Chamber and committees

It is the responsibility of those transporting greyhounds to ensure that they are compliant with both animal welfare and animal transport regulations, including obtaining the appropriate transporter authorisation from the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Where local authorities are made aware of cases of non-compliance with the regulations, they will take appropriate follow-up action.

I appreciate that the proposed closure of the main building at SRUC’s Elmwood campus will be deeply concerning for affected staff and students.

Although SRUC is an autonomous institution with responsibility for its own strategic and operational decision, I would expect them to ensure that they engage meaningfully with staff affected by these proposals, in line with our Fair Work principles and in doing so explore any alternative options which might see delivery of these courses remain in the locality.

I would also expect any affected students to be appropriately supported by SRUC throughout this period, and to receive timely information about the impact of any disruption on their studies and the options available to them.

It is the Government’s understanding that Freedom of Information requests recently released by Scotland’s Councils found that only two teachers across Scotland have made this request, whilst fifteen other Councils that responded said no requests have been made.

Our approach is focused on creating safe and nurturing schools, prioritising prevention and de-escalation of distressed behaviour.

Teachers and pupil support staff should be supported through their school’s relationships and behaviour policy. Arrangements for de-escalation and support should be provided to them where situations do escalate.

This is a view shared by some of our teaching unions, including NASUWT and the SSTA.

The model of Health Boards being responsible for delivering vaccinations is working well across Scotland, but I recognise the need for flexibility to account for specific circumstances that might negatively affect vaccine uptake.

That is why I have agreed to Highland HSCP putting in place a mixed model for vaccinations.

GP delivery will be key in some aspects of this model, however, the aim here is to take a collaborative approach to delivering vaccines.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland continue to engage with Highland HSCP to support a flexible and responsive immunisation service.

Responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of a listed building lies with the owner of the property. Consequently, the removal of VAT on these repairs would be a strong incentive for owners to undertake necessary work.

The Scottish Government will continue to make representations to UK Government requesting the implementation of a VAT reduction in the context of encouraging maintenance and energy efficiency improvements in traditional buildings.

Additionally, through Historic Environment Scotland’s Grants programme, we invest around £13.5 million a year to support building repairs, ancient monuments, archaeological work, and conservation.

The Scottish Government fully appreciates the financial sustainability challenges being faced by many universities due to a range of factors, including inflation, the impact of UK Government immigration policies on international student recruitment, and the increase to employers’ National Insurance Contributions.

The statutory grounds for a Fatal Accident Inquiry were carefully considered by Parliament in 2016 following a review of the law conducted by Lord Cullen. There are no plans to look at this aspect of FAI legislation, although the member will be aware than in January I announced a focussed review of FAIs looking specifically at deaths in custody.

Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

• Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
• Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
• Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
• Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.

Over the last three years, the Scottish Government has provided the Scottish Assembly with £425,136 to build capacity via our leadership and engagement framework and over the last 4 years has provided £316,349 of core funding via our Inspiring Inclusion charity portfolio. Both of these funds are managed and distributed by fund manager, Inspiring Scotland. The Scottish Assembly have an application for funding for 2025-26 submitted and applications are currently being considered.

To offset the changes to funding in 2025-26, we committed to a 6 month extension of the current funding allocated to the Scottish Assembly, which will total £107,152, to provide additional opportunities to explore alternative funding streams.

Inspiring Scotland offer management consultancy services to the Scottish Assembly’s executive team and Board and provide intensive support where needed. This includes support to explore alternative funding and income streams aimed at long term sustainability of the organisation.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.