Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has met with several Local Authorities to discuss their delivery of Free School Meals during which views on being involved in any future pilot were sought. These meetings took place; on the following dates;

• Western Isles Council – 5 July 2023
• Inverclyde Council – 26 July 2023
• North Ayrshire Council – 9 August 2023
• COSLA – 16 August 2023
• Edinburgh City Council – 16 August 2023

Most recently, on 11 October 2023, ADES and COSLA were invited to ask members if they would be interested in taking part in the pilot of universal free school meals at secondary.

No teacher, member of staff or pupil should have to suffer abuse in schools. The Scottish Government is absolutely clear that our schools should be safe and consistent learning environments for all, and that violent and abusive behaviour towards pupils or staff is unacceptable.

Last month concluded a series of summits I held with a wide range of stakeholders on behaviour in schools. The Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research was also published, which set out that while the majority of pupils are well behaved there has been an increase in some forms of serious disruptive behaviours, including violence.

In my statement to Parliament on 29 November, I confirmed a multi-year plan is in development to address issues identified in the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research. This plan will be developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, and we expect it to be published early next year.

The Parliament building closed to the public for one day, Friday 13 October. Unfortunately, on the day in question, there was a combination of staff taking pre-approved annual leave,  several staff who were too unwell to come to work, and a small number of operational vacancies. As this issue occurred during the October recess period there was no impact on parliamentary business therefore the decision was taken to close the building to the public.

The SPCB is satisfied that since this incident happened on 13 October, the Security Office has taken all relevant steps to ensure staffing levels are maintained by supporting staff in returning to work and employing new staff.

The budget process is underway and we are prioritising programmes of work which have the greatest impact on the delivery of our three core missions of equality, opportunity, and community. We will set out our spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget on 19 December.

In 2022 National Services Division (NSD) carried out an internal minor review specifically on the Scottish National Pain Management Programme. The Scottish Government does not hold information on its publication, this would be a matter for NSD.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has previously written to the Scottish Government setting out a series of recommendations for the reform on Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). In response to this advice, we published a consultation on EPC reform on 25 July 2023 which concluded on 16 October 2023. We will publish a response to this consultation in 2024.

The consultation proposed to revise the information displayed on domestic EPCs, expanding the current suite of ratings to introduce a fabric energy efficiency rating and displaying relevant information relating to the heating system. This aims to provide a more holistic view to current and potential homeowners and tenants.

On the 28 November 2023 we launched the Proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill: Consultation which set out a potential role for EPCs to provide evidence that could support building owners in complying with proposed standards. The consultation proposes that privately-owned homes across Scotland will be required to meet a minimum energy efficiency standard before the end of 2033, with homes in the private rented sector having to do so before the end of 2028.

We continue to develop the approach to long term rent control in support of the introduction of a Housing Bill later in this parliamentary year. This ongoing work is considering how improvements in the condition of rented properties, including energy efficiency, could be included.

The emergency, temporary measures within the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 are expected to remain in place until 31 March 2024. To support a transition away from those measures, the Act contains a regulation-making power to temporarily reform the rent adjudication process, this is to mitigate the risk of unintended steep rent increases that could occur if the temporary rent cap ended without modification to rent adjudication to ease the transition.

This regulation-making power is subject to the affirmative procedure, ensuring that appropriate Parliamentary scrutiny is given to the necessity for any temporary changes proposed. Therefore, to ensure that the regulations have gone through the appropriate scrutiny and are in place from 1 April, they will be laid before Parliament no later than 25 January 2024.

Prior to that, the Scottish Government will undertake a short, targeted consultation period with key rental sector stakeholders - including tenant, landlord and investor representatives - on the temporary rent adjudication measures being proposed. The consultation period commenced on 15 December.

It is up to schools and teachers to decide what resources to use when delivering relevant and engaging learning. A summary of resources that may be used to support delivery of RSHP education is available on Education Scotland's National Improvement Hub at https://education.gov.scot/resources/a-summary-of-rshp-resources/. One of these resources is the RSHP National learning and teaching resource which contains a learning activity at third/fourth level (Secondary 1 to Secondary 3) on abortion. This activity lets young people know that abortion or termination services are available and that sexual health services are confidential. The partnerships of health boards and local authorities who supported development of this resource conducted a review of all learning activities this year.

Officials have also been working with key stakeholders to review and revise the statutory teaching guidance on RSHP education. The public consultation on the revised guidance closed on 23 November 2023 with over 3,800 responses received. Officials are now analysing the contributions to the public consultation with a view to finalising and publishing the statutory guidance for the start of the next academic year.

The Scottish Government announced the delay to the next Climate Change Plan on 7 November 2023 and confirmed their commitment to bringing forward a draft plan in line with statutory deadlines which require a final version of the next Climate Change Plan to be laid in Parliament in March 2025. Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft plan, lasting 120 days, will be built into this timeline with public consultation planned to take place in parallel.

The Programme for Government 2023-24, published September 2023, states that in the coming year we will ‘publish a 20% car kilometre reduction route map, promoting sustainable behaviours when planning a journey, and reducing both our reliance on cars and our transport emissions’. Publication is expected in the coming months.