As part of their statutory responsibilities in relation to home to school transport local authorities are also required by the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to have regard to the safety of pupils.

Where local authorities conclude a route used by pupils to walk to school is unsafe transport should be provided even though the distance falls short of their normal distance criteria. Existing guidance sets out that Ministers expect local authorities to keep their criteria for providing school transport under review and be flexible enough to take into account factors, relative to the nature of the route, which might affect pupil safety.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I have commissioned an update to the Scottish Government’s school transport guidance for local authorities to provide further clarity on our expectations in relation to safety.

The statutory minimum walking distances set out in legislation are a long-standing feature of our education system and there are no plans to change them. The Scottish Government published guidance for local authorities regarding home to school transport in 2021.

Officials have met with education leads in the local authorities expecting to be most affected to understand their assessment of the potential move of pupils to the state sector. We have also sought assurance from local authorities that they have the capacity to support pupils in the event of an independent school closing. I have met with the Scottish Council for Independent Schools and officials will continue to engage with them directly, following this policy change from the UK Government.

The capital funding position remains challenging and infrastructure projects remain under review. The Scottish Government is assessing the full implications of the UK Autumn Budget and also await the outcome of the UK Government’s Spending Review in 2025. Full consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline.

We are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

The Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution, as a result of unprecedented economic pressures following the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Despite the financial constraints, the Scottish Government continues to focus on building a more inclusive Scotland for all, including investing in MND services and support that will help our communities during these difficult times.

The new Scottish Budget will be presented to Parliament on Wednesday 4 December 2024. This will detail Scottish Ministers' spend proposals for the year ahead. Funding for future years will be subject to the Scottish budget process, however the Scottish Government remains committed to supporting MND services across Scotland.

The Scottish Government invested £2.2 million in 2015-2016 in the Specialist Nursing and Care Fund, £700,000 of which was specifically allocated to specialist Motor Neurone Disease (MND) nursing care following a successful campaign from Gordon Aikman and his 'Fightback Challenge'. This was mainstreamed to Territorial NHS Boards in 2017 while taking account of NHS pay awards. This funding has more than doubled nationally the number of Motor Neurone Disease Clinical Nurse Specialists employed within the NHS.

The Scottish Government has provided an additional £101,000 to MND Scotland since 2014, specifically in relation to the care of those with MND, and excluding any research costs.

The Case for Investment for Clyde Metro is being led by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), supported by Glasgow City Council, with Transport Scotland providing a project assurance and support role.

This key stage of the development process, which will include consideration of access improvement to Glasgow Airport, will inform decisions around network selection, phasing and implementation. This work is already underway and progressing in earnest with completion currently anticipated by early 2027.

Further details on the progress of the Case for Investment stages can be obtained by contacting SPT directly at [email protected].

IT system faults are unplanned events of a technical nature that result in an IT system that is required to operate the public charging network becoming inoperable or unable to work as intended. Downtime is a period of time when an affected IT system is inoperable or working sub-optimally due to a fault. This does not include planned downtime, for example, as part of routine systems maintenance.

IT system downtime does not necessarily mean that the charging infrastructure itself was affected or that drivers could not get the charge they needed. Most IT system faults that arise on the Charge Place Scotland network are resolved quickly and do not impact the majority of users.

Total Percentage ‘IT systems’ downtime:

• 2022: 3.5 hrs – 0.04% downtime = 99.96% uptime
• 2023: 13 hrs – 0.15% downtime = 99.85% uptime
• 2024: 53 hrs – 0.6% downtime = 99.4% uptime

Breakdown of ‘IT system’ faults over last 3 years:

• 2 December 2021 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – A data centre shut down for maintenance. This caused the system to go down for 1 hour but the system defaulted to ‘any card’ mode which allowed drivers to continue using the network with minimal impact.

• 26 January 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: Network wide outage caused by load balancing issues. Resulted in temporary communication issues between the network and the back office. Drivers still able to charge throughout this event.

• 13 May 2022 Downtime: Unavailable, but noted that fault arose on a Friday and was fully resolved by the Monday.

Systems affected: CPS website map. Status pins freezing and not updating.

