Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is grateful for the bravery shown by the young people and their families who shared their experiences at the summit. It was extremely important to hear directly from those with lived experience on their views about possible solutions to address violence amongst young people.

We will publish a report of the summit that will highlight the key areas the participants raised.

A commitment has been made to hold a further meeting involving cross-party MSPs to discuss youth violence and the issues raised at the summit.

Over the last two years, we have invested more than £4 million to implement the actions set out in the Violence Prevention Framework, including tackling youth violence. This has included work to extend the support of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, to reach more individuals and communities across Scotland, extending the Medics Against Violence Hospital Navigator Programme in two Children’s Hospitals in Aberdeen and Glasgow and training teachers in schools to provide young people with key messages on violence.

The Scottish Government is also investing up to £20 million through our CashBack for Communities programme phase 6, which is funding 29 partners over 3 years to deliver early intervention and prevention projects targeted at working with and supporting young people at risk of being drawn into antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending. This programme aims to reach a minimum of 33,976 children and young people between April 2023 and March 2026.

The Thistle facility in Glasgow acknowledges the challenges posed by external factors, such as the potential for organised crime groups to exploit vulnerable individuals. To address this Glasgow HSCP are working closely with Police Scotland who are dedicated to disrupting organized crime groups and ensuring a hostile environment for their operations.

Police Scotland maintain operational independence to police the facility and surrounding areas, safeguarding the wider community, facility operators and users.

In addition, local policing teams will act on reports of drug use or supply by deploying community police and response officers to patrol identified areas, deterring criminality and enhancing public safety. Police Scotland will also continue patrols to address illegal acts around the facility. Public support around this facility is vital and Police Scotland would encourage the reporting of any concerns to them or Crimestoppers to help address any issues.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the offshore oil and gas industry on a range of topics, including workforce planning. For example, the First Minister last met with Offshore Energies UK along with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in September 2024 and this included discussion of jobs in the context of the energy transition.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work in partnership with business and industry to plan for a multi-skilled energy workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across sectors as the transition to net zero progresses. This includes exploring opportunities for mutual recognition of qualifications between different energy sectors including funding support from the Just Transition Fund to support the industry-led Energy Skills Passport which is now being piloted.

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based surveys using specialist vehicles each year to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. The data obtained provides an annual snapshot of the road condition across the network and is used to determine a Road Condition Index for each section of road. The Index values can then be used to identify where detailed engineering investigations should be focused in order to determine maintenance requirements.

The proportion of the A90 that has been assessed as requiring further preliminary investigation to determine whether structural maintenance is required has varied over the last 5 years as follows:

2019-20 – 13%; 2020/21 – 10%; 2021-22 – 9%; 2022-23 – 10%; 2023-24 – 18%

Transport Scotland’s trunk road maintenance budget is not allocated on a route or part-route basis. It is distributed based upon need and prioritisation of schemes developed from regular inspections and condition surveys.

Please see below for maintenance spend for all trunk roads in the north east of Scotland over the last 5 full financial years.

Transport Scotland contracts for the management, maintenance and operation of the trunk road network contain highly prescriptive requirements to keep drainage assets working and trunk road traffic moving safely. For example, the contracts contain annual routine and cyclic maintenance requirements that are designed to ensure drainage assets are working and checked for deterioration. Transport Scotland contracts also contain requirements for Operating Companies to complete weekly driven inspections of all trunk roads to identify safety critical defects. If any are identified, they are required to address the issue or make it safe within set timescales. In addition to this, Transport Scotland's Operating Companies are required to maintain Disruption Risk Management Registers to identify vulnerable locations subject to frequent disruption. Where such sites are identified, the Operating Companies are required to investigate the issue and look to deliver solutions to improve journey time reliability.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The member may wish to contact the British Transport Police and ScotRail for this information.

This is a matter for Network Rail who are wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Government.

Health Boards are expected to support patients and their families in identifying and accessing available support. Financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements, through schemes such as the Patient Travel Expenses Scheme (PTES) and the Highlands and Islands Travel Scheme (HITS).

Scottish Government has funded Young Lives Vs Cancer to provide practical advice and emotional and financial support to young people diagnosed with cancer and their families. This includes advice on potential welfare benefits as well as direct grants.

Further to this, we are working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC). This partnership with Macmillan is worth £27 million and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme ensures that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial, and practical support.