Chamber and committees

We welcome NatureScot’s Avian Influenza Report on the H5N1 outbreak in wild birds and agree that our priority both now and in the future should be on continued disease surveillance, demographic monitoring and research to inform the long-term management of our wild bird populations in light of HPAI and other pressures.

The Scottish Government will continue working with the Scottish Avian Influenza Task Force to monitor and respond to HPAI in wild birds.

In December 2022, we published our Hydrogen Action Plan setting out the actions necessary to support the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. These actions, include providing funding through the Scottish Government's £180m Emerging Energy Technologies Fund to support renewable hydrogen production. In addition to this we will publish our Hydrogen Export Plan later this year and we continue to assist development of a strong domestic supply chain by working with our agency partners to attract and support companies. To that end the Scottish Government hosted a Hydrogen Supply Chain Event in September 2022, which brought together over 200 stakeholders to promote and build opportunities across the value chain.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of political integrity and transparency, and takes these issues seriously. We review and update guidance when necessary. Since 2016 Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership, a global partnership with civil society that works to make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. As part of this work, we will consider the options for a review of political integrity and transparency in Scotland.

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite which is found in the gut of warm blooded animals and enters the water environment from faecal matter.

Scottish Water is required to assess the risk of Cryptosporidium in the water sources it uses for drinking water supplies and to design and operate water treatment processes that will remove the parasite or render it harmless. Scottish Water is also required to monitor drinking water supplies for cryptosporidium. The Drinking Water Quality Regulator provides a commentary on treated water detections in her Annual Report. Page 4 of the 2021 report covers Cryptosporidium annual-report-public-supplies-2021.pdf (dwqr.scot)

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of good governance, and takes this issue seriously. We undertake regular reviews of our corporate governance system and will consider the matter of a Good Governance Champion as part of this work.

The resource budget for SFRS is set each year in the Budget Act and the SFRS Board has responsibility for taking decisions on how that budget should be spent. There are no savings targets set out in the annual budget process and the SFRS Accountable Officer is responsible for ensuring that SFRS delivers a balanced budget and does not overspend. SFRS has achieved that each year since it was established in 2013.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent SAWC report on electronic collars and will consider its findings carefully.

We recognise that there may be a case for licensing dog trainers, however more detailed consideration of the issues is needed. SAWC's proposal to consider and report on dog training at some point in the future will helpfully inform our next steps.

The Scottish Government condemns all forms of human trafficking or exploitation.

The Scottish Government has not assessed the potential prevalence of modern slavery in Scotland's waste management sector. Police Scotland monitor trafficking and exploitation trends in Scotland and the wider UK closely in order to tackle serious and organised crime effectively, including the potential for trafficking in the waste management sector.

The Scottish Government has provided grants to the Scottish Waste Industry Training, Competency, Health and Safety (SWITCH) Forum. As part of this grant funding, SWITCH has organised monthly webinars covering a range of issues, including modern slavery in the waste industry. The SWITCH webinars are available here: Webinars – SWITCH (switchforum.org.uk) .

The following table illustrating the number of staff trained to become qualified in delivering support for Mental Health First Aid and the year this was completed.