Chamber and committees

The Shetland Folk Festival Society has not received any direct funding from Scottish Government since 2019.

The Shetland Folk Festival Society has received two awards through the Creative Scotland (CS) National Lottery Open Fund since 2019, totalling £24,000.

The CS Open Fund has had three iterations since Shetland Folk Festival Society’s award in 2019 and the criteria for the fund has evolved in-line with CS’ strategic and funding priorities. Full details on these funding programmes are available on Creative Scotland's website.

The Shetland Folk Festival Society also received £21,000 from EventScotland’s National Events Funding Programme in 2022. The KPIs agreed in the funding contract were as follows:

1. Attract at least 8 bands to Shetland to perform at the event

2. Attract an audience of around 6,000 visitors to the event

3. Attract 32% of visitors from outwith the event region

4. Carry out a scaled back community / rural programme in line with local opinion

5. Demonstrate how the event has helped boost community confidence to attend events

The Scottish Government has not provided funding for the Friends of the Edington Hospital.

The Sexual Offences Court will be of equivalent status to the High Court when sitting as a court of first instance. Its processes and procedures will be the same as the High Court unless specifically provided for otherwise by the Bill, or subsequent secondary legislation or court rules. Importantly, judges sitting in the Court will have the same sentencing powers.

The proposed jurisdiction of the Sexual Offences Court includes murder only where it is libeled alongside a sexual offence listed in Schedule 3 of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill . The Crown may prosecute cases involving serious sexual offending where the accused is alleged to have killed one of their victims. Given the experiences of the surviving complainers, the nature of their evidence, and the benefits the Sexual Offences Court will bring, the objective is to ensure there is the opportunity for those cases to be heard in the Sexual Offences Court.

It should also be noted, these cases can still be prosecuted in the High Court, the Bill gives prosecutors this additional option to indict these cases to the Sexual Offences Court should they consider it appropriate to do so.

In an extremely challenging financial climate, and following a worst case scenario UK Autumn Statement in which UK Ministers prioritised tax cuts over public spending, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting this budget. The amount Scotland has available to spend is still largely driven by the block grant, which is derived from the UK Government's spending decisions and continuing constraint on public expenditure. The block grant has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and, because of the UK Government's failure to inflation-proof capital budgets, our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years.

Despite this, I am pleased that this Government has committed £4.7 billion in capital and resource in 2024-25 for activities that will have a positive impact on delivery of our climate change goals, and funding of almost £3.9 billion for transport across Scotland. The total budget for my portfolio increases by £47.7 million in 2024-25, which is a £27.9 million (0.6%) reduction in real terms using GDP deflators published in November 2023.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in my portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

I have considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

In follow up to parliamentary question S6W-24240 answered on 19 January 2024. CalMac Ferries Limited have not carried out any assessment of the potential impact that heavier electric vehicles will have on the vehicle carrying capacity of the fleet. I understand that both our operators keep up to date with the latest developments and follow all Maritime Coast Guard Agency (MCA) guidance. The carrying Electric Vehicles (EV) has been assessed by trained personnel and the operators have developed procedures following the release of specific guidance issued by the MCA (MGN 653) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). This guidance was developed through consultation with the industry, and specifically the industry body, Inter-Ferry of which they are a members.

The Scottish Workforce and Staff Governance Committee last met on 24 January 2024.

Meeting minutes will be published once agreed. These will be available to view at Scottish Workforce & Staff Governance (SWAG) Committee Agenda and Minutes — NHS Scotland Staff Governance

From Jan 2020 to Jan 2024, over £6 million has been paid in grants to smaller businesses through the LEZ Support Fund.

This funding has resulted in over 1,000 high polluting vehicles being taken off our roads, and over 400 taxis retrofitted to become LEZ compliant.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is not planning to review the European Water Framework Directive.

The Water Framework Directive is implemented in Scotland by the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Water Environment (River Basin Management Planning: Further Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2013. Any review of this legislation would be carried out by the Scottish Government.

Through the Water Framework Directive’s River Basin Management Planning process we continue to protect and improve the water environment in order to ensure the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s rivers, lochs and coastal waters.

In an extremely challenging financial climate, and following a worst case scenario UK Autumn Statement in which UK Ministers prioritised tax cuts over public spending, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting this budget. The amount Scotland has available to spend is still largely driven by the block grant, which is derived from the UK Government's spending decisions and continuing constraint on public expenditure. The block grant has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and, because of the UK Government's failure to inflation-proof capital budgets, our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years.

Despite this, I am pleased that this Government has committed £4.7 billion in capital and resource in 2024-25 for activities that will have a positive impact on delivery of our climate change goals, and funding of almost £3.9 billion for transport across Scotland. The total budget for my portfolio increases by £47.7 million in 2024-25, which is a £27.9 million (0.6%) reduction in real terms using GDP deflators published in November 2023.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in my portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

I have considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many people have accessed earwax removal services. Health Boards are responsible for the delivery of primary medical services in their areas.

Formerly most ear wax management procedures were carried out in GP practices. The new GP contract, introduced in 2018, committed Health Boards to set up Community Treatment and Care (CTAC) services to shift workload away from GP practices to NHS Board employed staff so that GP practices could focus on what only they can do. The Scottish Government has confirmed to Health Boards that CTAC services should cover ear wax management generally.

We are supporting the development of CTAC services through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (£190 million in 2023-24).

We are now also introducing an additional ‘phased investment programme’ working with a small number of areas to demonstrate what model CTAC and other related services can look like in practice. The findings from this programme will build understanding of the national context for further implementation and inform future long-term Scottish Government investment.