Chamber and committees

While the management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency, the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government and other devolved administrations through the delivery of the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI) which is a joint plan for tackling bycatch across the UK to minimise, and where possible eliminate, bycatch of sensitive marine species.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licences, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules. This includes a mandatory requirement for all vessels (including EU vessels) operating in UK waters to report all incidences of marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation.

Sustainability, support for biodiversity, and consideration of the wider ecosystem is at the heart of how we manage Scotland’s fisheries and protect our marine environment. For this reason, actions contained within both Scotland Fisheries Management Strategy and in the Blue Economy Vision for Scotland, sets out our ambition for the sustainable management and shared stewardship of Scotland’s seas and coasts.

I refer the member to the question S6W-20630 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

A key commitment in our Diabetes Improvement Plan is to further increase access to existing and emerging technologies which can significantly benefit people with Type 1 diabetes and improve their quality of life. We do, however, understand that there are still some barriers to achieving equitable access across Scotland.

To tackle this, we have recently invested £350,000 through the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway, to test new models of care and accelerate the distribution of existing technologies. We also continue to work closely with local Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs) to address any concerns around the distribution.

We will continue to actively engage with the diabetes community and those living with Type 1 diabetes to better understand the barriers they face, while also working with suppliers, NHS services and wider industry partners to increase access to technologies in the near future.

The enforcement of drinking water standards for private supplies, as set out in the Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supply) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 and The Private Water Supply Regulations (Scotland) 2006, is a matter for local authorities. Compliance with the standards is reported annually in the Drinking Water Quality Regulator’s annual report, available at Annual Report (dwqr.scot) .

The Scottish Government places great importance on sport and leisure facilities, they are vital in supporting the physical and mental health of the nation. The Scottish Swimming Facilities Project will help accurately understand the current swimming pool provision, life cycle and predict the landscape in the short, medium, and long term.

The project has three phases:

1. Provide a high-level update on change since the Ticking Time Bomb report was produced in 2001. That report reviewed Scotland’s public swimming pools and the costs associated with maintenance, upgrades, and refurbishment. This new work will provide an update from the 2001 report, with a focus on the age, condition, numbers, categories, and locations of pools.

2. Provide good practice guidance on creating a more economically and environmentally sustainable swimming pool estate. This will consider energy consumption, operational costs, refurbishment, replacement, and adaptations in relation to both new and existing pools. It will also provide guidance on the development and operation of school swimming pools for community access.

3. Work with pilot local authority areas to implement the guidance developed in phase two, to demonstrate the future sustainability of the swimming estate.

In March 2023, Scottish Swimming appointed OLM Consulting to undertake this work. The work is well underway, and we expect Scottish Swimming to publish the results of phases one and two in the coming months.

The £28 million fund has been launched for England and Wales only. The Scottish Government is not expecting any new Barnett consequential funding. We remain committed to preventing and tackling hate crime, including religiously motivated hate crime. The Scottish Government’s recently published Hate Crime Strategy makes a number of commitments including continued investment in raising awareness, improved support for victims and increased efforts in prevention.

We continue to work with Police Scotland and others to safeguard all communities and potentially vulnerable people and sites. We would encourage organisations with concerns about their security or the safety of their members to contact Police Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19566 on 26 July 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/questions-and-answers .

The Hate Crime Security Fund was established as a one-off fund in response to the March 2019 Christchurch terror attacks. This met a government commitment to provide a £500,000 fund for security measures for Places of Worship in Scotland, announced on 27 January 2020.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in raising awareness, encouraging reporting and prevention in order to tackle hate crime in Scotland. There are no plans to launch another security funding scheme for places of worship in Scotland.

We continue to work with Police Scotland and others to safeguard all communities and potentially vulnerable people and sites. We would encourage organisations with concerns about their security or the safety of their members to contact Police Scotland.

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.

Local authorities are responsible for school enrolments in their area, and this includes providing information to parents and carers regarding their rights on deferring starting primary school.

In 2022 and 2023, we wrote to local authorities to encourage them to review any local processes and communications to reflect the change in legislation.

The Scottish Government has updated the Parent Club website to reflect the legislation change from August 2023.