Chamber and committees

Details of every external meeting all Ministers have undertaken since 2016 can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/. This currently shows engagements up until May of this year, however information on engagements after this point will be published in due course, as per the Scottish Government’s commitment to do so, which is set out in the Scottish Ministerial Code.

It is also worth noting that although the names of specific councils or council leaders may not appear in records of certain engagements, the First Minister, previous First Ministers and other Ministers have engaged with various council leaders at COSLA Annual Conferences and other conferences and events that involve council leaders since 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29569 on 19 September 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.

In 2009, sportscotland’s headquarters moved to Doges, Templeton on the Green, Glasgow and Caledonian House was retained as a “House of Sport”. A full cost-benefit analysis of Caledonian House was conducted in March 2023, and it was concluded the building was not a good use of public money. All existing tenants, including relevant Scottish Governing Bodies of sport, were part of a sportscotland consultation process, have been kept up to date with the process throughout, and were provided ample time to consider their future office needs and find alternative office space.

sportscotland continue to support tenants with information and guidance on alternative accommodation and where possible, have facilitated introductions to wider partners where there is potential to co-locate.

During the pandemic, and beginning in March 2020, routine planned operations were paused to allow our NHS to focus on patients with COVID-19 and to minimise transmission of the virus.

As services have remobilised, the number of patients listed for surgery has increased, therefore the number of cancelled operations increased in parallel.

The latest data for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde shows that in July 2024, of all cancelled planned operations, just 1.6% were cancelled for capacity reasons, down from 2.1% in July 2021, while 5.7% were cancelled either by the patient or for clinical reasons.

We have also seen planned activity in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde rise from 4,238 in July 2021 to 4,798 in July 2024 – a 13.2% increase.

When a patient’s operation is cancelled, I expect NHS Boards to liaise with patients to find a suitable date as quickly as possible in order to ensure disruption to the patient is kept the minimum.

In line with Scottish Public Sector Pay Policy, the Scottish Government does not pay non-consolidated performance payments to any staff, including Senior Civil Servants. Therefore, I can confirm that no Scottish Government Senior Civil Servants have received a non-consolidated performance payment in the period referenced.

In November 2023 Scottish Government statisticians identified technical issues with the automatic data processing and updating of some of the data sources on the Energy Statistics Hub. This affected the formatted display of some of the figures and charts on the hub. Work is continuing to resolve the issue and updates are being processed as quickly as possible.

Updates to the underlying data sources and publication of Scotland's quarterly energy statistics are unaffected and there has been no delay in the quarterly publication of any of the Scottish Government’s energy statistics. The next Energy Statistics Quarterly publication is on Thursday 26 September 2024.

Key energy statistics are published on the Scottish Government website.

The primary aim of the Strategic Approach is to improve support for those with experience of prostitution, from crisis support through to support to exit from prostitution. We remain focussed on progressing this and the strategy’s wider components.

Since publishing the Strategy in February 2024 we have worked across Scottish Government, the wider public and third sectors, to identify opportunities to move forward with its implementation. This includes hosting a workshop earlier this month involving key stakeholders to discuss some of the challenges around capacity and resource in the current fiscal environment.

Over the coming weeks I will be announcing the key next steps we will be taking to progress this work.

The Scottish Government’s ten year Cancer Strategy published in 2023 sets out the Scottish Government’s approach to improving patient pathways from cancer prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care, and this includes our ambitions for flourishing research and innovation. The Scottish Government is also the only UK-nation to have a dedicated strategy to support children and young people with cancer, delivered through the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer. This network will continue to contribute to national and international research projects which aim to maximise cure for those with the highest risk disease and minimise treatment burden for those who are already curable.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports cancer research in Scotland including on cancers affecting children through investments in NHS Research Scotland infrastructure including Cancer and Paediatric Research Networks and in Paediatric and Adult Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres that support the delivery of clinical studies and trials. In addition, CSO supports funding opportunities for cancer research through access to National Institute for Health & Care Research programmes. CSO also recently established a collaboration with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission to co-fund a neuro-oncology fellowship in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its policy position on Ramsar sites and a revised policy statement will be published before the end of 2024. We will be conducting a targeted consultation on the proposed new policy position in early October to inform decisions about how to proceed.

The Scottish Government has not had any direct engagement with Natural Power regarding the Climate Neutral Milngavie project.

We did fund a feasibility study via our CARES (Community and Renewable Energy Scheme) programme, delivered by Local Energy Scotland. The feasibility study looked to determine what can be deployed to generate heat and power and related climate solutions for Milngavie. Natural Power was contracted by Local Energy Scotland in 2022 to undertake the study. The final report was delivered by Natural Power and presented to the MCC group at The Fraser Centre, Milngavie in April 2024.