Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The independent Scottish Housing Regulator publishes the costs of statutory managers in the final report of each statutory intervention. The reports are on their website.

Further to the answer S6W-21885, we have been clear that if increased teacher numbers are not maintained, we reserve the right to withhold or recoup funding which has been given for this purpose.

That data will be available following publication of the Summary Statistics for schools in December.

In assessing whether these conditions have been met, we will consider any mitigating circumstances individual councils may wish to put forward.

Local authorities are aware of these arrangements.

The Scottish Government does not disclose individual personal details regarding pay. For the financial year 2022-23, the costs of the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division, which co-ordinates the Building a New Scotland prospectus series, are as follows:

• As disclosed on 1 June 2023, total salary: £1,393,090.24
• Total employer’s pension contributions: £390,097.66
• Total employer’s NI contributions: £171,106.88

CalMac have chartered the MV Alfred on a temporary basis to support resilience throughout the CHFS network, and not principally to serve Stornoway.

At present a number of vessels in the CalMac fleet are carrying out berthing trials including MV Alfred, MV Hebridean Isles and the MV Caledonian Isles. This is to ensure CalMac are fully aware of the capabilities of all of their vessels in the event there is a period of severe disruption and to ensure that all communities continue to receive a service even during severe disruption.

These trials concluded that the MV Alfred would not be able to operate a service to Stornoway, however have proven successful in other ports for example, Lochmaddy/Tarbert where she will provide additional support from 10 November.

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

SPS does have accommodation within our estate which has an average of less than 8m² of living space and is occupied by more than one person in our care.

The following list indicates the establishments where the majority of cells that are currently being utilised for double (or more) occupancy have a cell average of under 8m² living space, as at 1 November 2023:

• HMP Barlinnie
• HMP Dumfries
• HMP Edinburgh
• HMP Glenochil
• HMP Grampian
• HMP Low Moss
• HMP Perth
• HMP&HMYOI Polmont

Whilst the Council of Prevention of Torture’s (CPT) minimum standard for personal living space in prison establishments for multiple occupancy cells is 4m² plus fully-partitioned sanitary facility, not complying with this standard does not constitute a breach of the law.

The Scottish Government intends to consult on the policy design of a devolved Building Safety Levy once an agreement has been reached with the UK Government on the transfer of legislative competence.

In line with our New Deal for Business and Framework for Tax, we will work collaboratively with those operating in the residential development sector and other stakeholders to ensure that the design and delivery of the Levy is informed by the widest possible range of views.

The Scottish Government has published a Financial Memorandum for the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill which includes information on the range of costs linked to the assessment and remediation of buildings in scope of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Financial Memorandum accessible (parliament.scot) We are working with Homes for Scotland and developers to identify their buildings within scope of the Programme.

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and once it is available it will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information centre under Bib. Number 64646.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22759 on 14 November 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

The Scottish Government’s International Network of offices regularly support and create opportunities across the culture sector, making links for the sector within the territories in which they are based and ensuring that cultural activity is central to their presence.

The Scottish Government is also currently scoping promotional opportunities across the cultural sector as part of our work to develop our new International Culture Strategy.

The strategy was announced in 2023-24 Programme for Government. It will set out how we will support the culture sector’s international ambitions and ensure that barriers to achieving those ambitions are addressed. We expect to publish the new strategy by the end of March 2024.

We recognise that international activities such as touring are vital to many creative professionals. The Scottish Government therefore continues to call on the UK Government and EU to negotiate an extensive and generous mobility agreement that would allow creative professionals to continue to move freely between the UK and EU.

We continue to work with our partners to minimise the barriers to international working, in addition to providing support to Arts Infopoint UK, a mobility scheme which provides a practical source of information on artist mobility.