Chamber and committees

Fair work is the responsibility of all Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers across Government, but the responsibility for fair work in the culture sector sits with me.

However, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy maintains overall policy responsibility for Fair Work.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21436 on 9 October 2023. 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 .

Safety camera resources are primarily deployed in locations where they have the greatest potential to reduce injury collisions, and where there is evidence of both collisions and speeding. Safety cameras deployments are aimed at improving driver behaviours, leading to enhanced levels of speed limit compliance and ultimately resulting in fewer people being killed or injured on Scotland’s roads including trunk roads and main roads located within or close to local communities. This supports the delivery of Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 and its overarching vision of ensuring Scotland has the best road safety performance in the world.

An annual site prioritisation process is undertaken each year to determine new safety camera sites across our road network. This national exercise acts to ensure the right camera technology is in the right place at the right time. It involves a range of partners including the three regional safety camera units, all thirty-three road authorities and Police Scotland, and acts to identify potential new camera sites which meet the minimum criteria, while at the same time assessing the performance of existing enforcement strategies.

No primary care projects previously committed to by the Scottish Government have been cancelled or delayed in 2023-24.

The numbers of accused prosecuted and convicted under the new Protection of Retail Workers (Scotland) Act, which came into force in August 2021, will be available when the Criminal Proceedings National Statistics is published on the 24 th of October 2023. These statistics will cover the period up to March 2022.

Although the information about accused prosecuted and convicted under the new Act is not available yet, data about the number of charges resulting in a conviction has been extracted from the management information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard ).

The number of charges under the new Protection of Retail Workers (Scotland) Act that have received a conviction in criminal court from August 2021 up to March 2023 was 543.

Transport Scotland has recently met with MPs and MSPs, and the Langholm Alliance to discuss signing to Langholm on the Scottish and English trunk road networks. Following these discussions, Transport Scotland has been reviewing potential changes on routes within Scotland leading to the A7. It has been documented that for the A7 trunk road itself, Langholm currently features on all appropriate route confirmatory signs northbound and southbound within Scotland.

In relation to the A7 and other Scottish destinations being adequately signposted from the M6, Transport Scotland continues to engage with MPs and officials at the Department for Transport, National Highways and Cumberland Council to discuss the continuity of signing to Langholm on both sides of the border.

I can confirm that officials from the Building Standards Division met with the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) regarding Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in public buildings on 5 September 2023, and again on 12 September 2023. IStructE presented information at the RAAC cross-sector working group meeting of 27 September. Prior to those meetings, engagement with IStructE was on structural matters in general, including the certification scheme operated through our building standards system.

While the Scottish Government is not required to publish minutes of informal meetings with stakeholders, on this occasion a copy of the notes of these meetings have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) under BIB number 64548. The minutes of RAAC cross-sector working groups will be published at Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20954 on 19 September 2023.

Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is owned by many different executive agencies and other public bodies (such as SEPA) which are funded by the Scottish Government, as well as a small proportion owned by the Scottish Government directly. Each individual organisation is responsible for managing their own charge point assets and for making decisions about whether they should be designated for staff, visitors and/or fleet vehicle usage or for general public access. Not all charge point sites are suitable for general public access, for example those in secure staff car parks or in fleet vehicle depots.

There are no plans to centralise the management of EV charging infrastructure across all Scottish Government agencies or public bodies.

Since 2011, the Scottish Government has provided £65 million to support the installation of over 2,600 public charge points across Scotland, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive public EV charging networks in the UK. The Scottish Government’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to provide a further £60 million of public and private sector investment to increase the number of public charge points to 6,000 by 2026.

My thoughts are with the family and friends of the individual, who tragically died in September 2018 at Saughton Mains and it is regrettable that Edinburgh Trams Ltd have been found to have breached health and safety legislation through failures to properly assess risk to pedestrians at this location. Health and safety legislation is a reserved matter.

The Scottish Government have had no discussions with Edinburgh Trams Ltd following this ruling.