Chamber and committees

There have been no such discussions. The Scottish Government is clear in our opposition to the Bill. The UK Government should focus on improving the UK asylum system, so that people are treated fairly and with dignity and respect throughout the process.

The Scottish Government remains committed to being a responsible global citizen. As announced by the First Minister at COP28, the Scottish Government and Kids Operating Room have partnered to establish a reliable, safe and clean power supply to paediatric operating rooms in our partner countries of Malawi, Rwanda, and Zambia. This £324,900 investment will fund solar energy systems for 15 operating rooms across 13 hospitals, helping an estimated 27,000 children receive urgent surgery over the next three years.

Across their work, Kids Operating Room are working to strengthen sustainable surgical capacity and build stronger healthcare systems. To do this in a truly sustainable way the organisation seeks to work closely with partners, putting in place locally driven maintenance programmes. This works to ensure hospitals not only have the tools but also the right skills and knowledge to provide safe and quality care for children.

Each KidsOR Operating Room is equipped with over 3,300 pieces of specialist equipment. Much of this equipment is more complex than those typically found in low-resource settings. When this equipment is installed onsite KidsOR biomedical engineers train the surgical and hospital biomedical teams on how to use specific items of equipment. This user training is vitally important to providing safe, timely surgery.

Kids Operating Room also provide funding to the East and West African College of Surgeon's e-learning hub and provide sponsorship for individual scholarships - all with the aim of enhancing the skills of the workforce.

In parallel to this wider package of support, as part of the specific investment you reference, KidsOR biomedical engineers will visit each partner hospital and provide staff training on how to best utilise these new solar energy systems.

Special advisors are regularly in attendance at Ministerial and government meetings, including weekly Cabinet meetings. They were also in attendance at the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Emergency on 6 December 2022, 31 January 2023, 14 March 2023 and on 20 June 2023; the cross-party and stakeholder Climate Change Plan Advisory Group on 23 February 2023, 23 March 2023, 18 May 2023, 29 June 2023, 31 August 2023 and 5 October 2023. They were also in attendance at the liaison meetings between the Deputy First Minister and the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group on 2 February 2023, 19 July 2023, 28 September 2023 and 23 November 2023.

We welcomed the Climate Change Committee’s 2023 progress report to the UK Parliament and agree that much greater urgency and focus on delivery is required from the UK Government if climate goals across the UK are to be met.

Scotland continues to decarbonise faster than the UK average. As this progress report recognised, we are leading the way in key delivery areas such as industry and electricity supply, where – unlike the rest of the UK – emissions have continued to come down. However, Scottish and UK Government targets are inter-dependent and require significant collaboration between our governments in order to maximise impact given the wide range of powers that are reserved.

The Climate Change Committee has been clear that action by the UK Government is important for delivery of climate change targets around the UK, just as action under devolved powers is crucial to UK targets. That is why we continue to call on UKG to act in reserved areas of great importance to Scotland's climate ambitions and why we work through the Net Zero Inter-Ministerial Group and other fora in this regard.

VisitScotland handles two types of complaints: Visitor complaints - complaints and feedback submitted by visitors about their holiday experience in Scotland; and Corporate complaints - complaints about VisitScotland’s actions or services, as per the Ombudsman’s definition.

The following data relates to visitor complaints regarding various issues, and are not categorised into successfully or unsuccessfully resolved. The number of complaints of this nature made to VisitScotland from 2016 to 2023 is as follows:

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a reply to his question in writing.

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed.

Lochgelly Medical Centre was not included within the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26, which identified the priority health capital projects for funding within that period. A revised Infrastructure Investment Plan is being considered for publication in Spring 2024 and all due consideration will be given to what projects can be included within that revised Plan.

As part of the national strategy for 20 mph the Scottish Government is developing communication plans for pre and post implementation of 20 mph speed limits. Research is being carried out to identify the most effective approach to promote benefits and encourage behaviour change.

Evidence has shown that early communications aids a wider acceptance and smoother implementation.

VisitScotland pay all staff in line with the Scottish Government pay guidelines. HR records cover the past six years, these are stored in line with legal requirements of employee record keeping.

VisitScotland’s digitised annual accounts published on VisitScotland.org cover 2012-13 onward. Detailed in these, since (and including) the 2012-13 financial year, no bonus payments have been made to executive level staff. These annual accounts are publicly available by accessing online at https://www.visitscotland.org/about-us/annual-corporate-reports/annual-report

Please note that by ‘executive level’, VisitScotland refers to CEO and Director level staff.

No funding was offered through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) for the repair of small scale wind turbines in 2022 and 2023.

In 2022 and 2023, CARES funding has mainly focussed on decarbonising community buildings and supporting off-electricity grid communities to upgrade their energy systems and decarbonise their energy supplies.