Chamber and committees

The ground investigation report is being prepared by Petroineos for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The Scottish Government would not expect to receive it formally and has no plans to publish it, as this is an operational matter for SEPA.

We are advised that the ground investigation work has concluded that the contamination is localised and SEPA continue to work with Petroineos and their consultant Adler and Allan to ensure the physical remediation works, which have commenced, can be delivered timeously. Once the remediation has concluded SEPA will be in a position to publish a statement regarding the environmental condition of the site.

Latest assured figure (from 31 July 2024) showed that around 1,000 premises were still expected to be connected through the R100 Central contract in the Falkirk Council area.

Latest coverage figures, including premises connected that were beyond the scope of the initial R100 contracts, are available on our website at Data insights | Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband.

Following the publication of the UK Government’s equality analysis on the impact introducing means-tested Winter Fuel Payments, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 September urging the UK government to reinstate Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners. The Cabinet Secretary also called for reform of the UK energy markets to address the root causes of fuel poverty in Scotland, such as high fuel prices.

This followed the previous letter to the Secretary of State on 14 August, in which the Cabinet Secretary urged the UK Government to undertake a benefits uptake campaign for Pension Credit and to move forward with plans for a social energy tariff.

The three strands of activity which form the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the over-£600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and ongoing commercial build - continue to deliver faster broadband connections across Scotland.

The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was originally intended to close on 31 December 2021, but was extended by three months and closed on 31 March 2022.

The Scottish Government continues to fund the charity, Health in Mind, to deliver a specialist peer service to those affected by historic forced adoption. This is in direct response to feedback from people with lived experience for this type of support.

Funding has totalled over £73,000 to date, (£23,389 in 2022-2023 and £49,276 in 2023-2024). Health in Mind continues to promote the service across Scotland and raise awareness of the impact of historic forced adoption practices. Further details of the service are available at: https://health-in-mind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/national-services/historic-adoption-trauma-support-service/

We continue to work closely with Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to develop and implement a plan that is informed by the lived experience of disabled people and will deliver actions to help with the challenges they are currently facing. Venues should be familiar with and address their broader duties under UK health and safety, and equalities legislation including, for people with a visual impairment, the requirement for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where disabled people are placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people. The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirement of the Equality Act 2010. We welcome the report’s recommendations which will support venues in meeting these requirements.

Creative Scotland’s regularly funded organisations, which include a number of venues across Scotland, are contractually obliged to develop and implement Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans. Creative Scotland provide their own guidance on how to best achieve this edi-toolkit-dec-2019.pdf (creativescotland.com). This covers all aspects of the work for these organisations, including audience development activities. Facilitating access and participation to culture, is central to the artistic purpose of all Scottish Government funded culture bodies and they all share a desire to communicate with as large and diverse an audience as possible.

Safety is a paramount priority and the Scottish Government fully supports Police Scotland and its partners in dealing with illegal use and misuse of off-road vehicles.

Enforcement is a matter for Police Scotland and local policing teams are best placed to identify where misuse is causing public concern and ensuring those areas can be prioritised to prevent future incidents. Police Scotland have previously outlined work within local policing divisions that raises awareness about the dangers of the misuse of these vehicles and we encourage local authorities to continue to work with Police Scotland to address this issue.

Within Glasgow, there are a range of initiatives being pursued by Police Scotland working closely with partners including Glasgow City Council. This includes nine officers within the Greater Glasgow Division who are trained with off-road motorbike capability and can access hard to reach local areas and open spaces. The local division also promotes social media messaging promoting legal use of these vehicles.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s forecasts from December 2023 estimate the cost of Hospitality Relief for Islands and Specified Remote areas to be £4 million in 2024-25. An Island Communities Impact Assessment, published alongside the Non-Domestic Rates (Islands and Remote Areas Hospitality Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 which deliver this relief, considers the impact of this relief.

The number of unique views to the Scottish Youth Parliament/Children’s Parliament Mind Yer Time website in each of the last 12 months are as follows:

Scottish Government officials meet with St Mary’s Music School on a regular basis to discuss funding and other issues, for example the impact of the removal of VAT exemption on school fees. We also continue to work with the school to regularly update the St Mary’s Music School (Aided Places Scheme) (Scotland) Regulations 2015, which includes an examination of, for example, the income thresholds for parental contributions and ancillary grants.