Chamber and committees

All domestic owner occupied householders in Scotland are eligible for the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme, which offers householders up to £7,500 of grant funding for the installation of a heat pump or £9,000 for households which qualify for the rural uplift. Up to £7,500 is available on top of this as an optional interest free loan.

The Scottish Government also funds installation of heat pumps targeted at fuel poor households through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes.

Householders can find additional information about heat pumps and the funding available on the Home Energy Scotland website. www.homeenergyscotland.org

Some householders may also be able to benefit from the installation of a heat pump through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which is a UK Government scheme delivered via energy suppliers. These improvements are provided as benefits-in-kind.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to improve Community Urgent Care (CUC) pathways as part of the wider Urgent and Unscheduled Care Programme. In addition to validated nationally collected data from Public Health Scotland, an Unscheduled Care Improvement Dashboard is in creation which will consist of ‘data for improvement’ collected manually by each Health Board Area, which supports tracking of locally held data to reflect the impact of improvement activity, creating visibility of progress.

Work is also underway through an external partner to evaluate the Redesign of Urgent Care pathway through NHS 24 111 service which launched in 2020 and provides access to local Flow Navigation Centres and virtual A&E teams.This evaluation will assess impact on a range of measures, including patient and staff experience and assess what other outcomes are impacted by the service.

• The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to improve Community Urgent Care (CUC) pathways as part of the wider Urgent and Unscheduled Care Programme.
• In addition to validated nationally collected data from Public Health Scotland, an Unscheduled Care Improvement Dashboard is in creation which will consist of ‘data for improvement’ collected manually by each Health Board Area, which supports tracking of locally held data to reflect the impact of improvement activity, creating visibility of progress.
• Work is also underway through an external partner to evaluate the Redesign of Urgent Care pathway through NHS 24 111 service which launched in 2020 and provides access to local Flow Navigation Centres and virtual A&E teams. This evaluation will assess impact on a range of measures, including patient and staff experience and assess what other outcomes are impacted by the service.

HM Chief Inspector is committed to promoting openness and transparency in the inspection process. Educators and practitioners are kept well-informed about inspections, including the focus areas and methodologies employed by inspection teams.

HM Inspectors assess the quality of education in Scottish schools using various quality indicators from 'How good is our school? (4th edition).' This document outlines the evidence collected during school inspections. Additionally, briefings for headteachers, parents, and Parent Councils are provided and updated annually at the beginning of each academic year. These updates are available on Education Scotland’s website. Moreover, when specific or mid-year changes occur, separate advice notes are published on the website.

In November 2023, I requested that the interim Chief Inspector enhance the evidence collected about behaviour during inspections.

Consequently, HM Inspectors will place greater emphasis on gathering evidence about behaviour and strategies for promoting positive relationships during inspections. An Advice Note for schools outlining the approach will be published in early January 2024, and will apply to inspections notified from January 2024.

The interim Chief Inspector will continue to issue additional inspection advice notes as needed, ensuring the inspection process remains transparent.

The Chief Constable of Police Scotland, with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority, considers any requests to provide training to other police forces or organisations via their International Development and Innovation Unit.

Police Scotland have confirmed that no training, advice, guidance or support has been provided to the Israel Police, the Israel Defence Forces, or the Israeli Security Services.

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Higher Property Rate (HPR) in 2024-2025 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the below tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by council area. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on the non-domestic valuation roll as at 1 October 2023.

Figures in these tables are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for HPR in 2024-2025 by property class

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

When an individual is allocated a prison cell in any establishment, the cell is equipped with furnishings such as a table/tabletop, seating, a bed and bedding.

The occasion where this may not occur is when an individual is located in a safer cell if it is considered that they are a risk to themselves. These cells are equipped with a bed and bedding, but they may not have a chair or a separate table. Items in use within a safer cell are allocated on an individualised basis.

The following table shows the number of safer cells across the prison estate:

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

As defined in the Prison and Young Offenders Rules (Scotland) 2011, all female prisoners who require sanitary products are provided with them free of charge. There is therefore no need to record instances of products not being provided.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

With the exception of 2 prison cells at HMP Open Estate, Castle Huntly, all other cells across the SPS estate have access to natural light.

All prison cells have access to artificial light sufficient for reading purposes.

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Intermediate Property Rate (IPR) in 2024-2025 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the below tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by council area. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on the non-domestic valuation roll as at 1 October 2023.

Figures in these tables are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for IPR in 2024-2025 by property class

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does not record this information. However, as defined in the Prison and Young Offenders Rules (Scotland) 2011, individuals must have, and do have, access to showering/washing facilities a minimum of every second day.