Chamber and committees

Council tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities, who had full flexibility in setting rates for 2025-26. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. It is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26).

The Scottish Government has considered the Grangemouth Refinery’s historical financial performance and, from the information available, has concluded that the asset is loss-making with significant capital investment required to retain operations.

Noting the fiscal constraints within which Scottish Ministers are required to operate, such an intervention would require the UK Government to intervene.

I continue to call on UK Government to leave no stone unturned to ensure a long term and sustainable future is secured for those who work and live at Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Trading Standards throughout the drafting of The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (the Vapes Regulations).

The Scottish Ministers have removed 3 property factors from the Property Factor Register for failing to comply with the Code of Conduct for Property Factors, and failing to comply with a Property Factor Enforcement Order, with one being removed in each of the years 2015, 2016, and 2019.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own academic misconduct policies. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has statutory responsibility for quality assurance of provision by colleges and universities. With the support of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the SFC is continuing to work with universities to address the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, and its potential impact on assessments, academic integrity and standards.

This includes funding provided by the SFC to JISC, who offer specialist and expert advice and guidance to institutions on accessing useful and effective tools to detect and address AI-assisted plagiarism and misconduct.

No One Left Behind is the approach to devolved employability support between Scottish and Local Government, which empowers Local Employability Partnerships to lead the design and delivery of services in each Local Authority area. These services are influenced by local need, and guided by co-produced national products in areas that require consistency, such as the Employability Service Standards, the Customer Charter, and the Shared Measurement Framework. Local Authorities may supplement funding provided through No One Left Behind with resources from other sources.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes experimental statistics on outcomes linked to the No One Left Behind strategic approach. These include the cumulative number of participants supported into employment, and the number of individuals who have sustained employment for defined time periods. The most recent statistics for Scottish Government funded employability support are available at: Scotland's Devolved Employment Services statistics - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government does not currently publish estimates of costs per sustained employment outcome for No One Left Behind at either Scotland or Local Authority level.

To date, we have never received a request from the business for such an intervention therefore no discussions have taken place.

The Scottish Government is clear that abuse, violence, including gender based violence, and harassment of any kind, will not be tolerated in our schools. Misogynistic behaviour was identified as an emerging concern in the 2023 Behaviour in Schools Research, and we are taking forward a range of actions to tackle it.

In 2024, we published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence. It was developed by a working group, jointly chaired by Scottish Government, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Zero Tolerance. The framework provides guidance on how schools can address the underlying causes of gender-based violence, particularly gender inequality, and ensure appropriate action is taken in response to specific incidents.

Our Equally Safe Delivery Plan builds a robust and joined up approach to the prevention of violence against women and girls across all education settings in Scotland. In addition, we provide funding to Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme which engages young people to consider different forms of violence, including negative attitudes and behaviours to help them understand and speak out against gender-based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as being able to safely challenge the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

Clozapine is available to NHS Health Boards in Scotland to prescribe as appropriate to patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

It is for Health Boards to implement treatments within services, and the decision to prescribe Clozapine would be a clinical one based on an individual patient’s symptoms and condition.

The Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court. Work has already begun on implementation.

The Permanent Secretary was asked to stand up a Short Life Working Group to ensure support and consistency across Government.

Following publication of the EHRC’s update, we wrote to the EHRC to confirm that no public body, service provider or other association should issue specific guidance before the EHRC Code of Practice and guidance is finalised.

As the enforcer and regulator of the Equality Act all organisations must consider and comply with the EHRC revised Code of Practice and guidance to ensure there is a consistent and clear understanding of the correct application of the law for all involved in this complex area.