Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring everyone who is eligible to vote can do so and is working with partners to look at potential new ways to increase registration levels amongst under-represented groups including young people.

Curriculum for Excellence provides opportunities for young people of all ages and stages to develop their political literacy skills. This is most likely to feature in the social studies curricular area, which, helps young people develop as responsible, informed citizens with a global outlook covering important topics, including democracy and voting.

To support schools and teachers there is an extensive range of materials and resources to draw on, including the “You Decide” Political Literacy resource from Education Scotland, which provides guidance on how to ensure that learners use their voice, participate and contribute to decision-making processes.

The Electoral Commission provides free, impartial resources for schools and youth groups to use to support young people to develop their understanding of the voting process. Their resources include a series of lesson plans linked to the curriculum and interactive activities and videos, which cover topics such as how to register to vote, what happens at the polling place and how to find information about candidates.

The Commission also works with education partners to run a campaign called Welcome to Your Vote Week each year to encourage schools and other organisations to have conversations with young people about democracy. They can get involved in a range of ways, including organising a voter registration event or democracy day. In 2023, 150 schools and youth organisations participated.

The Commission recently began a partnership with Children in Scotland to bring together young people from across Scotland to inform its future work and ensure it meets the needs of young people, including the messaging that will help drive registration levels.

Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) send Invitations to Register to all those on the schools lists that are eligible to register. EROs report good engagement with schools, particularly those run by local authorities, where they get a good response to invitations to register. The reduction in franchise age to 16 means that all attainers to the local government register are in full time education as they will be under the age of 16. Most EROs are also supplied with lists of all students at Scottish Universities who are resident and eligible to register.

The Scottish Government is determined to ensure that Scotland operates to the highest environmental standards, and that we protect the strengths of Scottish agriculture and food production.

Regulation of genetic modification (GM) is a devolved area of responsibility. The Scottish Government is opposed to the cultivation of GM plants in Scotland, and any change to our current definition of what a GM plant is would need to be carefully considered.

The views of stakeholders in Scotland – scientists, farmers, food producers and manufacturers, but especially, consumers and the public as a whole – will inform what we do in relation to new genetic technologies such as gene editing.

We are aware the European Commission’s legislative proposal is currently undergoing scrutiny, and we continue to monitor its progress to inform this consideration.

The rates and bands of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) apply equally to UK resident and non-UK resident buyers.

The Scottish Government is defined by three distinct and interdependent missions centred on the principles of equality, opportunity and community: to tackle poverty; to build a fair, green and indeed a growing economy; and to improve our public services. In that context, the Minister for Housing’s specific responsibilities are:

• Affordable Housing Supply Programme
• Housing to 2040 strategy
• homelessness and rough sleeping
• cladding remediation
• welfare and debt advice
• regulation of existing housing systems

It is not the Scottish Government’s role to act as a broker or fundraiser. Instead the Scottish Government is seeking to create the conditions which promote the flow of responsible private investment into nature restoration. Our forthcoming Natural Capital Markets Framework will strengthen our existing Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital and set out our approach to using public spending more effectively to leverage in responsible private capital.

The following table shows private investment in nature restoration efforts in each of the past five years in woodland, peatland and marine and coastal restoration activity:

There are blocks of recycling bins along each of the floors in the Members block, this includes a can bin at each of the tea points.  There are fewer of these bins than other types of recycling bins because we generate fewer cans than other types of recycling.  We are reviewing the recycling points in the MSP block and we plan to add another set of can bins to each floor.  We have also recently had to order a replacement can bin for the second-floor tea point, so this bin has been temporarily unavailable but will be back by Friday 8th December.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body announced on 23 November that it will undertake an investigation in line with its duties under the MSP code of conduct.

As stated then, in the interests of fairness to all, and to avoid prejudicing our investigation, the Corporate Body will not comment on any matters that could have a bearing on the process. It is important to stress, however, that the Corporate Body remains wholly committed to openness and transparency and will release all material that it can, when it can, in line with its legal obligations.

The Scottish Government is continuing to engage with Screen Scotland and other parties to explore all avenues for supporting the future of the Screen Machine.

We recognise the huge importance of the Screen Machine’s unique cultural, educational, and wellbeing benefits to communities across Scotland, particularly for those who otherwise would struggle to visit the cinema.

We welcome the funding provided by Screen Scotland earlier this year, which allowed Screen Machine to lease a temporary replacement cinema until April 2024.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

The statutory responsibilities arising from the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 Act are, in the main, duties to maintain the local road network. That legal framework gives discretion over maintenance decisions, direct operations and reinstatement entirely to local government. There is no role for the Scottish Government to become involved in how any local authority discharges their discretionary powers, or to mandate how any specific site should be resourced by the road maintainer.

It would be appropriate for any complaints about how the work is progressing to be raised via local authorities normal complaints process, and then via the Public Services Ombudsman, if escalation is required.

In the case of a roads authority site which is improperly guarded, incorrectly notified or otherwise causing a danger, both the Health and Safety Executive and the Scottish Road Works Commissioner have powers to investigate any alleged failure to meet safety standards. The Scottish Government are unaware of any safety issues being reported for this site.

The Scottish Government opposes the inappropriate use of fire and rehire practices and we are clear that the practice does not represent Fair Work. In cases where contractual changes are necessary, there should always be appropriate and meaningful consultation

While employment law remains reserved, we encourage employers in Scotland to follow good practice in decisions regarding their workforce.