Chamber and committees

Responsibility for the analysis of the impacts from cable theft and the implementation is a matter for Network Rail and its contractors.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33028 on 22 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We do not hold information on long COVID referral pathways for patients with a dual diagnosis or presentation of both long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome(ME/CFS). This is a matter for territorial NHS boards.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33028 on 22 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

This is a question for NHS Grampian and its planning partners. It is for local health bodies to plan and provide services that best meet the needs of their resident populations, including those that live in rural communities, consistent with clinical best practice, national policies and frameworks.

COSLA and the Scottish Government published Scotland’s first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care in February 2023. The Strategy outlines a number of key developments for improving technology and infrastructure to improve the care and wellbeing of people in Scotland by making best use of data in the design and delivery of services

The Scottish Government published the National Improvement Framework (NIF) for Scottish education in December 2024. The 2025 NIF has been streamlined and refreshed to include a long-term strategy for improvement which will provide clarity and focus to our work on improving standards in Scottish education.

Given the impact of COVID-19 and the financial pressures on schools as a result of austerity, the NIF highlights that the short term focus (this year and for the remainder of this parliamentary term) will be improving the ABC - attendance, achievement, behaviour and the curriculum in schools - to boost standards.

The draft Scottish budget 2025-26 provides £186.5m to local authorities to help protect teacher numbers, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. The budget also sets out an additional £29 million of investment for Additional Support Needs (ASN). This will include an allocation for local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce. The Scottish budget 2025-26 is subject to parliamentary approval in February.

In addition, we have included 7 key outcomes that we expect to achieve to deliver excellence and equity for all of our children and young people. In order to deliver these outcomes, the 2025 NIF sets out the joint responsibility of Ministers and local authorities for education and the requirement for national and local government to work together, with a collective responsibility to improve educational outcomes.

The 2025 Improvement Plan, which accompanies the NIF, will be published later in January. It will set out the full details of the actions that will be taken to deliver the key outcomes, the evidence to support them, and how we will measure progress against them.

All transport expenditure supports economic activity and development. This ranges from the maintenance and enhancement of the road, rail, air and ferry networks and our bridges, the impact of our sustainable travel and low carbon schemes, the support for public transport users through concessionary fares, the funding of rail services and bus grants to allow easier access to employment and support to local authorities.

Funds are allocated in line with the 4 priorities within the National Transport Strategy of which Inclusive Economic Growth is a key component and the vast majority of expenditure is around maintaining and running the existing system that is crucial for economic development. However, all transport interventions have impacts across all the 4 priorities and interact with each other and some projects are funded over multiple years and as such, there is no rigorous way of determining which expenditure in any given period has a primary focus on economic development.

The Scottish Government published the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) in December 2022. STPR2 prioritises maintaining and safely operating existing assets over targeted infrastructure improvements. STPR2 did not recommend any major upgrades to the A90 trunk road. Instead, Recommendation 30 noted that the A90 Perth to Aberdeen (excluding the A90 Kingsway through Dundee) as an example of locations for potential future road safety improvements. Separately, Recommendation 32, identified the proposal for an integrated transport plan to be developed for the A90 Kingsway through Dundee.

In addition, the Scottish Government remains committed to delivering a new grade-separated junction on the A90 at Laurencekirk as part of the package of additional investment alongside the Aberdeen City Region Deal.

Transport Scotland has been taking forward the necessary design and assessment work, and the project is currently going through the statutory authorisation process, having recently published supplementary draft Orders for formal comment.

As with all infrastructure projects, delivery of the Laurencekirk scheme can only commence when the relevant statutory authorisation powers to do so have been secured. Following completion of the statutory authorisation process we will then be in a position to set a timetable for delivery of the scheme in line with available budgets.

As carriageways are designed for a specific period (a ‘design life’) based on the predicted numbers of vehicles passing over that section over a specific number of years, increased traffic volumes (particularly commercial vehicles) can accelerate their deterioration. Traffic volumes on the A90 have risen by 6% over the last five years. This change in traffic has been factored into our most recent calculation of the Road Condition Index which is used to identify where detailed engineering investigations should be focused in order to determine maintenance requirements.