Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government provided funding to the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland in 2022 to support the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award.

The objectives for this funding were:

• to raise public awareness of the social, economic and environmental importance of good architecture;
• to act as a spur for excellence by example; and
• to raise the profile of the best Scottish architecture at home and abroad.
  

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.

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.

The Scottish Government will publish a Framework to challenge men’s demand for prostitution and to support those with experience of it, early this year. The Framework will form part of Scotland’s collective approach to tackling commercial sexual exploitation and is cognisant of its links to Scotland’s Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy.

Once published, our focus will be on the delivery of the Framework, which will also improve access to support for women with experience of prostitution, with the implementation of it helping to inform any future legislative considerations.

VisitScotland has provided the following data:

Historic Environment Scotland’s inspection programme will conclude at the end of March 2024. Once completed, Historic Environment Scotland will have a clearer indication on extent of the challenge and the resources required to carry out conservation works. There is now full or partial access at 53 of the 70 sites that had access restricted due to High Level Masonry issues. I am pleased that Historic Environment Scotland continues to put the health and safety of individuals first, reopening sites when safe to do so and I will continue to engage regularly with Historic Environment Scotland on this matter.

Details of the inspection programme and site reopenings are published on the Historic Environment Scotland website.

The Scottish Government is working closely with partners to support Scotland as an attractive location to open new businesses across the whole of the tourism sector. Our work in the sector is driven by Scotland Outlook 2030, Scotland’s National Tourism Strategy, which is a key component of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23954 on 9 January 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 Scottish Government will consider any potential impact of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on the Scottish courts, and any other potential implications of the bill for the responsibilities of the government and the Scottish Parliament.