Chamber and committees

The Minister previously stated that the Retail Strategy, specifically the action on fair work, was the route by which the Scottish Government wished to promote fair work practices across the whole retail sector. An approach to fair work is a priority action for the Retail Industry Leadership Group and this will pursue better conditions for all retail workers.

Therefore, New Year's Day trading can be discussed in relation to the approach on fair work if raised by members, and we welcome the continuing, constructive collaboration of the trade unions and other stakeholders in developing a fair work strategy through the Retail Industry Leadership Group and Fair Work Working Group to best realise our mutual ambition to deliver fair and rewarding jobs for retail workers.

We welcomed the Climate Change Committee’s 2023 progress report to the UK Parliament and agree that much greater urgency and focus on delivery is required from the UK Government if climate goals across the UK are to be met.

Scotland continues to decarbonise faster than the UK average. As this progress report recognised, we are leading the way in key delivery areas such as industry and electricity supply, where – unlike the rest of the UK – emissions have continued to come down. However, Scottish and UK Government targets are inter-dependent and require significant collaboration between our governments in order to maximise impact given the wide range of powers that are reserved.

The Climate Change Committee has been clear that action by the UK Government is important for delivery of climate change targets around the UK, just as action under devolved powers is crucial to UK targets. That is why we continue to call on UKG to act in reserved areas of great importance to Scotland's climate ambitions and why we work through the Net Zero Inter-Ministerial Group and other fora in this regard.

Scottish Ministers are accountable to the Scottish Parliament for the activities of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and its use of resources at a strategic level. The Scottish Government is responsible for developing the policy and regulatory framework for the protection and improvement of Scotland's water environment which SEPA have a duty to regulate and enforce.

The Scottish Government hold regular liaison meetings with SEPA to provide policy support and facilitate effective strategic engagement. These are supplemented by other regular dialogue and communications in relation to SEPA’s duties, responsibilities and performance. SEPA determine the amount of resources allocated to meeting their statutory obligations through their Annual Operating Plan in each year in agreement with the Scottish Government.

Both the Scottish Government and SEPA take all necessary steps to ensure that their relationship is developed and supported in line with the jointly agreed principles set out in the statement on ‘Strategic Engagement between the Scottish Government and Scotland’s NDPBs’ and in accordance with the ‘Scottish regulators’ strategic code of practice’.

Fair Work is at the core of the Retail Strategy, benefitting retail business by making them more attractive to workers, and more resilient, productive and profitable. Any decision on New Year’s Day trading will balance our Fair Work ambition with prevailing economic conditions which remain difficult for the retail sector.

The Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) was established to drive and support delivery of the actions set out in the Retail Strategy, in particular on improving fair work across the sector. Its purpose is to represent the views of the industry and we value its independent analysis. The views and recommendations of the ILG is just one of the matters that Ministers take into account when determining how to proceed on any given policy issue.

South Lanarkshire Council was last directly contacted on 25 October, in regards to their road assessment for 20 mph speed limits. In addition a representative from South Lanarkshire Council was present at the 20 mph task group meeting, held on 2 November. They were updated by email on 11 December on the most effective route to implement national 20 mph speed limits by 2025.

Scottish Government provided £8m in 2021-22 and £12m in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to local authorities in order to support the policy to remove all charges for instrumental music tuition in schools.

As confirmed in the budget published in December 2023, the Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed funding of £12 million for instrumental music tuition in 2024-25, continuing to remove barriers to participation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children across Scotland can access high quality play opportunities in a range of settings to support their growth, development and wellbeing.

We will build on Scotland’s world-leading 2013 Play Strategy, and the 2019 Play Scotland progress report, to develop a vision statement and action plan for play in 2024. We will do this by listening to the views of children and young people and working in collaboration with our stakeholders.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23760 on 9 January 2024. 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 .

Scotland is committed to a just transition to net-zero and decarbonisation of industry is ‘mission critical’. Scottish Government is continuing to deliver the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which leverages private sector investment from energy intensive industries to deliver energy efficiency improvements to decarbonise industrial processes.

Scottish Government is also strengthening engagement with research networks and energy intensive industries to build evidence-based policy to support industrial decarbonisation. Scottish Government continues to liaise with UK Government on the many reserved policy, fiscal or regulatory levers that influence current incentives for industry to invest in decarbonisation.

The We Make Music schools initiative is led by the Music Education Partnership Group, which is an independent charity and network of music-based organisations.

Information on the We Make Music school initiative and progress with the programme is available via the MEPG website at: https://wemakemusicscotland.org/ or by contacting the Music Education Partnership Group at the following email address which is also available via their website: [email protected]