Chamber and committees

The recording and retrieving of information by Police Scotland on incidents of pet theft is an operational matter for Police Scotland. Any query in relation to the Police Scotland operational approach in this area would therefore best be directed to Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Aviation Statement will be published on 24 July ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/aviation-statement ) and will set out the actions we will take on national and international connectivity, and on decarbonisation.

The actions and outcomes described in the Aviation Statement have been shaped by our commitments and existing policies on aviation, and the feedback received in our public consultation. The Statement contains a mixture of short, medium and longer term commitments. It covers the period to 2045, in line with our commitment to attaining overall net zero emissions.

Due to wider funding constraints, we have operated the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) with a reduced budget in 2024-25.

Following extremely high demand in June 2024 and in order to ensure that we settle all properties within budget, we have paused new applications from 19 July 2024 and will review remaining budget allocations in the coming months.

The scheme is likely to reopen when current passports expire and/or are withdrawn making funding available for reallocation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28494 on 19 July 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 Additional Support for Learning Code of Practice is statutory guidance which explains the duties on education authorities and other agencies to support children’s and young people’s learning. It provides guidance on the provisions of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act as well as on the supporting framework of secondary legislation. Education authorities and agencies involved in advising or supporting children and young people with additional support needs and their families, should encourage and support their employees in gaining knowledge of the content of the code and understanding of its application in their day-to-day work. To ensure that it continues to fully support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duties under the ASL Act, we have committed to a refresh of the Supporting Children’s Learning Code of Practice during this parliamentary term. The update will take account of the incorporation of UNCRC.

In terms of funding to support local authorities, spending on additional support for learning by authorities reached a record high of £926m in 2022-23 an increase of £386m in the last 10 years. We have invested £75m since 2019-20 to help schools respond to the individual needs of children and young people, which has contributed to the highest recorded level of support staff in Scotland. We also provide over £11m of funding each year to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to support children and families.

The early resolution of concerns and disagreements is actively encouraged. Where this is not possible, the Additional Support for Learning legislation sets out a range of dispute resolution mechanisms and the Scottish Government provide for a range of services to support parents, carers and young people through this process.

In response to the Additional Support for Learning Review in 2020, Scottish Ministers are committed to ensuring that Additional Support for Learning legislation is UNCRC compliant, and will deliver this through the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue. He re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.

The Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) is available to first-time buyers and priority access groups. OMSE is a demand led scheme and as such The Scottish Government does not estimate how many priority access applications there will be per financial year.

Applicants to OMSE have the choice to declare on their application which route they are applying under, whether that be as a first-time buyer or a priority access group. This means that some first-time buyers may also be disabled, a veteran etc however this information will not be captured as part of their application.

Due to the demand led nature of the scheme we also do not project estimates for geographical or Local Authority areas.

Published information on OMSE home purchases in each Local Authority area for previous financial years can be found here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The following table shows a breakdown of the spend for the Open Marked Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) in each financial year:

Our evaluation reports are available via this link: Shared equity schemes: evaluation reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The evaluation concluded that OMSE provides significant additionality, and is effective in enabling lower income households to overcome price and deposit constraints to become a homeowner.

The Scottish Government has continued to monitor the performance of OMSE which delivered over 900 affordable homes for priority groups and first time buyers in 2023-24. In 2022 we also made several evidence based adjustments to the scheme to further support priority groups into affordable home ownership.

Based on previous years’ financial spend we expect that the current budget could provide up to an additional 466 units.

Details on the application process and eligibility criteria for the Open Market Share Equity Scheme (OMSE) can be found in our administrative procedures: https://www.gov.scot/publications/open-market-shared-equity-omse-administrative-procedures-2020/ .