Chamber and committees

The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership has been asked to support the development of a radical blueprint for human rights legislation, following on from the work of the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights leadership, and is in the process of developing recommendations which it will report on next year.

To inform this work the Taskforce is undertaking a significant programme of engagement which includes a wide range of sectorial roundtables including an Access to Justice roundtable which comprises key representatives from the justice sector in Scotland. The focus of these sectorial roundtables are on duty-bearers, civil society, access to justice and the regulatory sector. These are Chaired by the Independent Co-Chair of the Taskforce, Professor Alan Miller.

The information outlined in the answer S5W-16725 will have previously been obtained as a one off snap shot from the Health Board in 2018.

At present this information is not part of any routine data collection held by the Scottish Government or Public Health Scotland.

Information on patient travel is held and collected by the Health Board, and may be available upon direct request.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government is not aware of any current legislation that is non-compliant with the requirements of the 1998 Act.

The Scottish Government believes that both parents should be fully involved in their child’s life, as long as this is in the child’s best interests.

The Scottish Government has produced the Your Parenting Plan which is a guide for parents in making practical arrangements for children when they are living apart or separating.

Where separated parents cannot agree regarding contact arrangements for their children it may ultimately be for the court to make this decision. A parent may be eligible for legal aid.

Section 16 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 provides that the court must consider the effect making an order under section 11 of the 1995 Act might have on the involvement of the child’s parents in bringing the child up.

The Scottish Government gives funding to Relationships Scotland , who provide a number of services including family mediation and “parenting apart” classes. The Scottish Government also provides funding to Relationships Scotland for child contact centre services.Child contact centres are safe venues used to facilitate contact between children and a parent they do not live with.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to Shared Parenting Scotland who are an organisation providing advice, assistance and other support to parents who are experiencing difficulties in having contact with their children.

Ministers and officials have held regular discussions with UK Government counterparts on proposals for freeports. However, we await further, more detailed information about implementation of the UK Government’s Freeport policy, including on the reserved tax and funding incentives to be offered. We will consider this and all relevant information and evidence carefully in determining our approach to freeports in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has consulted widely with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, hosting a number of sessions with representatives of multiple sectors of the Scottish economy, including Scottish port operators. These sessions have highlighted specific reservations about the Freeports policy, such as the potential for economic displacement, as well as some potential benefits.

Discussions and engagement with the UK Government and Scottish stakeholders will continue as we seek to establish a robust evidence base with regard to all the potential impacts of this policy on Scotland’s economy.

Assessment of any potential economic and social impacts, including advantages of freeports to Scotland, is ongoing.

Ministers and officials have held regular discussions with UK Government counterparts on proposals for freeports. However, we await further, more detailed information about implementation of the UK Government’s Freeport policy, including on the reserved tax and funding incentives to be offered.

The Scottish Government has consulted widely with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, hosting a number of sessions with representatives of multiple sectors of the Scottish economy, including Scottish port operators. These sessions have highlighted specific reservations about the Freeports policy, such as the potential for economic displacement, as well as some potential benefits.

Discussions and engagement with the UK Government and Scottish stakeholders will continue as we seek to establish a robust evidence base with regard to all the potential impacts of this policy on Scotland’s economy.

Ministers and officials have held regular discussions with UK Government counterparts on proposals for freeports. However, we await further, more detailed information about implementation of the UK Government’s Freeport policy, including on the reserved tax and financial incentives to be offered.

The UK Government freeport competition concerns bids for potential freeports in England only. The UK Government has stated that it will work with the Scottish Government to determine how the location for any Scottish freeports would be selected, should Scotland ultimately choose to have freeports. However, we await clarity from the UK Government on its modelling of evidence of positive economic impact and the full range of incentives available prior to making a final policy decision.

While the proposal to introduce freeports is a UK Government policy, we are giving it detailed consideration. To that end, discussions and engagement will continue as we seek to establish a robust evidence base with regard to all the potential impacts of this policy on the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Government commissioned research from Edinburgh University’s School of Economics on the likely benefits and costs of freeports. This work, received in October 2019, did not focus on UK Government plans for implementation of freeports set out in a UK Government consultation document published in February 2020.

The Scottish Government has additionally used open source research, including from the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, to help shape thinking surrounding freeports and on whether they could play a role in incentivising international trade, boosting innovation, and helping regenerate disadvantaged areas post-Brexit. We would expect the UK Government to undertake research to support its proposals and share their evidence with us.

Ministers and officials have held regular discussions with UK Government counterparts on proposals for freeports. However, we await further, more detailed information about the implementation of the UK Government’s Freeport policy, including on the reserved tax and funding incentives to be offered. We will consider this and all relevant information and evidence carefully in determining our approach to freeports in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has consulted widely with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, hosting a number of sessions with representatives of multiple sectors of the Scottish economy, including Scottish port operators. These sessions have highlighted specific reservations about the Freeports policy, such as the potential for economic displacement, as well as some potential benefits.

Discussions and engagement with the UK Government and Scottish stakeholders will continue as we seek to establish a robust evidence base with regard to all the potential impacts of this policy on Scotland’s economy.

The funding of local authority outdoor education centres and decisions on the commissioning of outdoor education centre experts are matters for individual local authorities.

The current Covid-19 guidelines do allow schools to invite outdoor education centre specialists into school grounds to work with staff and pupils to provide engaging and beneficial outdoor learning experiences, and we know anecdotally that this has happened in some schools. Where this has taken place, it has been a highly positive experience, and we would encourage many more local authorities and schools to consider it. This will allow children to continue to benefit from the experience of outdoor education experts, as well as supporting outdoor education specialists to make use of their skills whilst residential visits to outdoor education centres cannot take place.

We continue to work with the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG), COSLA and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) to encourage schools to work with outdoor education centre staff as a means to effectively take learning out of the classroom.

Following the recent debate in Parliament on the challenges facing outdoor education centres, Scottish Government has agreed to liaise further with local government partners to see what more can be done to share and spread this practice.