Chamber and committees

As outlined in this year's Programme for Government, we are investing a record £6m to continue implementation of the recommendations of Ana Stewart and Mark Logan’s Pathways report on women in entrepreneurship.

This funding will build on the success of the South of Scotland Enterprise Pre-Start Regional Pilot and Pathways Fund and ensure that the opportunities of entrepreneurship are accessible to more women, closing the gender gaps in business participation and opening up the opportunities of entrepreneurship to under-represented and under-supported groups.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the UK Government on all aspects of energy policy, including the transition to renewable energy and the need to bring down bills.

It is essential that the UK Government puts customers at the heart of all policy decisions across the energy market and we continue to call on the UK Government to take immediate action to address high fuel bills.

For the majority of current or concluded Scottish Public Inquiries none have overrun their original timeframe since the Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007 came into effect. This is because Ministers have not sought to specify in the Terms of Reference a fixed date by which the inquiry must conclude, to ensure that there is no impediment to the ability of the Chair to follow evidence wherever it may lead, and that their independence from government is manifest to all those with an interest in the inquiry.

However, the exception to this would be the concluded Vale of Leven Inquiry. The Terms of Reference included a provision “to report by 30 September 2010 unless otherwise provided by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing”. The Chair of the Inquiry made an application to the Cabinet Secretary for the deadline for the report to be extended, with the final phase of oral hearing not being completed until June 2012. The Chair confirmed in the inquiry’s report that they “did not consider it possible to report by a specified date” explaining that “until the work of an inquiry is well underway any prediction about a time limit cannot be accurate and may be totally unrealistic”.

The current Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry Terms of Reference provide an example of how an overall expectation in relation to reporting timeframes can be set, whereby they include an expectation of the inquiry “To provide reports to the Scottish Ministers as soon as practicable”. How the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry fulfils that expectation in practice is, under the legislation, a matter for its independent Chair.

In relation to costs, there is no single record maintained by Scottish Government of cost information relating to current and former inquiries. Costs are determined to a large extent by how each inquiry is run by its independent Chair and, for this reason, the Scottish Government does not set a fixed budget or cost limit for an inquiry. Under section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005, the Chair is responsible for the procedure and conduct of an inquiry, and has a duty to avoid any unnecessary cost. Publication of information in relation to costs is undertaken independently by inquiries themselves.

Funding for the Deal is awarded by both Governments to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire region rather than individual Local Authority areas with investment decisions ultimately made by regional partners. This includes joint projects between the three main Deal partners, Stirling Council, Clackmannanshire Council and University of Stirling.

Neither the initial capital investment location nor the lead delivery partner for a specific Deal project conveys where the economic impact of Government investment is realised at Local Authority level. An indicative investment breakdown based on project location includes:

• £21.55 million within Clackmannanshire;
• £62.08 million within Stirling; and
• £6.56 million pan Stirling and Clackmannanshire.

SQA Accreditation quality assures and regulates qualifications offered in Scotland. It does this by approving awarding bodies and accrediting their qualifications, ensuring that accredited qualifications are of an appropriate standard and meet the needs of learners.

We are continuing to give the SAWC reports on remote control static pulse devices and other aversive training devices careful consideration, along with the findings of our review into whether further provisions for wearable static pulse training devices are required, which was undertaken as part of the review of the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020. Once we have finished our deliberations, we will announce our timeline for a further consultation.

Our immediate priority is to capitalise on the near term opportunities set out in Project Willow, with a focus on bringing forward new jobs at Grangemouth as quickly as possible. The Grangemouth investment taskforce is delivering on this priority by working with businesses with an interest in developing projects aligned to those suggested in Project Willow.

The Scottish Landfill Communities fund is currently operational. The public consultation, which concluded on 6 June, sought views on the Fund’s structure and the potential impact of its closure. This consultation process will inform decisions on the future of the Fund.

Any resolution by the Scottish Parliament or report by a committee of the Parliament must be made during the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny. The cut-off date is therefore the expiry of this 60 day period.

We do not consider it necessary to commission an independent review of the consistency and transparency of decisions made by ministers in cases where public inquiry recommendations have been decided against in favour of renewable energy development.

All Energy Consents decision letters are published online for transparency, and decisions may be challenged in the Scottish court system.