Chamber and committees

SafeDeposits Scotland has a duty to provide a quarterly performance report of the scheme’s performance measured against the key performance indicators (KPIs) in the Schedule to the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 .

The latest quarterly performance report indicates all KPIs have been met, with the average call response time was 12 seconds and email response time was 8 minutes.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of SafeDeposits Scotland customers who were impacted by the implementation of the new system.

HIV Scotland, along with all our third sector organisations, have made a significant contribution to Scotland’s goal of eliminating HIV Transmissions by 2030.

We were saddened to hear of the decision to close the organisation, and thank HIV Scotland for their support for people living with HIV in Scotland, and their valuable input across the sector.

Whilst their contribution will be missed, Scotland has a number of other excellent third sector organisations who share our ambition to eliminate HIV transmission within Scotland by 2030, and to improve the lives of those living with HIV. By working in partnership, I remain confident that we will meet those goals.

As one example, HIV Scotland were previously funded to lead the HIV self-test pilot which expands testing services so people can order a test in the privacy of their own home. Terrance Higgins Trust will now be funded to provide the service and mitigate any risk to the at-home testing service.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 . The schemes submitted revised procedures in October 2019 and were reapproved in November 2019.

There have been no further significant changes to the revised scheme or original proposal referred to the Scottish Government for approval. Any considered changes would be discussed as part of routine monitoring discussions.

All reports of food crime received by Food Standards Scotland are investigated and appropriate action is taken. For matters out with Food Standards Scotland's remit they will be disseminated to partner agencies for their consideration.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role that reintroductions of native wildlife can play in meeting our nature restoration ambitions, but has no current plans to reintroduce lynx or any other large carnivorous species into Scotland. We have not recently engaged with stakeholders, including the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, on this issue.

Anyone seeking to reintroduce lynx or another species into Scotland would require a licence from NatureScot. Thus far, no licence applications for the reintroduction of lynx have been submitted.

Should a licence application be made in the future, the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations sets out the process that NatureScot would be required to follow in considering whether any translocation or reintroduction project may be appropriate. This includes the need to give consideration to benefits and risks, whether of a biological or socio-economic nature.

Through NatureScot, the Scottish Government supports the National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP). The NBMP is a world-leading citizen science programme which produces population trends for British bat species.

Population trend information for bats in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK can be found in the NBMP Annual Report 2021.

The 2021 Annual Report outlines that populations of the bat species monitored are stable or recovering and that “current legislation and conservation action to protect and conserve bats is being successful, and it is vitally important that this continues.”.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16883 on 25 April 2023. 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/questions-and-answers

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Since January 2022, there have been 20 instances of drone activity being recorded over or inside the prison estate, out of which there were been 6 physical drone recoveries. SPS systems cannot provide information prior to this date as incidents before January 2022 are not categorised to allow this information to be extracted. The rising number of incidents involving drones has now resulted in closer monitoring and recording of these incidents.

The Scottish Government has been investigating the potential impacts of AI on our economy and labour market for over five years.

In 2018 , Technological Change and the Scottish Labour Market , a joint Scottish Government and Scottish Trades Union Congress report, already considered AI.

Between 2019 and 2021, evidence on this topic was generated as part of the development of Scotland’s AI Strategy , which included impact assessments, an online public consultation, a citizen engagement programme and expert working groups, including one on the skills of the workforce.

The 2021 Digital Economy Business Survey highlighted key challenges faced by businesses and the importance of supporting a strong technical infrastructure for Scotland.

The 2022 Digital Economy Skills Action Plan details how we intend to ensure all sectors work together to support the people of Scotland in our move to a digital and AI-enabled economy.

Recent press coverage has made Generative Artificial Intelligence a focus of debate on economic and labour market impact. The Scottish Government also follows other strands of AI research which might be expected to have similar levels of impact – like Computer Vision and Causal AI. The impacts of any of these innovations may have many common considerations.

Experts from the Scottish AI Alliance’s Leadership Group will continue to inform and challenge our actions in this area in the coming years, in the face of accelerating technological innovation including generative AI specifically.