Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to consider that a) responsibility for building maintenance, including in respect of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), is a matter for property owners, supported by appropriate professionals and b) building owners should continue to follow the guidance of organisations such as the Institution of Structural Engineers.

Maximising the economic opportunity for the Scottish supply chain from our renewable potential is a key focus for our Green Industrial Strategy, published in September 2024.

We are investing up to £500 million over five years in the offshore wind supply chain, which is expected to leverage additional private investment of £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the sector. This investment will support thousands of new jobs and maximise economic value to Scotland.

Through the Supply Chain Development Statements process, offshore wind developers have made commitments to invest an average of £1.5bn per project across the 20 ScotWind developments in the Scottish supply chain. These commitments are an integral part of the leasing process and are intended to drive developer engagement with the supply chain from the very outset of project development.

The UK Government’s Clean Industry Bonus will provide extra revenue support to offshore wind developers who choose to invest in cleaner supply chains, and in supply chains in the UK’s most deprived areas. We expect both Scottish offshore wind projects and supply chain to benefit from this new initiative.

Through the Onshore Wind Sector Deal we are continuing to see positive engagement with industry on publishing data on the percentage of local content in the supply chain, which will help to illustrate the economic impact developments for communities and Scotland’s regional and national economies.

It is for individual local authorities, as employers, to manage their own practices regarding the employment of teachers and provision of individual employment contracts.

In December 2024 the Scottish Government reached an agreement with local government to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels and we are providing £186.5 million in the 2025-26 Financial Year for this purpose and to give local authorities the support they have requested to increase the number of teaching jobs. In addition we are also providing Local Authorities with £28 million to support ASN provision in schools, which may be used for measures such as the employment of ASN teachers.

As part of our joint agreement Scottish Government and CoSLA will also work together on the establishment of an Education Assurance Board. Improving employment opportunities for Scotland’s teaching workforce will be a key feature of the Education Assurance Board. The board will allow us to work together to review national employment practices, highlight best practice and use this to work in partnership with our councils to improve the availability of permanent teaching contracts nationally.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of their school estate including decisions about the closure of schools. Scottish Ministers do not receive requests for school closures from local authorities.

Local authorities are however required by the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”) to submit school closure decisions for Ministerial review. Ministers can then “call-in” the decision for review by an independent school closure review panel if it appears to Scottish Ministers that the local authority may have failed, in a significant regard, to comply with the requirements imposed on it by the 2010 Act, or to take proper account of a material consideration relevant to its decision.

The following table sets out the number of school closure decisions for rural schools only, received by Scottish Ministers for their review from each local authority over the last four years.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of their school estate including decisions about the closure of schools. Local authorities are required by the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”) to carry out a full public consultation where they are proposing a permanent school closure.

Local authorities must also undertake specific additional steps when they propose to close a rural school. These include clearly demonstrating that they have considered alternatives to closure, an assessment of the likely impact on the community and impact on travel to school arrangements for local pupils. The local authority must also set out the educational benefit of the closure which is subject to an independent report by HM Inspectors. The local authority must respond to HM Inspectors’ assessment of the educational impact on those affected. If a proposal to close a school is rejected, then the local authority cannot repeat the process for five years, providing stability for the local community. These protections are intended to ensure that local authorities think very carefully before closing a rural school and consult extensively with the local community about their proposal.

Where it appears to Scottish Ministers that the local authority may have failed, in a significant regard, to comply with the requirements imposed on it by the 2010 Act, or to take proper account of a material consideration relevant to its decision they may “call-in” the decision for review by an independent School Closure Review Panel.

Data on alcohol-specific deaths are published annually by National Records Scotland (NRS) and can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-specific-deaths-2023/

Data on alcohol-specific deaths for 2024 are not yet published. The number of alcohol-specific deaths for the five year period 2019-2023 are listed in the following table, alongside the number and proportion of these deaths where the underlying cause of death was alcoholic liver disease.

The requested information is not held centrally. The Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) does not routinely collect information on posterior circulation strokes or data on whether there has been a FAST “pre-alert” before arrival at hospital.

Scotland’s strong pipeline of renewables projects and growing supply chain will be vital to achieving a secure, affordable and clean power system, and we welcome the measures in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan to make progress towards this.

In particular, we welcome the signal the Action Plan provides on support for renewable energy – such as actions to speed up grid connections for key projects, and proposed improvements to Contracts for Difference support for renewables developments.

We expect significant growth of Scotland’s offshore wind capacity to play a key role in achieving clean power by 2030. In 2020, the Scottish Government set an ambition for 8-11 GW offshore wind by 2030, which is being reviewed in light of the significant ambition demonstrated by the private sector in the ScotWind and INTOG leasing rounds, with an updated Offshore Wind Policy Statement due to be published in 2025-2026. We continue to work with the UK government, National Energy System Operator, and Ofgem to ensure Scottish offshore wind projects are developed at pace and support our plans for a just transition.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of additional strokes that could be detected by adopting BE FAST.

The Scottish Government’s position is that the current evidence base does not support a move to the use of BE FAST, and this is supported by Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and Stroke Association, however we will regularly review this position based on the best available evidence.

NatureScot has released correspondence relating to the meetings and discussions through an FOI request.