Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not provided any direct financial support to the private sector for onshore or offshore wind energy projects in the last 10 years.

The exact financial value of the electricity output from Scotland’s wind energy projects is not known. Electricity is traded on in the wholesale market where the price fluctuates continuously and precise data on prices is not publicly available.

? Also a large proportion of wind generators are subsidised through schemes such as the contracts for differences (CfD) and the Renewable Obligation (RO) so the revenues obtained will differ from the wholesale market price.

? However, taking estimates of annual average wholesale market prices together with the volume of electricity generated by Scottish wind farms, the estimated value of the electricity generated from 2012-2021 is approximately £9.5bn.

? Due to recent spikes in energy prices around 25% of the total value over the last 10 years occurred in 2021 alone.

The Scottish Government has not provided any direct financial support to the public sector for onshore or offshore wind energy projects in the last 10 years.

The Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards were published on 31 May 2021, and the Scottish Government made a commitment that Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) will embed the standards by April 2022.

Work to embed the MAT standards by local services and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is a crucial and significant undertaking. To support progress, we are providing multi-year funding to HSCPs specifically for the standards and have set up a MAT support team, based within Public Health Scotland to lead this work.

I have committed to update Parliament on the progress of MAT standards on a six monthly basis and will be returning to Parliament in June to provide an update on progress on embedding the standards.

Local progress from each HSCP area is currently being evaluated and a report will be published in June to coincide with the update to Parliament. This report will be a collation of process, data and lived experience evaluation. This will be followed in short order during the summer with a report providing more detail of work undertaken in each area.

April 2022 is not the end of line for the standards and what happens post April is as equally important. From now and over the life of the National Mission, work will continue on the standards to make sure they are not only embedded, but are improving and are sustainable.

Additional places were funded in academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21 to take into account the impact of changes to the SQA exams as a result of COVID-19. In the 2022-23 Scottish Budget it was announced a further £21m was allocated for the ongoing support of these additional places for the continuation of their studies.

The number of funded places for 2022-23 will be finalised when the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publishes their final funding allocations in May 2022. With the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government does not specify allocations of funded places for new entrants to university, as this decision is made by universities as autonomous institutions.

From 1 April 2022 ScotRail Trains Limited has been subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. On the ScotRail website, the page Information Requests | ScotRail , provides details of how to submit a request for information that is not included within the ScotRail Trains Limited publication scheme.

The Abellio ScotRail Franchise Agreement governs what data is retained and transferred when the Franchise expired and this has been followed by Abellio.

ScotRail Trains Limited has adopted the Model Publication Scheme developed and approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner without amendment and has produced a guide to the information that they publish within the classes in the scheme available through their website and other channels.

Court operational matters, including the system for jury service, fall within the remit of the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS).

I understand SCTS is setting up a working group to consider the remaining recommendations from the 2018 Enabling Jury Service report, available at https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/about-the-scottish-court-service/reports-data/enabling-jury-service . This matter will be included and the Scottish Government will work with SCTS and justice partners to consider any legislative requirements flowing from that consideration.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-07665 on 21 April 2022 and S6W-07668 on 26 April 2022. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07666 on 21 April 2022 and S6W-07667 and S6W-07669 answered on 26 April 2022. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07664 on 19 April 2022. 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