Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17263 on 4 May 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 committed to delivering a Net Zero, Wellbeing economy and a highly skilled workforce is critical to this ambition. Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation is clear that we must adapt our education and skills system to become more responsive and agile so that it can deliver on our key priorities.

Published in 2020, the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) provides a framework for green skills planning and investment across priority sectors that will be critical to the transition to net zero: Energy, Construction, Transport, Manufacturing and Agriculture and land-use.

Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council are progressing Pathfinder projects to identify the skills requirements necessary to support the priority sectors identified in CESAP including in heat decarbonisation. The Pathfinders are operating in Glasgow City and Shetland Islands and the findings will strengthen the green skills evidence base and inform further action to address green skills gaps.

Other examples of work in the energy sector include the development of an Energy Skills Passport, to support workers as we move towards the just transition. Additionally, the upcoming Onshore Wind Sector Deal, which will enable the delivery of 20GW of installed onshore wind by 2030, will have a specific theme on Skills, Supply Chain and Circular Economy.

In 2021 we established the Anti-Racism in Education Programme (AREP), with the purpose of developing and delivering an education system in Scotland that is fundamentally anti-racist. As part of the work on the AREP that addresses curriculum reform there has been discussion and engagement with a range of anti-racism and education stakeholders, academics with expertise on history including the British Empire, and Black and other minority children and young people.

Within the broad general education there is the opportunity to teach the topic of the British Empire within the people, past events and societies section of social studies, and in the senior phase. This includes opportunities to teach the topic of the British Empire within the History qualifications, for example through the ‘Migration and Empire’ and ‘Atlantic Slave Trade’ topics (at National 5 and Higher).

Our thoughts continue to be with Esther Brown's family, friends and local community.

The Significant Case Review (SCR) process examines the actions and processes of the agencies involved in an individual’s management to ensure all reasonable steps were taken to minimise risk and to capture any learning. The process is independent of government and is designed to ensure the role of all partners in the process is carefully examined. We note this conclusion in this SCR and accept the two recommendations for the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government recognises and values the importance of tourism to the Scottish economy and local communities, but it is important we take action now to ensure all short-term lets comply with basic safety standards which many hosts will already be following as a matter of compliance with existing law or best practice. Many hosts have applied for, and obtained a licence, and we encourage those yet to do so to apply well in advance of the extended deadline.

We have committed to review short-term licensing and an update will be provided to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on the timings and scope of the review in due course.

We are not waiting for the licensing review to take action, and have already demonstrated we have been responsive to concerns raised by businesses, by engaging with licensing authorities to discuss areas of concern such as floor plan requirements. We will continue to work with stakeholders to monitor the ongoing implementation of the scheme, and respond to facilitate common processes where possible to do so.

We did consider alternatives to licensing as part of our 2019 consultation and as legislation was being developed, including registration proposals put forward by the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers. Registration does not offer the same protections to guests, neighbours and local communities as licensing does. To be robust and effective, a registration scheme would need to make much the same requirements as the licensing scheme does.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership to work with local authorities, empty homes officers and private owners to return homes to active use. The range of tools available to help incentivise owners to take action include the council tax premium, VAT discounts and grant funding through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme for acquisitions, key worker housing and the Rural & Islands Housing Fund.

As we move into phase two of the Partnership project we want to develop a more strategic approach to bringing empty homes back into use and embed this within the Partnership and its delivery partners. This will help us deliver on our aims of making best use of existing stock and increasing the supply of affordable housing for those that need it. An independent audit is also underway to gather evidence about the effectiveness of our current approach and help with thinking on options for future policy and funding.

The June 2021 Scottish Agricultural Census identified Scotland to have an agricultural land area of 5.64 million hectares. Scotland has created over 83,500 hectares of new woodland in the last ten years. For illustration purposes, if all of this had hypothetically been planted on agricultural land it would equate to 1.5% of the total agricultural land holding in Scotland.

Analysis of the Forestry Grant Scheme shows the applications for small woodland grants since 2015 covers 6,839 hectares, which equates to 0.1% of all agricultural land. Over the same period some 1,100 hectares of woodland creation has been on prime agricultural land, which represents 0.2% of total prime agricultural land.

The Scottish Government recognises that all recorded information relating to its business is subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) law, irrespective of its format or the platform on which it is held. This includes any information held in or originally generated in WhatsApp or similar messaging apps. This responsibility is discharged through the relevant business units who have the responsibility for capturing this information as set out in the Scottish Government Records Management Policy.

The Scottish Government has released such messaging exchanges in response to Freedom of Information requests. However, to ascertain the number of responses which have included such exchanges since 2019, would require officials to individually check every FOI response the Scottish Government has issued since the beginning of 2019. For that reason, this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

The current contract between Ferguson Marine and BAE Systems ends on 30 June 2023.

The latest Higher Education – Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey Report by the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) was published on 04 April 2023. This survey includes information on the number of active spin-offs founded at Scottish Higher Education Institutions, the turnover generated at these spin-offs as well as employment numbers.