Chamber and committees

(a) Potential grant recipients must provide appropriate factual evidence to the relevant funder confirming that they are meeting the effective voice condition and this must be signed off by a recognised trade union(s), or other appropriate workers’ representative where there is no union recognition. Examples of effective voice are provided in our updated Fair Work First Guidance, published on 18 November 2024.

(b) I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31247 on 28 November 2024. 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

The Scottish Government is making arrangements to publish the requisite Impact Statements for the Student Mental Health Action Plan very shortly.

This is an operational matter for Skills Development Scotland. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, Damien Yeates to write to you outlining these costs.

It is the responsibility of individual grant funders to monitor a grant recipient’s compliance with the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions and its progress on the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria, as part of their standard grant governance, assurance and monitoring processes.

Whilst the recruitment and employment of teachers are matters for local authorities as the employer, the member may wish to be aware that teachers are not employed on zero-hour contracts.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 ("the Act") requires Scottish Ministers to publish a national Good Food Nation Plan. Work on the first iteration of the plan is currently underway. The Scottish Government published a draft of the national Good Food Nation Plan for consultation earlier this year. The analysis of consultation responses has now been published and officials are currently revising the Plan with regard to the consultation responses. The revised Plan will be laid in Scottish Parliament for consideration and comment before final publication.

The Act also requires that relevant authorities (currently defined as health boards and local authorities) must produce their own Good Food Nation Plans and these must be published within 12 months of commencement of section 10 of the Act. Relevant authorities are required to have regard to the content of the national Plan when preparing their own Plans. The Scottish Government's intention is that commencement of section 10 takes place around the time of the publication of the national Good Food Nation Plan.

The number of complaints the Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team have investigated that involved the use of interpreters, over the past five years, is:

The requested information on what percentage of frontline healthcare staff currently employed by NHS (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Grampian are due to retire in the next (i) year and (ii) five years is not centrally held.

The information requested is not held centrally and is a matter for the Health Boards referred to in the question.

NatureScot and Scottish Forestry are currently putting together a project plan to build on the existing Ancient Woodland Inventory to develop the new National Register of Ancient Woodlands. The new National Register of Ancient Woodlands will be an important element of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and associated Delivery plan, which was recently published.