Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has provided £1.19m to Neighbourhood Watch Scotland since 2014.

A breakdown of funding per financial year is provided in the following table.

Current best practice for the management of large infrastructure networks is set out in the international standard for the management of assets ISO 55001, which requires organisations to adopt a formal asset management approach. Transport Scotland is the first UK trunk road authority to reach this standard demonstrating that public funds are being spent in the most efficient and effective manner.

We have developed and implemented a formal value management process for roads structural maintenance schemes for assessing the benefits of undertaking maintenance and the associated risks of not undertaking maintenance. Each scheme in the one-year maintenance programme is scored against a range of criteria:

a. Safety – to maintain a safe network and assess the level of risk to the road user. Those schemes that are safety critical or have a high level of risk will have the highest priority scoring.

b. Journey Time Reliability – to assess the level of risk to the service, e.g. route availability.

c. Environment and Sustainability – to assess the impact of a scheme on the environment, noise reduction, carbon factor, recycling and sustainability.

d. Value for Money – to consider the economic efficiency of the scheme and seek to minimise the whole life costs (i.e. invest now to deliver savings later).

The scores are used to determine which schemes should remain in the current year and which can be deferred until the following year. This ensures that those parts of the network with the greatest need are addressed and that the available funds are allocated in a fair, objective and transparent manner.

The prioritisation of bridges and structures maintenance follows as similar process with a Value Management Risk Approach using the following four criteria:

a. Safety – the overall effects on the end user, including fatalities and injuries that would be caused by a failure.

b. Functionality – the impact of a loss or reduction in service. This may be considered at route, structure or component level.

c. Environment – Environmental impacts, such as pollution caused through traffic delay, the sensitivity of the route/area, etc.

d. Sustainability – of both expenditure and workload, where the aim is to reach a state of steady expenditure and workload, avoiding the build-up of a backlog of unavoidable, essential work by doing effective, targeted preventative maintenance.

The tool includes work identified from inspections, structural capacity assessments, “At-Risk” supports, sub-standard parapets, flood risk, scour risk, environment and local factors for all structure types. It does not yet include other risk programmes, such as hidden defects or safety-critical fixings.

The Addressing Depopulation Action Plan includes an action for Scottish Government to engage with Youth Scotland and the Young Islanders Network (YIN) to co-develop ideas to encourage young people to move to, or remain within our island communities.

Since publication, as part of this engagement the Scottish Government’s independent Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population have met with a cohort from the YIN, to gather their input into a forthcoming report on the mobilities of young working age people in rural and island areas. It is envisaged that recommendations from this report will be considered by Scottish Ministers after publication, and where appropriate these will inform the development of future interventions to support population attraction and retention in rural and island areas.

Additionally, engagement with the YIN around the development of the next National Islands Plan (NIP) has already been conducted by Scottish Government officials, highlighting that the next NIP plans to have an overarching focus on population attraction and retention. This engagement will continue prior to publication and delivery of the next NIP, planned for later this year.

The A90 is a trunk road with considerable history having been periodically improved over the last 60 years to its current alignment and arrangement. The various improvements will have been designed in accordance with design standards that were in force at that time. As standards evolve they are not retrospectively applied to existing sections of road, unless changes or improvements at a given location are considered necessary.

This is a matter for Network Rail who are wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Government.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Boards directly for information locally.

The investigation following the fire at Shore Recycling in February 2023 remains ongoing and is being led by the Health and Safety Executive. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) cannot comment on the findings until the investigation is concluded. SFRS continue to engage with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service as necessary.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the offshore oil and gas industry on a range of topics, including workforce planning. For example, the First Minister last met with Offshore Energies UK along with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in September 2024 and this included discussion of jobs in the context of the energy transition.

The mainline of the A90 trunk road has been closed to facilitate road maintenance on 12 occasions over the following 5 full financial years:

2019-20 - 0

2020-21 - 2

2021-22 - 0

2022-23 - 5

2023-24 - 5

These closures took place overnight and averaged 13.5 hours per night in duration.

Additionally, there has been 53 slip road closures on the A90 trunk road over the same period. These overnight closures averaged 12.5 hours in duration. During these closures the mainline A90 remained open.

The clearing of unexploded ordnance is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

Scottish Government are, however, concerned with the environmental impact from such activities, via the consideration of licensing applications for ordnance removal and contribution to wider UK government policy on the matter.

Marine Directorate – Licensing Operations Team (MD-LOT) is the regulator responsible for determining marine licence applications on behalf of the Scottish Ministers in the Scottish inshore and offshore regions. Marine licences are required for licensable marine activities which include removal of any substance or object from the Scottish Marine Area and deposit and use of explosives, typically used in the clearance of unexploded ordnance.

In determining applications for marine licences, MD-LOT on behalf of the Scottish Ministers must have regard to protecting the environment, human health and legitimate uses of the sea. MD-LOT consult with a range of stakeholders including NatureScot, as the Statutory Nature Conservation Body, and seek views to inform determinations.

The Marine Directorate (formally Marine Scotland) was also involved in the development of the UK government’s 2022 policy paper “Marine environment: unexploded ordnance clearance joint interim position statement”. This sets out a coordinated position between marine regulators and key stakeholders across the UK regarding the use of lower noise alternatives to high order detonation of unexploded ordnance within the marine environment.

MD-LOT involvement in the clearance of unexploded ordnance is limited to the assessment of licence applications as set out above. There is no involvement from MD-LOT on the clearance of unexploded wartime military ordnance in Scotland's waters.