Chamber and committees

Development of a national pilot scheme to provide travel support for people seeking asylum and not currently eligible for the existing National Concessionary Travel Schemes continues with the Working Group. Further information will be published on the Scottish Government website and provided to third sector organisations as preparations for the pilot to open are made.

The scheme will build on learning from the small local and regional pilots that have been delivered by third sector organisations over recent years. Expected learning from the scheme includes impact of providing free bus travel, demand for this concession, the cost of providing this concession, and the practicalities of delivery of such a scheme at the national level.

As the information requested runs over several pages, a copy of the table listing those Lead Partners paid between September 2019 and 31 December 2023 has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre BIB number 65192 .

As outlined on 18 June 2024 in response to question S6W-27934, the delivery costs to date of designating a new National Park, excluding staffing costs and expenses, are £331,409.05.

The Scottish Government estimates the final cost of designating a new National Park to be £478,500. This includes the delivery costs incurred to date as well as estimated costs for the next phase of work. It does not include the cost of a Reporter Investigation which will be undertaken by NatureScot.

The annual running cost of a new National Park will be determined by a range of factors which will be considered and consulted upon during the Reporter Investigation. This includes the size and boundary of any area proposed for designation and the powers, functions and governance of a new National Park.

Any new National Park would be expected to contribute to Scottish Government priorities including growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency and improving public services.

Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) are valued stakeholders and my officials at Transport Scotland engage frequently with the RTPs on various matters. However, whilst Strathclyde Partnership for Transport manages the Glasgow Subway, RTPs have no formal role in governance of ScotRail or Caledonian Sleeper services.

Similarly, as bus services operate in a deregulated market, they are not subject to governance from local authorities or RTPs. However, local transport authorities, which include the model 3 RTPs, have a range of powers available to them in relation to bus services, including flexible tools available through the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 and the ability to subsidise services, where they consider these to be socially necessary. As such, my officials engage with them regularly in relation to bus services.

The Additional Support for Learning Code of Practice is statutory guidance which explains the duties on education authorities and other agencies to support children’s and young people’s learning. It provides guidance on the provisions of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act as well as on the supporting framework of secondary legislation. Education authorities and agencies involved in advising or supporting children and young people with additional support needs and their families, should encourage and support their employees in gaining knowledge of the content of the code and understanding of its application in their day-to-day work. To ensure that it continues to fully support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duties under the ASL Act, we have committed to a refresh of the Supporting Children’s Learning Code of Practice during this parliamentary term. The update will take account of the incorporation of UNCRC.

In terms of funding to support local authorities, spending on additional support for learning by authorities reached a record high of £926m in 2022-23 an increase of £386m in the last 10 years. We have invested £75m since 2019-20 to help schools respond to the individual needs of children and young people, which has contributed to the highest recorded level of support staff in Scotland. We also provide over £11m of funding each year to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to support children and families.

The early resolution of concerns and disagreements is actively encouraged. Where this is not possible, the Additional Support for Learning legislation sets out a range of dispute resolution mechanisms and the Scottish Government provide for a range of services to support parents, carers and young people through this process.

In response to the Additional Support for Learning Review in 2020, Scottish Ministers are committed to ensuring that Additional Support for Learning legislation is UNCRC compliant, and will deliver this through the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue. He re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.

Our evaluation reports are available via this link: Shared equity schemes: evaluation reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The evaluation concluded that OMSE provides significant additionality, and is effective in enabling lower income households to overcome price and deposit constraints to become a homeowner.

The Scottish Government has continued to monitor the performance of OMSE which delivered over 900 affordable homes for priority groups and first time buyers in 2023-24. In 2022 we also made several evidence based adjustments to the scheme to further support priority groups into affordable home ownership.

Based on previous years’ financial spend we expect that the current budget could provide up to an additional 466 units.

Within a backdrop of wider real term funding cuts we provisionally allocated £27m Financial Transactions for FY 2024-25 to re-open OMSE on 20 June 2024.

Based on the previous financial years spend and units, we have estimated that this allocation could provide an estimated 466 units.

Details on the application process and eligibility criteria for the Open Market Share Equity Scheme (OMSE) can be found in our administrative procedures: https://www.gov.scot/publications/open-market-shared-equity-omse-administrative-procedures-2020/ .

I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue and re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.