Chamber and committees

Discussions continue between my officials at Transport Scotland and local authorities to re-affirm their expected expenditure for the 2025-26 financial year. Funding from the road safety allocation that is contained in the wider Roads budget will be made available to support the delivery of 20mph speed limits on appropriate roads by end of 2025.

I have not recently met any of the local authorities listed to discuss the impact of major electricity infrastructure or energy infrastructure consenting reforms.

The Scottish Government has not conducted specific analysis on the effectiveness of previous efforts to raise public awareness of proper battery disposal. However, feedback from stakeholders, including local authorities and industry partners, has highlighted several ongoing challenges:

• Public Awareness Gaps: A significant proportion of the public remains unaware of the environmental risks posed by improper battery disposal and the recycling options available to them.
• Accessibility Issues: Recycling points for batteries are not always easily accessible or visible, particularly in rural areas.
• Messaging Limitations: Previous public awareness efforts have lacked the reach and consistency needed to drive long-term behavioural change.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31866 on 11 December 2024. 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 Scottish Government’s Offshore Wind Focus paper identifies key strategic opportunities across ports & harbours infrastructure and the wider offshore wind supply chain. The strategic assessment conducted with public sector delivery partners, drawing from a range of evidence, industry reports and wider market intelligence, concluded that a cluster approach would be essential for Ports and Harbours, and identified priority clusters in Cromarty/Moray and Forth &Tay with supporting investments in the broader North East, West Coast and Shetland clusters. We are not releasing details of the projects or the full potential pipeline of opportunities at this time as this is commercially sensitive, and the individual investment opportunities are subject to rigorous due diligence and value for money assurance processes.

Further detail on the Scottish Government’s proposed £221.961 million funding for the primary care fund in 2025-2026 can be found in the 2025-26 Level 4 tables published along the Budget itself - Supporting documents - Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot. In addition, we plan to further invest in primary and community care services from the commitment to provide £100 million Reform and Improvement measures funding to alleviate waiting time and hospital occupancy.

Local authorities are responsible for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes in Scotland. Decisions on the allocation of funding for flood resilience are made jointly by Scottish Ministers and COSLA leaders, informed by SEPA flood risk assessment and a subsequent prioritisation process.

SEPA has categorised all viable flood protection schemes put forward by local authorities for the 2021 Flood Risk Management Plans. The Ballater scheme, as put forward, has been assessed as category 3. There are 28 flood protection schemes in category 1 or 2, and 25 in category 3.

Since 2008 Scottish Government has made £42 million available each year to local authorities to invest in flood risk management. Scottish Government has also committed an additional £150 million over the course of this parliament.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have convened a working group that will consider the future funding and governance model for flooding, including the approach to these 53 schemes.

The Scottish Government is working closely with public sector delivery partners to identify priority investment opportunities designed to mobilise private investment in ports, manufacturing and fabrication, to maximise the economic opportunities from offshore wind. As set out in our Offshore Wind Focus paper, the approach to prioritisation is underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities, considering the combined impact of a programme of public sector investments. We are working with delivery partners to target funding at projects that will have a catalytic effect on wider economic growth, and identifying and prioritising those with potentially high Benefit Cost Ratios.

Widespread stakeholder participation is essential if we are to successfully develop a new National Marine Plan (NMP2) for Scotland that, supports economic growth, our communities and protects our marine environment. We want everyone who uses, relies on or has an interest in Scotland's seas to have the opportunity to contribute to the development of NMP2.? The updated Statement of Public Participation (SPP) for NMP2 (LINK) sets out how and when we plan to engage with stakeholders.

The 2023-24 Official Statistics on attendance and absence show a slight increase in attendance and reduction in persistent absence. It is acknowledged that the rate of attendance has decreased prior to this as a result of the impact of Covid-19.

The overall attendance rate for 2023-24 was 90.3%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on 2022-23. The rate of persistent absence for 2023-24 was 31.4%, a reduction of 1.1 percentage points on 2022-23.

The Scottish Government recognises these slight improvements in the most recent data and will continue to implement the national strategic approach to supporting education authorities and schools to improve attendance and reduce absence through engagement and support of children, young people and their families.

As part of this approach, which follows the deep dive on attendance and absence which I commissioned and which was published by Education Scotland in November 2023, there are a range of actions in place to support improved attendance.

Every Local Authority in Scotland has school attendance as a stretch aim, as part of their work on the Scottish Attainment Challenge, and every council in the country has identified action they are taking at school level. This work is being supported by the Pupil Equity Fund.

Education Scotland have developed and published a range of updated practice advice and guidance, established a professional network, and are providing bespoke support to authorities as part of a phased approach to improvement.

The Scottish Government has added additional analysis of data and is publishing data more frequently to support education authorities in understanding their local picture, as part of monitoring and review.

Finally, as I announced in December, there will be a national marketing campaign in the coming year to further enhance the support available.