Chamber and committees

Telecommunications policy is Reserved to the UK Government. Therefore the Scottish Government does not collect or hold this data.

Information about the availability of mobile services in Scotland can be accessed through Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker ( https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage ) which provides a spatial view of their data. Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report, published annually but refreshed on a quarterly basis, is underpinned by coverage data captured at local authority and Parliamentary constituency levels. This underlying data is publicly available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research/spring-202

The Scottish Government values the impressive work that the Scottish Civic Trust does to coordinate the national Doors Open Days festival each year, which is the largest free heritage festival in Scotland and delivers many benefits by connecting people with their local historic environment. This is why the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development was pleased to provide an opening address for the festival and met with the Scottish Civic Trust recently in-person to discuss the opportunities and challenges the festival offers.

Financial support for the Scottish Civic Trust’s Doors Open Days and My Place Photography Competition has been secured through our lead public body for heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, which has committed over £100,000 each for this and the next two years from its Partnership Fund.

Somerville: Officials within the Scottish Government were aware of RAAC as a safety topic in recent years, through general engagement with the construction sector and specific organisations such as the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS, now CROSS-UK) who issued their first safety alert on RAAC in May 2019.

The topic has since achieved broader prominence, supported by the creation of a RAAC study group by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) in June 2021 and publication of IStructE guidance on RAAC assessment in March 2022 and in April 2023.

This is a matter for Local Authorities who are responsible for the delivery of School Meals and management of debt owed to them.

The management of meal debt is a matter for local authorities.

The most recent Programme for Government (2023-24) sets out the Scottish Government’s intention to introduce the Scottish Languages Bill in this current parliamentary year.

Finfish farm tenants pay rent to Crown Estate Scotland, who pass all revenue profits to the Scottish Government, via the Scottish Consolidated Fund. Under the current commitment, the proportion of this net revenue that is obtained from Scottish Crown Estate marine assets out to 12 nautical miles is distributed to coastal local authorities to spend on community benefit.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland and local Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) have the responsibility for commissioning and managing the appropriate services for local needs. The Scottish Government are investing £1.7bn for social care and integration in 2023-24 to support the people who deliver, and rely, on these services.

The National Care Service Programme includes a ‘Market Shaping’ work stream. This project will deliver tools and techniques for securing services through contracts, grants, and alliances that are financially sustainable and that meet the needs of people receiving care and the people delivering care. Market Shaping tools and techniques will be designed with providers of social care, commissioners, procurement experts and other stakeholders. It will consider how to improve the financial sustainability of current services, and how services that are not currently offered by the market can be designed and secured in ways that providers are able to deliver.

Public reporting of the winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme launched on 21 September and can be accessed via PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

The only publicly currently available data is the total number of vaccinations administered for both Covid-19 and flu. By the end of October, Public Health Scotland will begin publishing uptake data by eligible JCVI groups, including those at highest risk. It will also publish Health Board-level uptake data, alongside other information such as uptake by ethnicity and SIMD.

The additional data isn’t publicly available because it is management information that cannot be disclosed until the necessary data quality checks are complete to ensure that the data is robust. In the meantime, officials and health boards are using the management information to monitor uptake to ensure that it is what we are expecting.

There is a currently a mixed delivery of breakfast provision across Scotland with a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We have begun work with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map that provision. This mapping work will inform the development of a delivery strategy for breakfast provision designed around the needs of children and families.