Chamber and committees

Ministers last met on 22 May at the Inter-Ministerial Group on environment, food and rural affairs, with discussions focussing on an exclusion for DRS from the UK Internal Market Act. Officials from the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive continue to engage regularly.

The Scottish Government (SG) has not identified any reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in its owned core SG Estate, as such no estimate for fixing have been made. The SG Core Estate is defined as those sites/buildings where SG Directorates operate from.

The following number of Site Checks and Site Condition Monitoring assessments for protected areas were completed by NatureScot since 2017:

The Innovation Centre funding partners (Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise) have commissioned an evaluation of the IC Programme led by Additional Research and in association with Context Economic and Social Research, ADD Specialists, Open Cities Ltd and IBP Strategy and Research. The report will be published shortly.

The Scottish Government is clear that scientific age assessments have no place in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s Age assessment: practice guidance strongly advises against use of such techniques on child welfare grounds and their ability to accurately ascertain age.

Scottish Government Officials are engaging with the Home Office on their proposals to scientifically age assess unaccompanied asylum seeking children. In October 2022, Scottish Ministers wrote to the UK Government expressing serious concerns over the UK Government’s plans to introduce medical age assessments under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

The Scottish Government is clear that the UK Government’s cruel and inhumane Illegal Migration Bill should be scrapped immediately. The Scottish Parliament rejected the Bill during a debate on 25 April. In the debate, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice raised serious concerns about the ethical implications of subjecting children to scientific age assessments.

We continue to monitor the Bill closely as it is considered by the House of Lords.

Duties relating to secure transport lie principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information is not held centrally on these arrangements or the use of handcuffs.

A sub-group of the National Secure Care Group is developing a service specification that can be used consistently by local authorities and sets out the principles and standards wherever secure transport requires to be commissioned. It covers areas such as data gathering and staff training and prohibits the use of mechanical restraints or handcuffs.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey to provide secure transport for children convicted on indictment and given a custodial sentence. GEOAmey must ensure that the child being transported, staff and the general public are protected by robust arrangements throughout each journey, including the prevention of escape. Multi-purpose vehicles are used to escort children, rather than the prison vans used to transport adult prisoners. Because of this, handcuffs are used for each journey.

Full fibre is now available to over 1.2 million properties in Scotland, with coverage now standing at 45% – an increase of 14 percentage points from January 2022 and 26 percentage points from January 2021.

This represents an increase of over 400,000 premises in the past 12 months – the largest year-on-year increase in full fibre coverage we have seen in Scotland to date.

The Scottish Government's Reaching 100% (R100) programme is contributing to this by delivering a significant number of fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections through the R100 contracts.

In order to ensure that customers on lower incomes can access reliable broadband at a more affordable cost Ofcom, as telecoms regulator, is urging internet service providers to offer a social tariff.

Social tariffs are more affordable broadband and phone packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit and some other benefits.

Details of social tariffs that are currently available are provided on the Ofcom website: Social tariffs: Cheaper broadband and phone packages - Ofcom .

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the UK Government on Project Gigabit activity in Scotland.

In March 2023, the Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) carried out Procurement Area Market Engagement, engaging with broadband infrastructure suppliers to gauge the level of market interest in bidding for new gigabit-capable broadband contracts in Scotland.

On 23 March 2023, the Scottish Government launched a Scotland-wide Public Review (PR). The PR collected information about suppliers’ delivered and planned gigabit-capable networks across Scotland and will confirm eligible premises for public investment via Project Gigabit.

The PR closed on 24 April 2023 and the responses are being analysed.

The first Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland are expected to launch later in 2023.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including the details requested about repair and maintenance works, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

The Director for Agriculture and Rural Economy was the only person from the Scottish Government who received an invite to the “Farm to Fork” Summit at 10 Downing Street on 16 May, and he attended. No Ministers were invited to the event.