Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government established the Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of violence against women and girls services to develop a new funding model to ensure victims have access to high-quality, accessible specialist support.

The call for written evidence is one part of the overall data collection process undertaken by the Review team, which includes around 80 engagement sessions with stakeholders. The final report will be considered by Ministers once complete, and it would be premature to comment on the views expressed by those who submitted responses before the Review has analysed all data collected and made recommendations.

The final report and the evidence provided to the Review will also inform the upcoming refresh of the Equally Safe strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14939 on 1 March 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

It would not be appropriate to comment at this time until all the necessary steps have been taken to ensure our decision is the right one for the Caledonian Sleeper, its passengers and its staff.

On 2 March 2023 I am scheduled to provide an update to Parliament on the future of the Caledonian Sleeper.

Maintenance of its estate and the allocation of its capital budget is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

SFRS is currently conducting an options appraisal exercise to identify the best and most economic options for the 14 fire stations identified with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC) roof construction.

SFRS is also continuing to work with partner agencies to explore if there is potential for greater shared services across all of its estate and in particular those fire stations which require significant capital maintenance because of the defective RAAC roofing.

The Scottish Government is not aware of plans to relocate Helensburgh Community Fire Station. Decisions on the allocation and location of resources is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

All applications for a European Protected Species (EPS) licences must provide the number of individual animals affected by the proposed work, and applicants must show how this number was calculated.

Marine Scotland has published a document that provides guidance and advice for any aquaculture production business that wishes to apply for a licence to disturb EPS as a result of ADD use - faq_adds_and_eps_including_annex_1_and_annex_2_-_version_5_-october_2021_-_final.pdf (marine.gov.scot) . The guidance provides links to how areas are defined and the cetacean abundance estimates that should be used for calculations, While this document focuses on finfish farms, the information provided can be of use to anyone applying for an EPS licence.

While not published yet, Marine Scotland are in the process of updating its guidance on the use of finer scale distributions to account for uneven densities of marine mammals across SCANS blocks. Previously, the block estimates from SCANS III (Hammond et al. 2021) were recommended, however finer scale density surfaces are now available: Modelled density surfaces of cetaceans in European Atlantic waters in summer 2016 from the SCANS-III aerial and shipboard surveys (Lacey et al. 2022) . These estimates can be downloaded as shapefiles for each species here , and are considered the best available density estimates to use in EPS license assessments. Finer scale density estimates allow for a better characterisation of uneven distributions within SCANS blocks however the issue of temporal effects remains a challenge. For a specific site, there may be other, more suitable information on the cetacean species likely to be present along with their densities. However, MSS would only recommend using robust, effort-related survey data that is appropriate for absolute density estimation.

Marine Scotland bases its decisions on the best available scientific evidence at any particular time including any relevant peer reviewed literature. Any such literature is subject to a critical review to determine its applicability. Marine Scotland’s decisions will reflect the outcome of this process as well as consideration of information provided by the applicant and any expert advice received.

Marine Scotland is currently updating the above guidance to include finer resolution species density surfaces and this will be published in 2023. All applications for EPS licences will be expected to follow the updated guidance.

The Scottish Government does not plan to develop a strategy to tackle pensioner poverty. We already work closely with partners, including through the Older People’s Strategic Forum on a range of issues related to age equality. This includes the Strategic Action Framework ‘A Fairer Scotland for Older People, in which Ensuring Financial Security is a priority area. In addition, the forthcoming Human Rights Bill will include provision for older people.

Our Cost of Living website contains dedicated information on the support available for older people, including benefits and travel.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14876 on 28 February 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 plans to gather further information on the impact of non-native gamebird releases. Part of this work will be to consider whether further data on numbers of birds released and on location of release sites should be collected.