I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33751 on 29 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

For the advisory non-Departmental Public Bodies that the Scottish government holds employee information for, our data shows no employees are assigned on our HR management information system to more than one advisory non-Departmental Public Body.

For the significant national bodies that the Scottish government holds employee information for – our data shows no employees assigned on our HR management information system to more than one significant national body.

Energy policy (including pre-payment meters) is mostly reserved to the UK Government, which means the Scottish Government has limited powers to intervene.

It is important that consumers are able to choose the most appropriate and manageable way of paying for their energy, and prepayment meters can, under certain circumstances, play an important part in providing flexibility and choice to households and businesses.

The Scottish Government has therefore not called for a permanent ban on the installation of prepayment meters – while strongly supporting the ban on forcibly installing meters for certain vulnerable customers.

We continue to call for more targeted support for vulnerable consumers, including those on prepayment meters, who are in greater risk of increased debt or self-disconnection.

The Scottish Government is not currently planning to establish an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) taskforce.

However, we are undertaking a range of actions to improve access to diagnosis and support for people with ADHD.

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Boards, community partners, and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to improve access to diagnosis, by supporting local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services.

We are working with NAIT to implement Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways across Scotland. By implementing a single diagnostic pathway for autism and ADHD, and by adopting a stepped care model, we hope to ensure that diagnostic and post-diagnostic support is provided in a timely and effective fashion.

We also provide funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to deliver training resources to meet the needs of staff working in ADHD services across health and social care. These include webinars on ‘Assessing ADHD’ and ‘Understanding ADHD in Girls and Women’, which are available to all NHS and Social Care staff via an online knowledge hub.

Energy policy (including pre-payment meters) is mostly reserved to the UK Government, which unfortunately means that the Scottish Government has limited powers to intervene.

We continue to call for more targeted support for vulnerable consumers, including those on prepayment meters, who are in greater risk of increased debt or self-disconnection. This includes the urgent introduction of a social energy tariff mechanism as a much needed safety net for priority consumers.

The Scottish Government established a social tariff working group last November, bringing together stakeholders to co-design a deliverable social tariff policy, and we have committed to providing the outputs to the UK Government as soon as possible

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. Within this it provides estimates of the number of dwellings with a prepayment meter for gas or electricity.

The most recent estimates of households with a prepayment meter are from 2023, and are presented in the following table:

Table 1: Number of PPM meters by type (000’s)

Through our network of 18 Coastal Offices, as well as the Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) network, the Scottish Government encourages the fishing industry to work together and develop voluntary codes of conduct to reduce instances of gear conflict.

In situations resulting in loss or damage to gear, Police Scotland are the competent authority out to 12 nautical miles. Beyond that, responsibility lies with the Marine Coastguard Agency.

Our Coastal Offices operate a reporting mechanism for reporting gear loss. The aim of this is to utilise the available evidence to determine which vessels were active in the area and to establish contact, assisting those involved in arriving at an amicable outcome. It also ensures the necessary information is available, should Police Scotland require to be involved.

A Bill to update and modernise the Adults with Incapacity Act is expected to be introduced during the 2024-25 parliamentary year. A consultation on proposed amendments ran between July and October 2024, with analysis of the responses due to be published later this month.

The number of pupils that have been recorded with a part-time timetable absence code for 1 or more openings (half-day sessions) in each local authority from 2018-19 is set out in the following table.