This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Some of this information may be available online in the CHS Board papers, which can be found here: CHS Board Papers

If the information contained here is not sufficient for the member’s purposes, the member should contact Children’s Hearings Scotland for specific information.

Delivering Scotland's Blue Economy Approach committed to mainstreaming blue economy thinking across the Marine Directorate and our wider work. To highlight some examples of this, it is evidenced in our approach to marine funding channels where we look to maximise private investment and since 2021, the Marine Fund Scotland has awarded £55 million in grants, enabling £120 million of investment, progressing blue economy outcomes. The Marine and Science Innovation Strategy embeds the Blue Economy Vision, furthering our evidence base, and blue economy outcomes are steering the development of Scotland's new National Marine Plan, influencing stakeholder engagement and how its monitoring and evaluating framework develops, helping to deliver our Vision.

The information requested is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland conducts HIV surveillance and publishes an annual statistical report, however this does not include data on people living with HIV in Scotland who have a diagnosed mental health condition.

Table 1 shows the estimated net savings to ratepayers from freezing the Basic Property Rate at 49.8p, compared to an inflationary increase to 50.6p. The net estimates include adjustments for reliefs, as well as in-year adjustments such as reductions due to proposals or appeals and write-offs.

The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000 and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Estimated net savings from freeze to the Basic Property Rate (£)

Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2024, local authorities’ billing information as at 1 June 2024

The Scottish Government has made £2,877,287.97 of funding available to local authorities to enable them to cancel school meal debts within their respective local areas. This sum represents the entire amounts bid for by each local authority.

29 local authorities made bids to the Scottish Government’s School Meal Debt Fund and we issued grant offer letters to them on 3 December 2024.

The amounts awarded to each local authority is set out within the following table:

This is an operational matter for South of Scotland Enterprise. I have passed your query to Jane Morrison-Ross, South of Scotland Enterprise Chief Executive and asked her to respond to you directly.

Digital inclusion, of which literacy is one component, is being prioritised as part of the national Digital Health and Care Strategy and associated delivery plan. In March 2023, the Scottish Government launched the £2m Digital Inclusion Programme. Delivered through SCVO, it has developed a framework to support digital inclusion to enable people to access digital services across health and social care. The programme has funded projects in remote and rural areas (see map), supported provision of devices and developed Digital Champions Training to support local literacy advice and support.

Ice accretion is a world-wide problem affecting cable-stayed bridges in colder climates, and there is currently no effective solution for preventing it completely. While closures of the Queensferry Crossing due to ice accretion cannot be prevented entirely, we have taken forward research, which led to enhanced management procedures being developed. Now, when there is a risk of falling ice, a 6-point plan is implemented by our Operating Company BEAR Scotland. The plan includes enhanced patrols; heightened focus on prevailing weather conditions; increased data & intelligence gathering; pre-laying of traffic management and enhanced stakeholder communications.

Investment has been made to improve our capability to predict ice accretion. For example, new ice and climate sensors were installed on the bridge in August 2020. These, together with improved bespoke weather forecasts, have helped deliver early warning of conditions conducive to ice accretion. In addition, infrastructure improvements have recently been completed, which will allow traffic to be diverted onto the Forth Road Bridge more quickly.

The Scottish Government will interact with the UK Government and Ministry of Defence to support the opportunity for any significant contracts with the potential to provide ongoing employment opportunities for shipyards and fabrication businesses in Scotland.

There are several Scottish yards that possess the capabilities and specialist workforce skills needed to deliver this kind of infrastructure project, and we would encourage the MOD to utilise those resources. It is of course a commercial matter for each business to bid for work, however we would support any bid that ensured the work is delivered in Scotland.

Transport Scotland has worked in partnership with its Operating Company BEAR Scotland and industry experts to test potential solutions and mitigation measures for ice accretion on the Queensferry Crossing, including cable cleaning.

This work, supported by laboratory testing, showed that cleaning of the cables stays helps to reduce ice accretion. Whilst a clean cable may reduce ice accretion, this measure cannot prevent it entirely. This was confirmed by detailed inspection during the November 2024 ice accretion event, which found that ice had accreted to stays which had no visual detritus. Notwithstanding this, we believe that cleaning the cables is a worthwhile mitigation measure that should be completed periodically.