Chamber and committees

Whilst I have not met with Professor Roy Brown, I have considered, and values, the information provided by him in relation to the role of bracken in tick population dynamics and human and animal disease.

I have accepted an invitation from the Bracken Control Group, which Professor Roy Brown is a representative on, to visit a location with established bracken, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss impacts and control options.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the price of energy generated by Torness nuclear power station. This information is of a commercial nature and shared only between the contract holders and the customer.

However, what is clear is that existing nuclear is expensive: under the current contract awarded by the UK Government to Hinkley Point C, the electricity that will be generated will be priced at £92.50 per megawatt hour (using 2012 prices). In contrast, wind is one of the cheapest forms of energy. Electricity being generated from offshore wind will be priced at £37.65 per megawatt hour.

In addition to this direct funding, nuclear developers have had the potential to profit from a Contract for Difference for 35 years for Hinkley Point C and will be able to use a Regulated Asset Base funding model that further reduces their financial risk for future projects. In contrast, other technologies with high capital expenditure costs, such as Pumped Hydro Storage, have not been able to utilise these market mechanisms to facilitate deployment. We continue to call on the UK Government to put in place a suitable market mechanism for Pumped Hydro Storage developments.

The number of staff based in Scottish Government International Offices in the past five years is listed in the following table.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-15749, S6W-15748 and S6W-15747 on 15 March 2023. Since this question was last answered, the ‘keeping pace’ power has not been used further by Scottish Ministers. 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

Estimates of the number of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy (OST) in Scotland are published on the Scottish Public Health Observatory website as, in spite of some data quality issues, Public Health Scotland (PHS) deem there to be a public interest in reporting this information. These statistics are published in a way that accurately describes the limitations of these data. Further, these estimates have been subject to external validation which indicates that their accuracy is good and has improved over time.

ISD (now Public Health Scotland) first published estimates of the number of people prescribed methadone for opioid dependence in 2015. The narrative accompanying these statistics states that, in spite of Community Health Index (CHI) capture being below the agreed threshold of reliability for individual-level analysis, these statistics are published due to ongoing public interest. As drug-related deaths have become an issue of growing concern, it is felt that this public interest argument continues to provide a strong reason for publication of statistics relating to prescribing for opioid dependence.

The way in which these statistics are published accurately reports the data quality issues that may affect their reliability. These statistics are published as ‘Management Information’ and the accompanying narrative describes the data quality issues and other appropriate caveats. The estimates are appropriately described as a ‘minimum number’ of people prescribed OST medications. Also, patient age and sex analysis that would typically be included for medications where CHI capture was above the agreed threshold of reliability for individual-level analysis, are not included.

Although the percentage of CHI numbers that were successfully captured from community prescriptions for OST medications in Scotland remains below the agreed threshold of reliability for individual-level analysis, there has been a substantial improvement in the quality of the underlying data over time. For the OST estimates, the CHI capture percentage increased from 64% in 2011-12 to 81% in 2021-22. As the information on ScotPHO in relation to prescribing for opioid dependence has developed, PHS have taken steps to understand how CHI capture affects the reliability of these estimates. Prior to releasing the first annual estimate of numbers of people on OST in March 2022, PHS held discussions about estimation methodologies with NHS Board prescribing leads and worked with them to agree a suitable way forward.

An analysis (also published on ScotPHO ) comparing estimates of the numbers of people on OST generated from NHS Board systems with the estimates produced by PHS shows that there was less than 1% difference between the 2020-21 total derived from local systems (29,588) and the PHS estimate (29,416). PHS continues to work with NHS Boards to improve the reliability of data on OST and any associated analyses.

We will ensure when commissioning any modelling related to greenhouse gas emissions in the resources and waste sector, the role of biogenic carbon is considered, with a view to informing policy decisions.

The Scottish Government and SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions) are currently establishing a Specialist Advisory Group to look at waste sector greenhouse gas emissions. As part of its work, the group will consider how biogenic carbon is included in future research on waste sector emissions commissioned by the Scottish Government.

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is a privately-owned telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecoms industry. The primary focus of PSTN migration is to switch over the telephony signal from analogue to digital services, not the broadband signal. As such, delivery of the R100 programme will not be impacted by PSTN migration.

The Scottish Government has not made any specific economic assessment of the costs of late diagnosis or failure to diagnose dyslexia in individuals or across society as a whole.

Our emphasis is on the provision of free, effective support in educational settings including schools, colleges and universities.

The Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. We are also committed to supporting teachers and school staff to meet these needs.

As part of our national approach to dyslexia, we have developed a range of free professional learning opportunities for teachers, which are aimed at supporting them to further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in supporting learners with dyslexia and to reduce barriers to learning. This includes the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit ( https://www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/addressing-dyslexia-toolkit ), its dyslexia identification pathway and the free Dyslexia Inclusive Practice online professional learning modules for staff.

Employment support is also available to adults with dyslexia. This includes access to work support which does not require a formal assessment of dyslexia. In 2020-21 people with learning difficulties accounted for 46% of the disabled people supported through modern apprenticeships.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of actions to support people with dyslexia. This includes the provision of support for dyslexic learners from nursery through school and into further and higher education, and access to support when entering employment, as well as in the workplace.

The Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those with dyslexia. The cost of individual supports will vary according to the needs of each pupil.

The Scottish Funding Council’s Access and Inclusion Fund is used to support the teaching and learning of disabled students in Further Education, which includes dyslexia. In 2021-22, £51.8m worth of support was allocated. Additional funding is also available as part of the Student Support budget.

In addition, the Disabled Students’ Allowance supports disabled students and those with additional learning needs in Higher Education. In the 2021-22 academic year, over 2,000 students with dyslexia received support amounting to £3.5 million.

Dyslexia Scotland provide a range of support, initiatives and advice for those with dyslexia, their families and those who support or work with them. In 2022-23, the Scottish Government provided funding to Dyslexia Scotland of over £250,000 to support this work.

The Scottish Government will publish the final Purpose and Principles for post-school education, research and skills [the week commencing 26 June DATE TBC].