Chamber and committees

It is for an applicant to accurately describe the proposed development, including whether it is for a mix of uses, such as renewable energy generation and agriculture, or for renewable energy alone. This will determine how the planning application is considered through the planning process.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission’s recommendations, following its review on snaring, recommended that the use and sale of snares be prohibited.

A complete ban on the use of snares, as provided for in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, came into force on 25 November 2024.

Section 11(3C) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (the 1981 Act” already prohibits the possession and sale of self-locking snares.

In our consultation document ‘Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: use of snares and powers of Scottish SPCA inspectors’, published in August 2023, we proposed not to extend the offence to possess or sell any other type of snare other than those already prohibited under section 11 of the 1981 Act.

This is because many snares that were set were made by practitioners using readily available materials and therefore a ban on the sale of snares would have a limited affect.

This is an operational matter for NHS Tayside.

The Scottish Government wants all those accessing health services to be treated as close to home as clinically appropriate. Where travel is necessary, the Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to work collaboratively with transport providers to make suitable arrangements to ensure that the necessary treatment can be provided in a patient-centred way.

The NHS Pharmacy First Scotland Service was launched on 29 July 2020.

This service constitutes a redesigned minor ailment and common conditions service, expanding on the pre-existing Minor Ailment Service and is available from all community pharmacies in Scotland.

The requested information is shown in the following table.

Pharmacy First Service

In line with commitments in the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024–27, the next wave of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) is currently underway and the final report will be published in early 2027.

The Gatsby Benchmarks are a careers guidance framework used in England.

Careers support is devolved and the Gatsby Benchmarks do not form part of Scotland’s approach. While individual schools may choose to use the framework if they consider it useful, the Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on its use. Information on the number of schools using the Gatsby Benchmarks, or on any benchmark scores achieved, is therefore not held centrally.

Our approach to expansion will be informed by the lived experience of parent carers of disabled children, including those with complex additional support needs. We recognise that understanding the experiences of families is essential to ensuring that future childcare provision is accessible, inclusive and responsive to children's individual needs, and supports families to access the services they require.

Our approach to expansion will involve working closely with local authorities, private and third sector providers, representative bodies and national skills bodies to ensure that workforce requirements are understood and addressed. This will include ensuring that the workforce has the knowledge, skills and support required to meet the needs of children with additional support needs and deliver high-quality, inclusive childcare provision.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) collects and publishes Modern Apprenticeship (MA) data with the latest full year data covering 2025-26.

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/josfrdus/modern-apprenticeship-supplementary-tables-quarter-4-2025-26.xlsx.

Information on MA starts is published by age band and year, but the age bands used by SDS are 16-19 and 20-24 and 25+.

This matter is under active consideration by the Scottish Government, and Parliament will be kept informed of the outcomes of those considerations – including the potential for planning guidance – in due course.

Planning applications for data centres are a matter for the relevant local authority in the first instance. Planning applications and supporting documentation are available to view on the relevant local authority web pages.