Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. As set out in our recently published Transport to Health Plan All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and assessing their own policies, including determining eligibility for escorts and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

The following tables provides a monthly breakdown of the total number of charge points on the CPS network by month and the recorded uptime and downtime across the entire CPS network as served to the public for the last three years

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website which provides a breakdown by local authority from November 2021. This will continuously be updated with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network. Prior to November 2021 this information was not collated by the Scottish Government.

Please note that the new CPS contractor took over responsibility of the contract from the end of July 2021, therefore the figures provided are from the first full month of delivery.

On 30 October I chaired the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board. This meeting involved a range of operational partners, including Police Scotland and local authorities, to discuss measures aimed at enhancing road safety and progressing towards achieving our vision for Scotland, including the north east, to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030.

The specification for the seconded headteacher position is being developed by the Scottish Government and the SQA in consultation with key stakeholders. Recruitment to the role will be undertaken by the SQA with the selection process involving the Scottish Government.

The seconded headteacher will be pivotal in delivering improvements to the relationship between the national qualifications body and the school sector and enabling the successful implementation of qualifications and assessment reform. More information on the role and the selection process will be available soon.

The environmental impacts of current textile consumption can be damaging, and we recognise the need for a strategic approach to textiles, from production and consumption, through to recycling and end-of-life management, as set out in our draft Circular Economy & Waste Route Map.

The Route Map identifies a range of measures, including the intention to consult on kerbside collection of textiles. It also sets out that textiles are being considered as one of the priority products for our product stewardship plan, which will support the development of circular supply chains in Scotland by reducing the quantity of clothing that needs to be produced from raw materials.

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 gives Scottish Ministers powers to make regulations to restrict the disposal of unsold goods and powers to make regulations that require businesses to report on waste and surplus for specified product types, both of which could include textiles.

Scottish Ministers will also develop a statutory Code of Practice for household recycling, co-designed with local government, and consider ways to prevent materials being put into waste streams by building a high performing service across Scotland that will provide a consistent supply of high-quality recyclable materials.

The Scottish Government's Let’s Do Net Zero website provides practical advice and links to raise awareness of how we can reduce, reuse and recycle more effectively https://netzeronation.scot/.

In addition, information and advice for consumers on how they can make fashion more sustainable is provided by Zero Waste Scotland in their guide on https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/resources/how-fast-fashion-failing-environment

Whilst electrification remains an option, no timescale has been established for the decarbonisation of the Maryhill Line.

As reported in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26, Major capital projects progress update (December 2023), I can advise that a refresh of the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan is underway. Timescales for this project will be updated in the light of current affordability constraints as part of the wider programme and the rolling stock procurement exercise.

Meanwhile, progress with development work for this project continues and I am pleased to confirm that a contract to provide a new electrification Feeder Station at Thornton has been placed with National Grid PLC.

Part two of the Criminal Justice Modernisation & Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 24 September 2024, includes provisions to create the statutory framework for what will be Scotland’s first national multi-agency domestic homicide and suicide review model.

The purpose of domestic homicide and suicide reviews is to learn lessons following a death where domestic abuse is suspected to improve services and help prevent further deaths. The reviews will be undertaken by a review panel which will include an independent chair with a review oversight committee overseeing the completing of a review.

The Lord Advocate, is the Head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and is also responsible for investigating all sudden, suspicious and unexplained deaths. Supported by Procurator’s Fiscal, in circumstances where a death is sudden, suspicious or unexplained, the Lord Advocate will investigate the death and seek to establish the cause of death and the circumstances of the death. A death investigation may lead to a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI.) The legislative framework which governs the holding of an FAI is the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016.

The purpose of a Fatal Accident Inquiry is to establish:

• where and when the death took place;

• the cause of the death;

• reasonable precautions whereby the death might have been avoided;

• the defects, if any, in any system of working that contributed to the death or any accident resulting in the death; and

• other facts relevant to the circumstances of the death.

As with the aims of a domestic homicide and suicide review, to prevent future deaths from happening in similar circumstances. However, unlike a domestic homicide and suicide review, FAI’s are a judicial process and a public examination of the circumstances of a death conducted before a Sheriff with the Sheriff issuing a determination at the conclusion of the Inquiry.

A domestic homicide and suicide review will take place where domestic abuse is suspected. An FAI is broader and can either be ‘mandatory’ in terms of Section 2 of the Act, and conducted where the death occurred (i) as the result of an accident when the deceased was acting in the course of their employment or occupation or (ii) when the deceased was in legal custody or was a child detained in secure accommodation at the time of the death or ‘Discretionary’ in terms of Section 4 of the Act, or ‘discretionary’ and conducted, on the Authority of the Lord Advocate, where the Lord Advocate considers that the death was sudden, suspicious or unexplained or that it occurred in circumstances that give rise to serious public concern and it is decided that it is in the public interest for an Inquiry to be held in to the circumstances of the death.

It is anticipated that the majority of cases likely to be reviewed under the domestic homicide and suicide review model, would not result in a FAI. The information gathered as part of a domestic homicide and suicide review will be information rather than ‘evidence’ and the reviews will have a specific focus on domestic abuse which will follow through to the learning and recommendations made from a review which will likely have a broader reach to safeguarding victims of domestic abuse in addition to the prevent of deaths.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care recommendations, consultation and co-design with thousands of people who receive or provide social care have told us change is needed in how social care and support in delivered. We are working with people to design a system that best fits the needs of the communities it serves.

The National Care Service will improve participation and empower people who use and deliver care services, to have a say in how social care is developed and delivered. The NCS will also promote transparency of both performance and investment in social care. The NCS Board will improve the scrutiny of local services, allow intervention at earlier stages to identify good practice, and target efforts on areas where there are emerging issues.

I have not met with Transport Scotland to discuss road improvements to the Toll of Birness junction specifically.

On 30 October I chaired the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board. This meeting involved a range of operational partners, including Police Scotland and local authority representatives, to discuss measures aimed at enhancing road safety and progressing towards achieving our vision for Scotland, including the north east, to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030.

Road safety remains of paramount importance to the Scottish Government. Transport Scotland assesses the safety performance of the trunk road network on an annual basis using a robust, evidence-based approach ensuing that funding can be prioritised to those locations that support effective delivery of the Scottish Government’s 2030 casualty reduction targets.