’ priorities, the content of the SPP is a material consideration that carries significant weight, though it is for the decision-maker to determine the appropriate weight in each case.

We laid our fourth Draft National Planning Framework (NPF4) in parliament on 10 November 2021, including proposals for updated planning policy on aquaculture. Alongside Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, we ran a public consultation, supported by an extensive engagement programme, with comments invited by 31 March 2022. Once approved and adopted, NPF4 will be part of the statutory development plan, and will replace Scottish Planning Policy. We are considering the broad range of views shared with us before laying a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.

The recent Programme for Government also commits to the development of a new National Marine Plan to address the global climate and nature crises and to supporting local authorities to guide development to the right places.

In Scotland, we invest £300 million annually to provide free bus travel for over 2 million people, including all children and young people under 22, disabled people and everyone over 60. We haven’t raised the age at which older people qualify for free bus travel, and we are the only part of the UK now operating a national scheme giving children and young people under 22 free bus travel.

Additionally, in many areas, single fares are already below £2.00. For example in Edinburgh you can travel anywhere in the city for a flat fare of £1.80.

We will look carefully at how this new £2 flat fare scheme will work in England to see what more we can do here in Scotland to support and sustain affordable bus travel for more people during the cost of living crisis. One of the key issues is the cost of operating for many bus companies which face huge cost increases in energy and fuel – the UK Government must do more to support businesses, especially small operators, to cope. Additionally, Brexit impacts have compounded staffing shortages in the bus sector – one way the new Prime Minister can help alleviate this situation would be to include bus drivers on the shortage occupation list.

The Scottish Government supports research and development in a renewable energy system through a range of funds, ensuring Scotland will be at the forefront of new transition opportunities. Our Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray has offered £20 million to projects this year, ranging from testing and promoting emerging technologies such as electric vehicle battery recycling, offshore green hydrogen, and decommissioning, to innovative projects such as a digital innovation lab and a supply chain pathway and challenge fund.

This builds on support offered through our £75 million Energy Transition Fund (ETF) and £100 million Emerging Energy Transition Fund (EETF). The ETF supports four projects: the Energy Transition Zone, Global Underwater Hub, Net Zero Technology Transition Programme, and Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, which will all support the sector to make progress on energy transition. The first tranche of the EETF’s hydrogen investment programme was launched via the £10 million Hydrogen Innovation Scheme with a focus on innovation in green hydrogen, storage and distribution technology. To provide a coordinated vision for the sector, our upcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will set out the energy system’s role in delivering a just transition to net zero and climate resilience.

Section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 provides that any interested party can make a complaint to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body has failed to discharge a statutory duty relating to education.

Following investigation of the complaint, Scottish Ministers may make an order declaring the responsible body to be in default of the duty and requiring them to discharge the duty by a specified date.

The complaint procedures do not provide an option for the complainant to consent to the publication of an unredacted version of the final decision they receive.

Individual Placement and Support assists people requiring more intensive support to enter and sustain employment. The Independent review has considered the current delivery landscape and outcomes achieved by this specialist employment support programme, and made recommendations to build on best practice as well as identifying areas for further improvement. The Scottish Government intends to publish the report of the Independent review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) before the end of 2022.

The following table details the number of recorded crimes of theft of a pedal cycle for the March year end data for reporting years 2016-17 to 2021-22.

Table: Number of theft of a pedal cycle crimes recorded by the police, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2021-22

As the First Minister noted in her statement to the Scottish Parliament on the Programme for Government on 6 September 2022, the Scottish Government’s commitment to the full-parliament plans set out in last year’s Programme for Government - and in the Bute House Agreement - stands.

Under the Bute House Agreement, Ministers and Scottish Green Group portfolio holders hold regular liaison meetings as well as regular stocktake meetings with me, in my capacity as Deputy First Minister, and the wider Green Group of MSPs.

In line with the commitment in the Cooperation Agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group, Patrick Harvie MSP and Lorna Slater MSP both attended Cabinet meetings on 26 April 2022 and 16 August 2022 where the Bute House Agreement was discussed.