Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of student midwives recruited who have not been offered posts in NHS Scotland.

Scottish Government officials have been engaging with Health Boards about their current position in relation to job offers and supply, with Boards remaining committed to maximising the opportunities for newly qualified midwives to find employment.

The Scottish Government publish Enforcement Data which details the number of coastal inspections by nationality. Marine and fisheries compliance: boardings of vessels in Scottish waters - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). These statistics have been updated recently to include data up to 30 June 2024.

The Scottish Government ensures all non-UK vessels landing into Scotland are authorised to do so by meeting detailed regulations which includes vessel tracking and daily electronic catch reporting, and the requirement to complete Port State Control and export documentation. Officers from the Marine Directorate verify documentation by undertaking risk-based remote and physical inspections at ports. The Scottish Government also inspect non-UK vessels at sea using Marine Protection Vessels and surveillance aircraft. Additionally, the Scottish Government is further developing a program of detailed analysis of vessels fishing Scottish waters but landing in another state. This involves working closely with the EU and other third countries to improve data sharing, including sales and inspection data.

The allocation of funding to Collaboration projects had not yet been determined, and was intended to be open to applications from all Local Action Groups. Scottish Government officials had therefore not yet been in a position to provide any breakdown of geographical distribution of projects funded by the £800,000. To date this financial year (2024-25), we have allocated funding of £6.65m for Community Led Local Development (CLLD), from which Highlands & Islands-based Local Action groups received £2,086,003.73 (Highlands and Islands is defined here as Highland, Shetland, Orkney, Outer Hebrides and Argyll and Bute)

Despite the reduction of £800k, we will continue to support projects that assist and empower rural communities through the CLLD budget.

The training costs for an average nursing or midwifery student is in the region of £60,000 and a full breakdown of these costs including teaching grants, tuition fees, bursary and the various allowances was reported in S6W-28706 on 6 August 2024.

In the academic year of 2021-22, there were 190 entrants to first degree courses at a Scottish university on midwifery courses. Training costs for the 190 Scots Domiciled students for 3 years would be in the region of £11.4 million.

However combined with student attrition / withdrawal, pauses in education due to academic failure, ill health or maternity leave taken into account, the full cohort of students would not be expected to graduate in 3 years. Of those delayed students, many will go on to complete their programmes after 4 or even 5 years.

Vacancies fluctuate across NHS Scotland Boards and by specialism but vacancies will continue to be advertised across all Boards as they arise over coming months allowing graduates additional opportunities to apply. Health Boards are autonomous institutions, separate from the Scottish Government, and as such are responsible for recruitment. The Scottish Government’s role is to set policies and frameworks at a national level, and Health Boards, as employers, are responsible in recruiting graduates through fair and consistent recruitment practices. In some specialist areas the workforce profile means that turnover is lower and so anticipatory recruitment is more challenging than in higher volume / higher turnover roles.

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 Democracy Matters 2 national conversation received over 160 responses and was informed by engagement through multiple channels including facilitated engagement events. Engagement has informed a detailed findings report which will be published later in September 2024. The publication of the findings will be accompanied by a joint statement with COSLA outlining next steps for this process. As outlined in the 24-25 Programme for Government, we will work with communities and wider stakeholders to take forward the Democracy Matters findings on the future of community decision-making.

A key aim of Phase 2 of the Democracy Matters engagement process was ensuring that as many voices were involved as possible in the national conversation on the future of community decision-making. Therefore, resources were invested to remove barriers to participation, ensuring that under-represented groups, participants with protected characteristics, rural and remote communities and young people were all able to contribute.

A full breakdown of the Democracy Matters Phase 2 spend over the 2021-22 to 2024-25 financial years can be found in the following table:

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering medium and long term solutions to address the landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.

Delivery of a permanent and resilient solution is a priority and we will continue to seek ways to achieve that as quickly as possible. Following identification of a preferred option last year, the next step for the permanent solution, which is the detailed development and assessment of the preferred option, is progressing at pace and will conclude with the publication of draft Orders for comment, currently expected by the end of this year. As with all infrastructure projects, delivery of the scheme can only commence if approved under the relevant statutory authorisation procedures and thereafter a timetable for construction can be set.

At the same time, improvements to the existing Old Military Road (OMR) through the Glen Croe corridor are being made to make it a more resilient diversion route until the long term solution is in place.

The Scottish Government has spent the following amounts each year on the necessary design and assessment work for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful project:

Through the £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund, the Scottish Government has provided each Local Authority with up to £140,000 to support the cost of carrying out analysis to identify future public EV charging requirements for cars and light commercial vehicles. This analysis is being used by each Local Authority to support bids for further funding to partner with private sector charge point operators to continue to expand the network. Funding for Dundee, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland Councils has already been announced, with further announcements expected later this year.

The Scottish Government will publish a draft Vision Implementation Plan by the end of 2024 for a public charging infrastructure network that works for all. The plan is being developed with input from owners and operators of light commercial vehicles, among others, to ensure that public charging meets the needs of users of cars and vans.

Electric charging for heavy vehicles is likely to be owned and operated by the private sector. The Scottish Government is working with transport operators including the HGV sector, charge point providers, electricity networks and trade bodies to develop a shared understanding of the energy infrastructure that will be required in the future. The first iteration of this work will be published shortly. Scottish Government will convene discussions with interested parties following this research to explore how to progress.

The second phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund, announced in July 2024, will deliver more than 200 new charger guns in bus depots across Scotland before 2026. Where possible these will be made available to other road users in addition to supporting the 252 new zero-emission buses delivered through the scheme.

The breakdown of CalMac scheduled sailings defined as (a) on time, (b) Level 1 Lateness and (c) Level 2 Lateness in each month since March 2023, including performance deductions incurred, are available in a table placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib Number 62561.