Chamber and committees

Grant funding to support Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) / University of Glasgow commenced in 2021 and has continued on an annual basis since that date.

As a condition of the funding support the Scottish Government agreed with Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science a commitment to publish annual progress reports which are published on their website where updates and activity are regularly posted. The first year’s report is publicly available on the STACS website and they will be publishing a year 2 update report in the summer of 2024.

The annual report for 2022-23 is available at: https://issuu.com/stacshq/docs/stacsannualreport .

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout, as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter has now presented their recommendations to the Scottish Ministers and this is under active consideration.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.

The Scottish Government’s procurement rules exist to ensure funds are spent in a way that delivers the most benefit to society. These rules apply across all Scottish Government grants and we have had no discussions about potentially changing them.

We are however discussing with CRT other ways in which they can best support community organisations where these meet the regeneration outcomes and conditions of its existing grant award. Officials have also asked CRT to examine alternative routes for future funding of community organisations.

Transport Scotland is currently undertaking a 12 week consultation with stakeholders – including communities and ferry operators – on this and other elements noted in the Islands Connectivity Plan. Timescales for implementation will be considered in due course following that engagement.

Further to the response given by Miri McAllan MSP, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

Further to the response given by Miri McAllan MSP, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. Our block grant funding, derived from the UK Government’s spending decisions, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23 and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and we have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system. This has been compounded by continuing high inflation, which has further reduced our room for manoeuvre.

Factors that led to the reduction highlighted include rephasing of budgets to reflect construction and investment works progressing through the coming year and to reflect the profile of loan payments to CMAL.

As Miri McAllan MSP indicated, the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment were published alongside this Budget. These impact assessments not only analyse the budget and the impact of the decisions contained in it, they also consider the process of making those decisions, and how we make sure the needs of all people are actively considered. The Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio was actively engaged in the analysis and production of these assessments.

This data has been collected by the Registrar of Independent Schools from available independent school census statistics. The census commences in the September of each year in accordance with part 4 of the Registration of Independent Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended by the Registration of Independent Schools (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021).

The following table outlines the number of children and young people who attended an independent school in each year since 2015, broken down by local authority. This data is not held from before 2015.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation on privately owned land through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded against financial years and in 2022-23, that last year for which published data is available, all recorded new woodland creation in Scotland was supported by Forestry Grant Scheme funding. Many of the new woodland creation schemes in 2022-23 benefited from other sources of funding, although no significant new woodland creation took place without Forestry Grant Scheme funding.

Whilst other sources of funding improve the attractiveness of woodland creation to landowners and can reduce the level of public funding required, we would expect very little new woodland creation on private land to be delivered in 2024-25 without receiving some support from the Forestry Grant Scheme.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded in line with financial years. The Scottish Government expects to deliver 9,000 hectares of new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme in the 2024-25 financial year, and would expect a similar area to be delivered in the 2024-25 planting season.

As the Scottish Government budget has not been finalised for 2025-26 or future years, it is not possible to confirm how much planting will be supported by the Forestry Grant Scheme in future years or planting seasons.

The Scottish Government has not received a request from any Councils to introduce a Council Tax discount for properties damaged by flooding that remain occupied.

The Council Tax system in Scotland provides for a 100% exemption from Council Tax for homes that are not habitable, and are undergoing major repairs, which lasts for up to 12 months. Further, local authorities have the discretion to apply a Council Tax discount of up to 50% to an unoccupied property at any time. As there is no time limit to this discretion there is no date at which any discount must expire.