Chamber and committees

Health marketing campaigns are one intervention used by the Scottish Government to support the population of Scotland to live healthy and active lives. They typically support wider programmes of activity or run alongside other interventions.

Where possible, marketing campaigns are evaluated using bespoke quantitative research, as well as where appropriate and available, indicators of direct response to a campaign such as visits to a particular website or web pages, calls to a helpline, vaccine uptake, cancer referrals, etc – during the campaign period.

Quantitative research typically provides campaign related metrics such as awareness, recognition, message take-out, engagement and action taken in response. Knowledge, attitudes and claimed behaviour among the target audience are often also measured and sometimes tracked pre to post campaign or over the longer term.

QALY (quality-adjusted life years) is a metric that is typically used in the evaluation of wider programmes of work or longer term interventions, where felt to be appropriate.

The proposed reforms are intended to increase the quality of applications which are submitted to Scottish Ministers. Doing so, will in turn, allow for faster processing times.

There is a long-established practice of Procurators Fiscal instructing the police in their investigation of crime and all suspicious sudden and unexplained deaths.

Investigation and direction may be issued in relation to specific matters in the context of ongoing liaison between the police and Procurators Fiscal who can instruct the police during the course of investigations and when further investigation is required in a case.

This is carried out as routine engagement during the investigative process and as such is not recorded as specific implementation of section 12 of the 1995 Act.

In my capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, I can confirm that I have not met Echt & Dunecht Against Pylons.

The Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme Pilot utilised a self-nomination process to identify buildings, of different tenures, that are potentially affected by unsafe cladding. Learning from the pilot supported the development of the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification, published in June 2024, which will form the core of the standards being set by Ministers in anticipation of the forthcoming commencement of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024. The pilot has been instrumental in enabling the creation of these essential foundations for future programme delivery.

Entries on the pilot are being discharged. Where they meet the requirements set out at section 32 of the Act and don’t have a linked developer, the Scottish Government is taking forward assessment and, where necessary, remediation. Other entries will be discharged in accordance with whether or not they are a relevant building, as set out at section 32 of the Act, and whether they have a building owner, and/or linked developer, who we would reasonably ask to take forward assessment in line with the published SBA specification.

New entries are not being added to the pilot. Nevertheless, in any circumstances where the Scottish Government becomes aware of a building with potentially unsafe cladding, we will take appropriate action. This may include asking a building owner to take action or passing the building onto a linked-development for assessment and, where necessary, remediation. It is possible to engage with the Cladding Remediation Programme directly via email at [email protected]. Pursuant to forthcoming commencement of the Act early next year, we will formally announce new arrangements for people to seek support with the assessment and remediation of in scope buildings.

The Scottish Government is not taking specific steps to halt the decline of hedgehogs, however there are other initiatives that will benefit a range of species including hedgehogs.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) sets out our approach to generating high quality, nature-rich habitats across Scotland. Nature Networks aim to improve ecological connectivity across Scotland, linking important areas for biodiversity across urban and rural landscapes and allowing species such as hedgehogs to avoid becoming isolated and to move through the landscape to find good habitat to feed and to breed.

Alongside the SBS, one of the principles in Scottish Planning Policy is that the planning system should seek benefits for biodiversity from new development where possible, including the restoration of degraded habitats and the avoidance of further fragmentation or isolation of habitats. Planning authorities, and all public bodies, have a duty under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 to further the conservation of biodiversity. This duty must be reflected in development plans and development management decisions.

Nature Networks are embedded throughout the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) as a key means of ensuring positive effects for biodiversity from development.

NatureScot has produced a publication Developing with Nature, which provides Guidance to support NPF4. This contains specific advice to developers on incorporating nature in to new developments, whether that be creating species rich grassland for pollinators, bat or bird boxes and advice for creating hedgehog friendly habitat as part of any development – including incorporating ‘hedgehog highways and houses’.

NatureScot’s seasonal campaign, ‘Make Space for Nature’, encourages everyone to connect with and take care of nature and provides practical tips for everyone to make space for nature, reverse nature loss and fight climate change.

There are currently no full-time forensic pathologists based in Aberdeen

In my capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, I can confirm that I have not met Scotland Against Spin.

In my capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, I can confirm that I have not met Not A Just Transition - Opposed To The Industrialisation Of Rural Scotland.

In my capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, I can confirm that I have not met Angus Pylon Action Group.