Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has a contract with Office Papers to supply newspapers on an ad-hoc rather than a subscription basis. This contract was renewed in February 2022 to run for three years. Review meetings with the contractor take place on a quarterly basis. Business units making purchases under the contract are expected to ensure these are justified.

From 2018 to 2023, the Scottish Government invested £28.75 million to build 55 new mobile masts in longstanding ‘notspots’, bringing 4G connectivity for the first time to communities and businesses across rural and island Scotland. The Scottish Government has also funded the creation of Infralink. This is a dedicated toolkit designed to help Scotland’s public sector organisations more easily leverage publicly owned property and assets in the rollout of new telecommunications infrastructure.

The Scottish Government See Hear Strategy, published in 2014 and endorsed by COSLA, sets out a framework where everyone with a sensory impairment, including older adults, should expect seamless provision of assessment, care and support. The recommendations contained within the See Hear Strategy are being implemented via local partnerships, including statutory and third sector partners, to ensure alignment with local priorities and approaches. Funding is made available to each local authority area to support implementation of the strategy. For the last five years, Aberdeenshire has received £15,340 per annum for this purpose, with Aberdeen City receiving a further £13,281 per annum.

Details of how this funding has been spent, including to support older adults, is a matter for the relevant local authority. Information on provision of optometry and audiology services to older adults with sensory impairments is a matter for the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership. This information is not held centrally.

Scottish Government also funds two projects through the Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund which support people in Aberdeenshire experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to sensory impairment.

- Grampian Society for the Blind, operating as North East Sensory Services (NESS) and based in Aberdeen (Moray), offers social groups and activities for people with a visual impairment. Over the period 2023-2026 they will receive £55,083.

- The British Deaf Association (based in Glasgow but covering Aberdeen) provides information and support to the deaf community, online and in person. Over the period 2023-2026 they will receive £71,794.

These projects support people of any age experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to a sensory impairment. However, the likelihood is that older people will be benefitting from these services.

The purpose of having bees at the Parliament is not to produce honey but to partially demonstrate our compliance with the biodiversity duty under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 which places a statutory duty on all public sector bodies in Scotland to further the conservation of biodiversity. The honey is a by-product from having bees and is sold at a profit minus any costs for bottling and labelling.

Notice is not required to be given as the beekeeper has a security pass and is fully security cleared.

Our current bee keeping supplier uses the wax from their hives, including the Scottish Parliament, to supply the beeswax used for the Great Seal of Scotland.  We do not receive or make any payment in relation to this.

The beekeeper attends as is required and does not need to make an appointment as he has a security pass.

We have produced 144 jars in the last five years. Each jar is 227g. We received 99 jars in the financial year 2022/23 and 45 jars in 2024/25.

The current contract runs until March 2025. The usual tendering process is being run for the bee keeping services.

It is the responsibility of integration authorities to carry out joint needs assessments as part of their strategic planning process. This information is therefore not held centrally.