Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has recently closed an initial consultation to start a national discussion about our National Parks. We will be working with NatureScot over the summer to engage further with the general public and stakeholders to help develop the evaluation framework that will be needed to determine which area or areas should be designated as National Parks. We will soon share further information about the process and timescales which will be followed to progress one or more areas to statutory designation.

The Institute of Economic Affairs report is one independent report and should not be used to draw conclusions on the effect of the policy.

Public Health Scotland are leading a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing, details of which can be found on their website. The evaluation is over a five year period and a final report will be produced in 2023. The evaluation will consider a wide range of evidence and reports regarding Minimum Unit Price (MUP).

We will review the final evaluation report from Public Health Scotland before drawing overall conclusions, this will include the impact MUP has had on health and social benefits.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many crimes were reported in connection with the use of e-scooters.

Police Scotland collect data on road traffic accidents that were a) reported to the police and b) involved someone being injured or killed. Figures for 2021 are provisional and final figures will be published in October 2022. Figures for 2022 are still being collected and verified and are therefore not currently available.

The following table shows the number and severity of casualties in 2021 who were injured in road accidents that involved an e-scooter and the location of the accident.

Roles and responsibilities of the ScotRail Board Members and its subsidiaries are set out in the Grant Agreement between Scottish Ministers, Scottish Rail Holdings Limited and ScotRail Trains Limited and the Framework Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Rail Holdings Limited. The intention is for both agreements to be published by end June 2022.

The Scottish Government response to the Public Interest Journalism Working Group report, Scotland’s News: Towards A Sustainable Future for Public Interest Journalism , is scheduled to be published on the Scottish Government publications page on Friday 24 June.

The response will set out the Scottish Government’s answer to each of the recommendations, and the next steps for taking them forward.

The Scottish Government is very grateful to the Working Group’s members for their hard work in developing the recommendations within the report.

There is no evidence to support the claim that primary school pupils in Scotland are falling behind pupils in England and due to the differing education systems and curriculums, direct comparisons cannot be made. The reports referred to by Monica Lennon relate to views expressed in relation to the closed Scottish Parliament petition PE01668. This petition related to phonics teaching in Primary schools in Scotland.

The UK government has sought to embed the teaching of phonics in all English primary schools and on 28 April 2022 published updated essential core criteria for systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programmes to be used in schools. In Scotland, as with all of Curriculum for Excellence, schools, supported by their local authority, plan the reading curriculum to meet the needs of the learners within their own local context. In Wales and Northern Ireland schools are also provided with the flexibility to make informed decisions about the needs of their learners.

On 14 December 2021, I announced that a group would be set up as a National Response to Improving Literacy, which mirrored the already-existing National Response to Improving Mathematics. The group’s remit is currently being drafted but will look to examine the existing landscape in Scotland and to seek opportunities to enhance the professional learning for teachers and the classroom experiences for young people. It is anticipated that the first meeting of the group will be early in the next academic year.

The group is a partnership board led by Scottish Government, ADES and Education Scotland. Early gathering of stakeholder views indicates that teacher confidence in their knowledge and expertise and in selecting the best pedagogies to teach literacy could be a key theme explored by the group when formulating their recommendations.

Following the publication of the interim guidance in August 2021 by the Drug Deaths Taskforce, the Scottish Government published an evidence review on benzodiazepine use in March 2022 and convened an expert group to consider the interim guidance, the evidence review, and what further guidance would cover. Experts endorse the interim guidance and agree that the prescribing element is the area which requires further research before anything further is published.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for a cohort study by the University of Stirling on patient outcomes and through the National Mission we are funding a pilot benzodiazepine clinic in Fife. These projects will contribute to the evidence needed to inform further guidance, and guidance on benzodiazepine harm reduction will be updated in response to the developing evidence base.

I refer the member to the answer to question S60-00653 on 20 January 2022 in relation to the report from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission on the use of glue traps I set out our plans to introduce a ban on the sale and use of glue traps.

While the Commission’s report found that there are public health concerns in certain high-risk situations that require effective and rapid pest control in order to reduce the spread of disease the report was also clear that the animal welfare issues connected with the use of glue traps would justify an immediate outright ban on their sale and use .

I understand there are some concerns from the pest control industry on the available alternatives to glue traps, which is why the Scottish Government has been and will continue to engage with stakeholders as this policy develops.

As part of the normal legislative process, we intend to have a full public consultation to seek views on our proposals, and this will include consideration of whether a transition period is necessary.

All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Meeting of the Parliament: 20/01/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website .

Information on salaries/fees of ScotRail Board members will be published by the end of June 2022.

We will shortly share further information about the process and timetable for which will enable one or more areas to be designated as a National Park. This designation will take place before the end of the current Parliament.