Chamber and committees

Funding was allocated to Local Authorities on behalf of 304 secondary schools for computing science hardware on a demand-led basis. Local Authorities distributed funding on behalf of the Scottish Government, with the total claimed at approximately £730,000.

The Scottish Government is aware of the former railway route to Greenock Princes Pier. However, in the absence of any clearly expressed demand for this link from freight customers, the Scottish Government has no current plans to assess the feasibility of reopening the Greenock and Ayrshire Railway to the former Greenock Princes Pier railway station as a direct rail freight link to Greenock Ocean Terminal.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly, who might be able to provide this information.

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.

The Scottish Government has prioritised funding for front line services in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget and this has required making difficult decisions. Despite these challenges, the Budget will increase frontline NHS investment by over half a billion pounds, uprate benefits by over £1 billion and to spend almost £2.5 billion on our public transport network. The total budget for the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio increased 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 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.

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.

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.

We have published a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment, which is available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/short-term-lets-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25506 on 28 February 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

The Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP) will see Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd procure up to 10 small vessels across two phases which will serve the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service network. This will provide modern, standardised vessels that are capable of as close to zero emission operation as possible.

Ministers are currently considering the outline business case for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme. An update will be provided in due course, once a decision on investment has been taken.

The spend for new ferries and infrastructure on Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service and Northern Isles Ferry Service in each year from 2007-08 to 2022-23 can be found on the Annual Section 70 reports published here https://www.transport.gov.scot/publications/?q=%22section+70%22 on the Transport Scotland Website.

The year 2023-24 has not yet been finalised, these figures will be available when the report is published, this is expected in the summer of 2024.

Access to superfast broadband means that there is the availability of superfast broadband infrastructure at a property, delivered either through the R100 programme or commercial deployment, and a superfast broadband service can be ordered.

Any new service – either through fixed, mobile or Low Earth Orbit satellite technology – may require additional infrastructure or equipment such as a fibre optic cable from the nearest connection point, a router, a dish or an aerial to be installed.

Grant funding to support Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) / University of Glasgow commenced in 2021 and has continued on an annual basis since that date.

As a condition of the funding support the Scottish Government agreed with Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science a commitment to publish annual progress reports which are published on their website where updates and activity are regularly posted. The first year’s report is publicly available on the STACS website and they will be publishing a year 2 update report in the summer of 2024.

The annual report for 2022-23 is available at: https://issuu.com/stacshq/docs/stacsannualreport .

This data has been collected by the Registrar of Independent Schools from available independent school census statistics. The census commences in the September of each year in accordance with part 4 of the Registration of Independent Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended by the Registration of Independent Schools (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021).

The following table outlines the number of children and young people who attended an independent school in each year since 2015, broken down by local authority. This data is not held from before 2015.