• 26 May 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: reoccurrence of map app issue noted above

• 8 June 2022 Downtime: 1 day

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – data centre shut down for maintenance as before (Dec 2021).

• 1 and 2 August 2022 Downtime: Below 1 hour

Systems affected : Third party data centre issue caused back office and website interruptions around 11pm. The issue originating at a data centre in London and impacted multiple customers across the whole sector, not just CPS.

• 18 September 2022 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: eConnect issue – some drivers unable to start a charge with RFID cards. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 1 December 2022 Downtime : 2 hours 25 minutes

Systems affected: network issue resulting in the loss of RFID authentication for some drivers. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 14 December 2022 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: DNS Certificate not approved – affected access to web application and driver accounts. Fixed by renewing certificates.

• 20 January 2023 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: Network connectivity – Third party SIM card issue which affected multiple businesses/services not just the CPS network.

• 18 February 2023 Downtime: 07:13 – 09:15 – 2 hours

Systems affected: Live map/website certification affecting access.

Did not impact the network access in any way.

• 14 July 2023 Downtime: 6 hours 32 minutes

Systems affected: Software vulnerability resulting in the website being taken down until resolved. Network still fully functioned, no impact on driver experience.

• 26 September 2023 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Password reset for drivers on Econnect system. This resulted in high demand for access to the website. Development team placed the CPS website into ‘maintenance mode’ to allow them to investigate and implement a fix for the performance issue. No impact on charging sessions or connectivity between CPS & charge points

• 2 March 2024 to 12 March 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: webpage error relating to Google Maps. CPS live map not allowing a search of charge points to take place.

• 9 April 2024 – 14 April 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Server error caused by too many drivers logging into their account simultaneously to effect a change. Caused the server to run slowly or show an error message. Did not impact network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 3 May 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Customer billing system. Did not result in ‘downtime’, some customers issued invoices with errors due to systems fault.

• 8 May 2024 Downtime: 9 hours 14 minutes

Systems affected: Outage at a third party data centre. Temporarily affected information stored in the CPS customer database. Did not affect the operation of the charge point infrastructure itself and it did not prevent users from accessing the network using either their RFID or other payment methods.

• 26 June 2024 Downtime: 2– 3 hours

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system. Some drivers had issues starting and stopping sessions via the mobile app, although other access methods continued to work as normal.

• 30 June 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Econnect. Some drivers unable to access their online account but this would not stop them from starting or stopping a charge session via the app or RFID card.

• 12 July 2024 Downtime: 13 hours

Systems affected: Third party supplier server outage. Some drivers unable to start/stop a charge using the mobile app. Affected some RFIDs. Those drivers continued to access via webpay, contactless (where available) and by remote starts by the contact centre. Minimal impact on drivers ability to get a charge.

• 22 July 2024 Downtime: 15 minutes

Systems affected. Telephony. CPS staff unable to answer calls.

This did not impact the network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 10 & 11 August 2024 Downtime : 28 hours

Systems affected: network wide performance issue with intra-system communications dropping out unexpectedly, resulting in back office systems working at a reduced capacity.

(a) The new parapets at Charing Cross have been increased in height from 1.1 metres to 1.5 metres, which is a 36% increase, to comply with the current national design standards that require a minimum of a 1.4 metre high parapets where routes can be used by cyclists. This was necessary due to the installation of the new cycle lanes around Charing Cross.

(b) The works were designed and constructed in collaboration with Glasgow City Council and their Phase 2 of Connecting Woodside Project. Parapets are galvanised to increase their resistance to corrosion, which is more durable than a painted finish. While the galvanising can be over-painted, the paint does not bond well and is more expensive. Over time, the galvanised finish will weather and be less obtrusive.

The Scottish Government intends to update the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967.

Given the previous consultation exercise took place in 2017-18, we must now consider the updated context that the regulations will exist in.

We are now taking this work forward and will re-consult on the Regulations in due course.

Ofqual regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Its findings relate to the SQA Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment qualification delivered in England which was withdrawn by SQA in April 2019.

SQA is an executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), established under the Education (Scotland) Act 1996. As a NDPB, SQA is responsible for making its own operational decisions. I have asked the SQA to write to Mr Rennie setting out the measures taken and communications with stakeholders related to the undertaking.