Chamber and committees

There is no correlation between sportscotland’s voluntary severance scheme and the Changing the Boundaries report and independent referrals investigation.

The referrals process underlined the failings of the governing body over recent years, and Cricket Scotland, having fully accepted all actions and recommendations for improvement, is committed to delivering on those. We recognise the progress that has been made and sportscotland is providing continued support to Cricket Scotland to ensure the sport can move forward with confidence.

sportscotland is not making staff redundant. Their severance scheme is a voluntary scheme and it is an individual’s choice if they wish to apply. The scheme is intended to mitigate financial challenges facing the sector including the unprecedented levels of inflation experienced over the past 3-4 years, and the UK Government’s planned increase in employer national insurance contributions. The severance scheme will enable sportscotland to maximise the impact of investment in sport and physical activity.

The Scottish Government is greatly concerned by the UK Government’s planned increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions and the damaging implications for businesses, public services, and communities. We are calling on the UK Government to reverse the planned increase.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the retirement ages of GPs.

The Scottish Funding Council’s University Upskilling Fund was introduced in 2019. The total spend across the Fund’s operational period from 2019-2024 was £33,672,015.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on how many individuals may seek regulated independent healthcare provided transgender chest surgery.

The Scottish Government is committed to bringing forward a National Care Service and will deliver vital reform through legislative and non-legislative means, and those with lived experience at the heart of our work.

Under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 every young carer has a right to a personalised support plan, called a young carer statement. The process of producing the statement must include identifying the young person’s needs, such as support to take a break, or to succeed in their own personal goals. To strengthen these rights, we are planning to use the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill currently in Parliament to amend this Act and establish a right to breaks for carers.

In addition to this, the published Scottish Budget for 2025-26 includes an uplift of £5m for the voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund, bringing the fund to £13m. Short breaks through this fund are delivered via several schemes, all of which can benefit young carers in different ways. This includes the Young Scot Young Carer package, aimed at all young carers aged 11-18.

We recognise the importance of young carers being identified in schools so that they can be supported in achieving their educational and wider goals, as set out in our National Carers Strategy.

To help achieve this, we fund a full time Education Officer post at Carers Trust Scotland to work with Education Scotland, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, and the Scottish Qualification Authority on improving young carer awareness, identification, and support in education. This has led to an accredited e-training module to help education staff understand, identify, and support young carers.

Young carers should also receive support under the Additional Support for Learning Act. Education authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. This includes support for children and young people with caring responsibilities.

Additionally, we funded Young Scot to work with young carers to create a page on the Young Scot website, which hosts information and resources for young carers about what support is available to them at key transitions, including going from Secondary School onto further education or work. Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is also highlighting to career advisers the additional support young carers may need at this pivotal time. SDS will continue to look at how we can support young carers as they move into employment.

Transport Scotland facilitated a Parking Standards Group with representatives from all 32 local authorities, in advance of the 2019 Act becoming law. During these meetings, in depth discussions were held around the enforcement of the new parking prohibitions. Transport Scotland also issued detailed guidance to all local authorities providing them with a procedure to follow to enforce the prohibitions This guidance also addressed any subsequent queries raised by local authorities.

Officials are in ongoing discussions with SCOTS and COSLA in respect of the funding mechanism for the relevant costs associated with the new prohibitions. Once those discussions have been concluded we will be in a position to reimburse any further eligible costs incurred by local authorities.

The Scottish Government have confirmed that they will provide an additional capital allocation to NHS Borders to allow them to remediate the RAAC situation at Knoll hospital. For other potential RAAC related issues across the NHS Scotland estate, requests for additional capital funding will be considered on a case by case basis.

The Scottish Government has provided over £65 million to support the development of public EV charging across Scotland. As a direct result of this funding, and increasing private sector investment, Scotland met its target for 6,000 public charge points in October last year, two years ahead of schedule and Scotland now has almost 6,200 public EV charge points.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government published the Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. In December 2024 we published our draft Vision Implementation Plan that identifies proposed actions for delivering this Vision, as well as a route map for delivering approximately 24,000 additional public electric vehicle charge points by 2030, largely funded and delivered by the private sector.

The Scottish Government does not install EV charging, but it continues to support EV charging expansion through its £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund which supports Scotland’s local authorities to partner with the private sector to continue to expand public EV charging and, following approval of the Scottish Government’s budget for 2025-26 by this parliament, a further £5 million will be made available to support the provision of public EV charging in rural and island communities. Further details of this funding and the charging infrastructure it will support will be announced in due course.

The following table shows the number of cases closed during the past 5 financial years which were time barred on receipt of report by COPFS. Each case may comprise multiple accused and a variety of charges. To ascertain case type would require a manual check of each report. This information is not readily available.

Criminal cases reported to COPFS

Count is cases closed using the marking - 'No Action: Timebarred On Receipt'

Grouped by financial year case closed

count is by case

Financial year closed