Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not had any direct discussions with the Scottish Gamekeepers Association regarding initiatives that can be taken to protect capercaillie.

The Capercaillie is both an important and iconic species and contributes to Scotland’s biodiversity and, as a key stakeholder, I would encourage the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, and its members, to engage fully with the work proposed as part of the Capercaillie Emergency Plan which was published on 30 September 2024.

The Minister for Housing has not met South Ayrshire Council to discuss its Local Housing Strategy.

As set out in our recent Programme for Government, we will provide nearly £2.5 billion in 2024-25, to support public transport, making our transport system available, affordable and accessible for all. We also committed, in the PfG, to work with local authorities to ensure as many children as possible can access their free bus entitlement, cutting travel costs and making sustainable travel a more attractive option.

The safety of all public transport users is crucial, and we are working with industry stakeholders to develop actions to tackle antisocial behaviour on the bus network. This includes a process for temporary suspension or withdrawal of concessionary travel entitlement.

Ministers continue to work closely with ScotRail to develop measures to tackle and prevent antisocial behaviour while maximising the safety of all rail passengers and staff. ScotRail has taken several steps to enhance the visible presence of staff on trains, especially on key routes identified as needing additional support. Initiatives such as the "Safer Shores" campaign demonstrate a collaborative approach, with ScotRail working alongside Local Authorities and British Transport Police to provide extra staff on trains to popular seaside destinations during peak times. ScotRail has invested £1.6 million to triple the number of body-worn cameras for frontline staff. ScotRail have also invested in improved CCTV with intelligent video analytics.

To remove barriers to public transport, we have supported operators to accept contactless payment, with about 98% of buses now enabled. We delivered on our PfG commitment to launch a new Traveline Scotland journey planning website and app on 17 September. This improves the quality and availability of travel data to provide a journey planner that is fit for the future.

Much progress has been made in recent years to improve smart, integrated ticketing and payment on public transport, as detailed in the Smart Integrated Ticketing Delivery Strategy, which was published in August this year. This strategy also outlines a programme of work and strategy for the next 5-10 years, building on this progress and including exploring options for a new national integrated ticketing system, reflecting passenger's desires for integrated contactless and digital ticketing.

The Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2023 was originally scheduled for publication in September 2024. This publication was delayed until November 2024 as a result of an unscheduled revision of previous years data for the United Kingdom by the Marine Management Organisation. Our publication includes fishing data from the Marine Management Organisation for the rest of the UK. We therefore needed to delay our publication. We are hoping to publish the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2023 in late November or early December 2024. The exact date will be confirmed by the end of October 2024.

More detail on the data revision by the Marine Management Organisation, which was published on 8 October 2024, is available at: UK Sea Fisheries Statistics: Unscheduled Corrections - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) was integrated into the Health and Wellbeing Census in 2021-22. A link to the Health and Wellbeing Census is provided here:

Health and Wellbeing Census Scotland 2021- 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scotland is the only part of the UK that already offers 1140 hours (equivalent to 30 hours per week in term time) of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds regardless of whether their parents are working or not because we are committed to promoting equality for all Scotland’s children, putting their interests first. We also make 1140 hours available to around a quarter of 2 year olds and to all children whose entry to primary school is deferred.

It is far from clear that a universal system of ‘free’ childcare for everyone would deliver either value for money for the Scottish taxpayer or the best outcomes for our children and young people. Despite the unprecedented financial challenges facing the Scottish Government we have prioritised tackling child poverty and expanding access to funded childcare for those families who stand to benefit most.

That is why over the next two years we are investing £16 million within six early adopter communities to continue our work to understand what it takes to design and deliver local childcare systems that support those families most at risk of living in poverty.

In addition we are also continuing to support the ‘Extra Time’ Programme, investing £4 million in a partnership with the Scottish Football Association to deliver before, after school and breakfast clubs, providing 3,000 targeted free places each week for children and their families.

We have also invested close to £1 million to deliver free or subsidised school age childcare services through our Access to Childcare projects. These projects are also considering specific challenges for families including remote and rural childcare provision, and specialist provision for children with disabilities or complex additional support needs.

We remain committed to expanding funded ELC to reach more younger children and to building a system of School Age Childcare, and we are going as far and as fast as we can to deliver that.

Local authorities have statutory obligations in respect of the delivery of education, which includes ensuring they have a complement of staff to meet local needs.

In Scotland we have the most teachers per pupil and highest paid teachers in the UK. We are once again providing £145.5 million to local authorities for the purpose of protecting teacher numbers. We are also continuing to provide £20,000 bursaries to incentivise career changers to train in the hardest to fill teaching subjects. Since the introduction of the scheme, 659 bursaries have been awarded.

I have also asked the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, to look at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail, including geographical and subject-specific issues, as well as how we can increase diversity within the profession and improve support for early career teachers.

We have 17,330 pupil support staff in Scotland, the highest level on record and an increase of more than 2,000 since 2020. This is a direct result of our continued annual investment of £15 million to councils.

The purpose of the Deer Working Group (DWG) was to “examine the issues over the standards of deer management in Scotland and recommend changes to help resolve these issues in ways that promote sustainable deer management”.

Therefore, the DWG was comprised of experts from both deer management and environmental backgrounds. The DWG included a number of individuals who represented those, or were themselves, directly involved in deer management. Andrew Barbour, acting Chair of the DWG from September 2018, is a farmer and forester with experience in managing deer, and Robin Callendar has had over 30 years’ experience in deer management as a land manager. Alongside DWG members, Richard Cooke then Chair of the Association for Deer Management Groups, served as an external adviser. The DWG terms of reference and member profiles are available on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer have been developed to support primary care clinicians to identify those with symptoms suspicious of cancer and identify those who require urgent assessment by a specialist.

Referrals are closely monitored to ensure capacity and support is available for those on an Urgent Suspicion of Cancer pathway. A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer is underway to help ensure the right person is on the right pathway at the right time.

The Scottish Government expects Health Boards to follow regional clinical management pathways and any guidance from the appropriate royal colleges when discussing monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance or any other conditions with patients.

Technological advances in biometrics have brought huge benefits to police and other justice agencies in detecting, preventing and prosecuting crime.

With regard to live facial recognition technology, the Scottish Government is aware that concerns have been raised about privacy and inaccurate results for the faces of people from racialised minorities. That is why it is important that in adopting new technology, it is done in a way that secures public confidence. Any deployment of new technologies should be lawful, effective, proportionate and compliant with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

The use of live facial recognition technology is an operational matter for Police Scotland, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland must also abide by the relevant laws; the ECHR; and the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner’s statutory code of practice.