Chamber and committees

An open bidding process was issued in 2023 for projects to support delivery of the Scottish Government’s sexual health and blood borne virus goals. The successful projects were published alongside the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan and include a number of local initiatives which contribute to the aims of the HIV Transmission Elimination (HIVTE) Delivery Plan. Further funding for some actions within the HIVTE plan is still to be finalised.

Every action is being taken to facilitate an early decision on this funding, following which officials will be in contact with stakeholders.

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme and benefits including the War Pension Scheme are wholly reserved to the UK Government and are assessed and administered by Veterans UK on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. The Scottish Government is therefore unable to intervene on those matters. Nevertheless, the Scottish Government has previously been made aware of people experiencing issues with their pensions and Scottish Ministers wrote to former Ministers for Defence People and Veterans at the Ministry of Defence in 2021 and 2022 highlighting this. I will raise this again at my next meeting with the UK Minister for Veterans Affairs.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) do not undertake any road upgrades, or build new roads, for the purpose of windfarm development. FLS include the right for a windfarm developer to upgrade roads or build new roads, at their expense, within a lease agreement. FLS will only enter into a lease and permit civil engineering works relating to windfarm construction once the development has received planning approval.

Publication of the independent review focused on increasing the number of social enterprises, employee-owned businesses and co-operatives in Scotland has now been delayed due to the UK General Election announcement. A new publication timescale will be confirmed in due course.

None of the benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland are directly means tested although some rely on a reserved UK benefit, such as Universal Credit as a qualifying benefit. In practice this means that armed forces compensation generally does not directly affect Scottish Government social security benefits. It may affect Funeral Support Payment. If the compensation payment has been issued to the deceased person it may be treated as funds that can cover or help towards funeral costs. This is to ensure that support goes to those who need it most.

Scottish Government officials do engage with The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on a range of subjects and in October 2023 raised the issue of war pensions being treated as income for pension credit. This engagement was prompted by Poppyscotland’s Credit their Service campaign. DWP made clear they had no plans to change their current policy, and as this is an area reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is unable to intervene on this issue any further.

The movement of freight is a commercial matter and the Scottish Government’s leadership in support for rail freight is outlined in our 2016 rail freight strategy, and put into practice with significant investment, a freight-first approach, and through our regulatory rail freight growth targets. The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on day to day rail freight movements but is aware that for both sites there is currently no traffic. Network Rail remains engaged with the industry through the Scotland Freight Joint Board and works with Freight Operating Companies and Freight End Users to enable modal shift to rail.

As outlined in my response to S6W-27647 on 31 May 2024, and in my recent letter to Ms Gosal, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss further alongside your policy paper which outlines this particular ask. 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 .

As outlined in my response to S6W-27647 on 31 May 2024, and in my recent letter to Ms Gosal, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss further alongside your policy paper which outlines this particular ask. 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 .

Protecting our marine environment is vital for both the viability of our marine industries and to halt the loss of biodiversity. Marine protected areas remain a high priority for the Scottish Government and we are putting in place the remaining fisheries management measures required to protect those and other key biodviersity areas. The area where herring spawning recently occurred near Gairloch is mostly within the proposed Port Erradale Priority Marine Feature management area and where bottom contacting mobile fishing gear would be prohibited. Therefore, in light of advice which we have actively sought on the matter from NatureScot, we are prioritising bringing in protection for these priority marine features, as part of the wider package of fisheries management measures for inshore MPAs.