Chamber and committees

Data from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service show, for the period 2018-19 to 2022-23, 17 charges were reported in relation to selling a nicotine vapour product to a person under the age 18.

In total, 9 of these charges were prosecuted, of which 4 were convicted. 3 charges were marked no further action and 2 are ongoing. 3 charges were marked for a Direct Measure (Warning) and 5 marked for No Action.

A breakdown of charges for each year is shown in the following table:

As a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), SQA operates at arm’s length to ministers and is responsible for its own operational decisions, including decisions relating to course assessments.

SQA’s decision to return to full course assessments for the National Qualifications in 2023-24 was made following engagement with the National Qualifications Group and wider education community, informed by extensive feedback gathered as part of their evaluation of the 2022 arrangements.

I discussed these matters directly with the Chief Examiner, including feedback from the SSTA and other teachers, and received assurance that the impact of the removal of modifications will be carefully considered in the grading process in 2024.

The impact of climate change policies on disabled people is a key consideration in just transition planning. We are currently engaging widely on priorities for our Just Transition Plans to ensure the transition to net zero and climate resilience reflects the needs of everyone across Scotland before developing the specific policies and engaging in bilateral meetings at Cabinet Secretary level. We are currently working with several disabled people’s organisations to enable them to engage with their members on our behalf and ensure that the needs of disabled people are reflected both in the Plans, and in wider Scottish Government policy.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the total number of kinship carers in each local authority area. We do, however, hold figures for the number of children who are looked after in kinship care and these are included in the Children’s Social Work Statistics for Scotland .

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has recently begun collecting students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

The Scottish Government’s ability to respond to the current financial context is limited due to overall UK Government cuts and by the financial restrictions of devolution, requiring extremely hard funding decisions to be made across the budget. The Scottish Government values our culture sector and the contribution of the grassroots music industry to the cultural and economic offer in Scotland. We will continue to work with the sector to identify barriers to recovery, and do everything within our powers and resources to help it overcome these.

The Scottish Government does not collect this type of data.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes data on wealth from the Office for National Statistics Wealth and Assets Survey. The most recent report can be found at Wealth in Scotland 2006-2020 (data.gov.scot) . More detailed analyses are available on the Office for National Statistics website at Household total wealth in Great Britain - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . The Wealth and Assets Survey includes gifts transferred within a period, but does not measure lifetime intergenerational wealth, or attribution of current assets to intergenerational help.

Analyses looking at intergenerational sources of wealth across the UK have been carried out by various other organisations and the academic sector, for instance Who gives wealth transfers to whom and when? Patterns in the giving and receiving of lifetime gifts and loans | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk) and Intergenerational Income Mobility in the UK: New evidence using the BHPS and Understanding Society .

I refer the member to the question S6W-20602 on
‎ 29 August 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 is clear that unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is not consistent with our climate commitments. That is why we are calling for a robust and transparent climate compatibility test to be applied to all new developments.

The Scottish Government has made our position clear, we are committed to a just transition for Scotland's energy sector. Our focus, as outlined in the draft Strategy, must be meeting our energy security needs, reducing emissions and ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas workforce as North Sea resources decline.

Responsibility for policy on oil and gas exploration and production is a reserved matter and sits with the UK Government.

The Scottish Government continues to call for the climate compatibility checkpoint to be strengthened and to seek a four nation approach to developing climate compatibility tests, and is disappointed that the UK Government has again made announcements without consulting the devolved Governments.

The Scottish Government has made our position clear, we are committed to a just transition for Scotland's energy sector. Our focus, as outlined in the draft Strategy, must be meeting our energy security needs, reducing emissions and ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas workforce as North Sea resources decline.

We are already investing in the transition, through the Just Transition Fund and Energy Transition Fund, over half a billion pounds (£575m) to support a just transition. We will take the workers with us on our journey to net zero. We won’t do what Margaret Thatcher did to our mining and steel communities, where workers were discarded without hope.