The Scottish Government meets regularly with the UK Government regarding electricity networks in Scotland. The Scottish Government is represented on the Electricity Networks Delivery Forum, which has been established to oversee the implementation and delivery of the UK’s Transmission Acceleration Action Plan (TAAP) and the Connections Action Plan (CAP). The first meeting of the Electricity Networks Delivery Forum was on 30 January, and it is expected it will meet on a quarterly basis. We are continuing to use this forum, and our wider engagement with all relevant stakeholders, to continue to push for reform and ensure that the proposals in the TAAP and the CAP are robust, fit for purpose and work for Scotland.

The Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) sets out our shared ambition for the future of town centres and is a call to action for partners, both locally and nationally, to re-build, re-energise and re-imagine our towns. This is a joint endeavour with responsibilities shared across the sectors.

We continue to take forward actions that we have direct responsibility for, working closely with cross-sector partners to support the delivery of TCAP. In collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnership, progress towards town centre regeneration has been showcased via a number of forums, including recent workshops on town centre living, place-based investment and the annual Scotland’s Towns conference.

Support for town centre action is also backed by our multiple capital investment programmes, including the Place Based Investment Programme, Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme, all of which help to accelerate shared ambitions for town centre action. However, following the UK Government's Autumn Statement and Spring Budget, a reduction in our capital budget will adversely impact the support that we can provide in 2024-25.

In November 2023, the NHS Scotland Chief Executive wrote to all Health Boards, requesting that they review their financial forecast for the remainder of the 2023-24 financial year and minimise any discretionary spend.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) play a critical role in supporting the education, training and wider development of the NHS Scotland workforce and is responsible for ensuring best use of available resources to support delivery of services and strategic objectives.

NES will continue to provide training and education, taking a flexible approach to its delivery across Scotland, while ensuring quality is maintained.

The Scottish Government can confirm that no secondary schools were unsuccessful in their applications for grants from the investment in computing science hardware. However, some schools opted not to take up the offer.

We take online safety very seriously and our expectation is that online service providers will act responsibly.

Though regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to securing the online safety of our children and young people. That is why the First Minister urged the UK Government to include additional measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children and vulnerable adults online and go further to encourage tech firms to design out illegal and harmful material.

Scottish Government monitored the delivery and spend of the grants for computing science hardware for schools. An evaluation of this work as well as wider computing science policy is underway and further updates will be publicised in due course.

Our Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) through policy 4 (Natural Places) sets out to protect, restore and enhance natural assets making best use of nature-based solutions. Policy 4 (d) states that development proposals that affect a site designated as a local nature conservation site or landscape area in the Local Development Plan will only be supported in limited circumstances. This includes where such development will not have significant adverse effects on the integrity of the area or the qualities for which it has been identified; or where any significant adverse effects on the integrity of the area are clearly outweighed by social, environmental or economic benefits of at least local importance.

All NPF4 policies must be read and applied as a whole and it will be for the decision maker to determine what weight to attach to policies on a case by case basis.

The regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government.

Notwithstanding, the Scottish Government has been very clear that providers also have a responsibility to enforce their own policies on harmful online content. We continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom, on the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023 in Scotland, and to press for stronger protections to keep children and vulnerable adults safe online.

Data on the full-time equivalent number of pupil support assistants from the September 2023 school staff census will be published on 19 March 2024. Data for 2024 will be collected in September 2024 and published in Spring 2025.

Enforcement of planning control is a matter for the planning authority, in this case North Ayrshire Council. There are a wide range of enforcement powers in planning legislation and planning authorities have discretion to determine what power, or combination of powers, to use in any particular situation.

In this case the reporter accepted the proposed planning conditions suggested by the council with minor alterations.