Chamber and committees

There are no chalk streams in Scotland. The Scottish Government, therefore, does not hold information on the protection of chalk streams from pollution and damage.

Initial Teacher Education is fully funded by the Scottish Government, for those students within the controlled subject numbers.

The following table shows funding for publicly funded student places provided by the Scottish Government to providers of Initial Teacher Education and students since 2010-11, based on academic years.

This funding covers tuition fee, student support and teaching grant for activity in addition to the baseline funding provided by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). The student support element assists students to overcome financial barriers to engaging in higher education.

I am pleased to announce that the NHS Recovery Plan annual progress report for 2024 has been published today.

We remain committed to delivering on the actions set out in the NHS Recovery Plan, and this annual report sets out the significant progress we have made over the course of this year.

However, it is vital that we recognise, now more than ever, how much has changed since the Plan was first published. Many of the actions set out in the Plan have now been delivered, and where appropriate, as we continue to focus on supporting the ongoing recovery and reform of our health and social care services, alternative approaches to action delivery are underway.

With refreshed commitments as set out in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024-25, we will continue to align the NHS Recovery Plan progress with ongoing reform work and will continue to work closely with our partners across the health and social care system, Local Government and wider stakeholder partnerships to achieve this. https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911579

We know that flooding in Scotland will become more frequent and more severe in the decades ahead. As our biggest climate adaptation challenge, we need to do all we can to be prepared for this. That is why today we will publish Scotland’s first Flood Resilience Strategy. Part of our Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029, this strategy will help us meet this challenge and support the changes we need to make over the long-term to make our communities more flood resilient.

The Scottish Government takes the safety of buildings very seriously and works closely with members of the public and organisations to address concerns about cladding. Since January 2019, notifications regarding potentially unsafe cladding have been received on an ongoing basis. These have been managed in collaboration with relevant public bodies to ensure appropriate actions are taken. The Government continues to prioritise public safety and supports affected parties in addressing these issues.

There are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings.

We are aware that pilot assessments have been undertaken for 30 of the pilot entries. A pilot assessment includes any assessment carried out prior to the publication of the Single Building Assessment specification on the 21 June 2024. These numbers relate to known pilot assessments only as developers, home owners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government and therefore the true numbers may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

Pilot works to mitigate or remediate risks have started for five of the pilot entries. Works in this context refers to any action taken to address known cladding-related risks, including Urgent Interim Measures. These numbers relate to known works on a pilot entry only, as developers or other organisations could have carried out works without informing the Scottish Government, and therefore the true numbers may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

General Practitioners are experienced in preventing, diagnosing, and treating chronic kidney disease and follow established professional guidelines, including those by NICE, in supporting patients through this chronic condition.

Professional clinical management decisions about how best to prevent, diagnose and treat chronic kidney disease by primary care teams are the responsibility of NHS boards and primary care clinicians.

The 2025-26 draft budget provides £139 million additional investment for health infrastructure, allowing some work to resume on delivering new acute facilities, including the Princes Alexandra Eye Pavilion.

NHS Lothian have been invited to progress the business case and design work, however, the exact timeline has not been established as to when construction will start or when the project will be completed.

The Scottish Government continually considers where regulation for farmed fish health is necessary.

We already have robust legislation, policies, and operational practices in place to ensure fish farmers are meeting statutory requirements on sealice reporting and management, mortality reporting, listed disease surveillance and containment of farmed fish. The aquaculture sector in Scotland shows a significant level of compliance with both legislative and voluntary requirements. Enactment in law of the finfish sector’s Code of Good Practice through existing legislative instruments would not necessarily significantly improve outcomes for fish health and, therefore, there are no plans for further legislation at this time.

The Out-turn report for the 2022-23 Affordable Housing Supply Programme will be published early in the New Year. The 2023-24 out-turn report is still in progress and we do not, at present, have an identified publication date.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of homes. They can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/

Other Affordable housing programme data is also available on our webpage Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot

There are no chalk streams in Scotland, however, we are taking action to protect Scotland’s water environment from sewage overflows.

Our waterways are in good condition. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) considers 86.5% of our water environment to be high or good quality - up from 82% in 2014. SEPA, which regulates discharges from Scottish Water’s assets to the environment, acknowledges the sustained investment made by Scottish Water across the period 2015-21 has been a key driver of this improvement