Chamber and committees

Microsoft 365 licences are required for the 1654 users of the Parliament IT systems to access their emails, SharePoint, MS Teams, and MS Office applications as well as providing advanced security features. The annual cost for these licences is £549K and covers the period 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026.

It is not normally the case that Parliament is informed of determinations on consenting applications. However, given that Parliament is in recess and that the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm consenting application of significant interest and of strategic importance, I considered it appropriate and helpful to proactively inform Parliament of the decision made in relation to this application.

I can therefore advise that Scottish Ministers have today granted consent to the application for the Berwick Bank Offshore Windfarm which will be located in the North Sea in the outer Firth of Forth. It will be one of the world’s largest windfarms and will have an estimated capacity of 4.1GW. This decision has been taken after careful and lengthy consideration of the project’s potential environmental impact and its potential impacts on other users of the sea.

This decision is a major step in Scotland’s progress towards achieving net zero and tackling the climate crisis, as well as supporting national energy security and growing our green economy. Increasing renewable energy generation is critical to meeting our climate change targets, with climate change being one of the biggest threats to Scotland’s biodiversity and health of its marine ecosystems.

We are requiring that the developer must deliver environmental compensation to address the environmental impacts of this windfarm, alongside measures which will mitigate and minimise impacts to other sea users. The Scottish Government will work with SSE Renewables and stakeholders on proposed environmental compensatory measures required to address the impacts of the project.

Offshore wind is already one of Scotland’s greatest modern success stories – we now have the opportunity to deliver a potential offshore wind pipeline of over 40 GW putting us at the forefront of offshore wind development globally. This is the right decision for Scotland’s interests and will help to deliver significant benefits for our nation.

The determination paperwork can be found here: Section 36 Consent - Construction and Operation of Generating Station - Berwick Bank Wind Farm - Firth of Forth | marine.gov.scot.

The community transport sector provides many of our most vulnerable groups with access to essential goods and services and to social or leisure activities.

These services assist those who can’t or don’t use conventional public transport, providing ways to help them connect better with their local areas and wider communities. I recognise that these organisations may not be able to access finance afforded to commercial entities so I am pleased to announce that we will be launching a further round of our successful Plugged-in-Communities fund with a current budget of £4 million in 2025-26 which will be administered again by Energy Saving Trust.

The support provided to young disabled people during their transition to adulthood should be person-centred and tailored to the young person and their specific needs and goals.

Young disabled people are entitled to support in planning for transitions through The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and associated Regulations and through the non-statutory Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Child’s Plan. They may also be entitled to wider support – for example, financial support through the child disability payment and adult disability payment.

The National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy was published on 30 June 2025. Through this Strategy, the Scottish Government has committed to:

• continuing to invest in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood by promoting independence, community participation, social inclusion and confidence, including referring applicants for grant funded person-led planning support where it is needed;
• funding the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) in 2025-26 to build on their Time to Talk Next Steps Scotland Pilot to:
  • promote and support person-led and relationship-based approaches to planning amongst practitioners; and
  • support the wider use of Promoting a More Inclusive Society (PAMIS)’ digital passport in person-led communication and transitions planning to empower young people with complex needs to have their voices heard; and
• working with the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to promote the use of Compass for young people as a tool to support person-led planning within existing planning mechanisms.

Staff training is an operational matter for the Boards and employers. However, in 2021 the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People. This sets out standards for all children’s services to follow to ensure children and young people can access the support they need for their neurodivergence. This includes ensuring staff undertaking the initial assessment are appropriately trained, supervised and experienced for the purpose, including identifying strengths, as well as difficulties.

The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) for Staffing and Multidisciplinary training delivery and resources to help address mental health inequalities, supporting groups who are particular risk. This activity will strengthen support and care pathways for people requiring neurodevelopmental support, working in partnership with health, social care, education, the third sector and other delivery partners. This will ensure those who need it receive the right care and support at the right time in a way that works for them.

In determining an application for a licence, NatureScot must consider whether the hunt is sustainable, in that it would not have an adverse effect on the conservation status of the species concerned, namely gannets.

In the case of the Guga Hunt licence issued this year, NatureScot have confirmed that a population viability analysis of the gannets at Sula Sgeir was completed and considered as part of their assessment prior to issuing the licence.

In issuing a licence to permit the taking of 500 gugas, NatureScot have concluded that this number will allow the gannet population to continue to recover and enable a sustainable future take. The previous licence issued in 2018 was for 2000 birds.

Information on average waiting times for psychological services specifically following (a) pregnancy loss, (b) stillbirth, and (c) neonatal death is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Psychological services are delivered by NHS Boards. Boards report their overall performance against the 18 week referral to treatment standard, and this data, published quarterly by Public Health Scotland, does not include the reason for referral at this level of detail.

We continue to work with all NHS Boards to improve access to mental health and psychological services, including specific support for perinatal mental health and bereavement.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Currently every frontline fire appliance has 4 sets of Breathing Apparatus (BA), 2 of which have integrated radio communication. SFRS will shortly be procuring BA sets to an upgraded standard and all of these will have integrated communication as standard.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39324 on 31 July 2025. 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 equipment used by firefighters is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. SFRS has invested over £600,000 in purchasing 300 new thermal imaging cameras and every front line appliance with breathing apparatus has a thermal imaging camera (TIC). Spare TICs are stored at SFRS Asset Resource Centres rather than in fire stations.