Chamber and committees

A wide range of criminal laws relate to image-based sexual abuse, including legislation concerning indecent images of children and the offence of coercing a person to view a sexual image. It is also a criminal offence to share intimate images without consent.

In schools, pupils also learn how to conduct online relationships safely and to understand the risks and consequences of sharing intimate images. Our Gender Based Violence in School Guidance published this week, makes clear that this includes the non-consensual sharing of sexual images and the threat of it.

In addition we fund Education Scotland to coordinate the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, focussed on challenging attitudes underpinning gender-based violence, and support schools to access Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Sexual Violence Prevention programme.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role of healthcare scientists in the delivery of effective and high quality services across the NHS in Scotland.

On 14 March 2024 the Scottish Government will publish a paper which defines the strategic approach that we will take to develop healthcare science in Scotland – helping to improve the visibility and understanding of the profession and the positive impact it has on patient outcomes.

The launch of this paper will coincide with an online event, hosted by the Chief Scientific Officer for Scotland, which will recognise the valuable contribution of the healthcare science workforce as a whole, and acknowledge outstanding individuals and teams who have gone above and beyond to improve patient care.

Data on the full time equivalent home-school link workers from 2017 onwards can be found in the School Support Staff Statistics, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

Prior to 2017, this data can be found in the Teacher Census Supplementary Statistics tables 'Teacher Census 2016' and earlier editions, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

School support staff statistics from the 2023 school staff and pupils census are due to be published on 19 February 2024.

Oil and gas continue to play an important part in Scotland’s energy transition. The Scottish Government’s focus is on reducing emissions in line with climate change goals, meeting our energy security needs and ensuring a just transition for workforces as North Sea oil and gas resources decline. As part of this approach, our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) consulted on a presumption against new exploration for oil and gas. Fields that are already identified and progressing through the licensing process towards production would be subject to a robust Climate Compatibility Checkpoint. Following a comprehensive consultation process, the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will be published by Summer 2024.

In support of the draft ESJTP, the Scottish Government commissioned Ernst and Young to undertake a programme of work to better understand energy requirements as we transition to net zero. This programme of work, which was overseen by an independent panel of experts and has been published in full ( Publication of the outputs from a programme of work to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero - Energy system and Just Transition: independent analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ), includes detailed economic analysis and projections of jobs for Scotland’s offshore energy transition. Findings include that, with the right support as part of a just energy transition, the number of low carbon jobs in Scotland is projected to rise from 19,000 in 2019 to 77,000 by 2050 - delivering a net gain in jobs across the energy production sector overall.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25575 on 7 March 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 .

Estimates for the number of unemployed people aged 16 years and over in Scotland, broken down by local authority, are shown in the following table for each of the last five financial years.

Estimates for the unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over in Scotland, broken down by local authority, are shown in the following table for the last five financial years.

No ministerial direction was made in relation to the redactions to the Hamilton Report. The Ministerial Code sets out the appropriate process for any referrals by the First Minister to the independent advisors. In accordance with that process, the former Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, was the Minister with overall responsibility however he had no involvement in the redaction process.

The report was redacted for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the court orders, and to redact any personal data where processing of personal data would not be lawful under data protection law, by the Scottish Government’s Organisational Continuity Team. None of the civil servants from the Organisational Continuity Team was a special adviser and no Special Advisers were involved in the redaction process of the Hamilton Report.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In preparation for issuing Mr Hamilton’s report, civil servants seconded to the Secretariat applied draft redactions in the period 15 to 21 March 2021. The Scottish Government received Mr Hamilton’s final report on 22 March 2021 at 00:02. The report was then redacted by civil servants in the Organisational Continuity Team for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the court orders made by Lord Woolman and Lady Dorrian and to remove any personal data where processing of personal data would not be lawful under data protection law.

The report was published on the same day, 22 March 2021, in line with the commitment given to Parliament on 4 March 2021 by Nicola Sturgeon , at https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-report-by-james-hamilton-on-the-first-ministers-self-referral-under-the-scottish-ministerial-code

Further to the response given by Miri McAllan MSP, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. Our block grant funding, derived from the UK Government’s spending decisions, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23 and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years. Furthermore, the Spring Budget includes no new capital funding.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition 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. This has been compounded by continuing high inflation, which has further reduced our room for manoeuvre.

It is within these challenging circumstances that we have had to make difficult decisions to achieve a fiscally sustainable budget.

As Miri McAllan MSP indicated, the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment were published alongside this Budget. These impact assessments not only analyse the budget and the impact of the decisions contained in it, they also consider the process of making those decisions, and how we make sure the needs of all people are actively considered. The Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio was actively engaged in the analysis and production of these assessments.