Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government considers that Legislation currently in place provides appropriate powers to help protect the historic environment while also ensuring public safety. Responsibility for the maintenance and repair of buildings rests with owners, and planning authorities have a range of powers available to help secure the preservation of listed buildings. Proposals to demolish listed buildings are subject to statutory controls and are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG), recognises that technology can be used to directly track, monitor, and facilitate violence against women and girls. While Equally Safe does not refer specifically to Automatic Number Plate Recognition, it acknowledges the wider risks associated with the misuse of technology and recognises that action to address VAWG must take account of these evolving risks.

The Scottish Government has not made an assessment of any increase in average consultation times, administrative processing times or task completion times following migration to the Vision 3 GP clinical system.

Responsibility for the delivery and operation of GP IT systems, including the Vision 3 migration programme, sits with Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSDS), which manages the national GP IT service on behalf of NHS Scotland.

Information on any assessments undertaken in relation to the operational impact of migration to Vision 3 may therefore be held by Public Services Delivery Scotland rather than the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is determined that all children and young people, including those from Scotland’s Jewish community, as well as teachers, feel safe, respected and able to learn and work in an environment free from prejudice or intimidation.

In Scotland, decisions on curriculum delivery and the use of external materials are for local authorities, schools and teachers, who are expected to exercise professional judgement and ensure appropriate balance.

Schools have an important role to play by providing a safe space for learners to explore, discuss and debate a range of social and political issues. This is guided and informed by a range of Scottish Government and Education Scotland-led frameworks outlining high-level expectations.

Spent convictions are excluded in a level 1 disclosure in Scotland therefore no legislative changes are required to achieve this policy.

The changes made to disclosure in England and Wales through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 relate to the periods of time before a conviction becomes spent. Changes to the length of time before a conviction becomes spent were legislated for in Scotland through the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 and came into force in August 2020. Scottish Government guidance was published to help individuals understand what the reforms meant for them and their individual circumstances.

Our Major Projects Office will be designed to accelerate progress on nationally and strategically significant investment and private capital projects, unblocking barriers to project delivery and unlocking private investment across strategic sectors including housing and energy. It will help contribute to a transformational change in economic performance across Scotland by unlocking significant strategic developments across Scotland to bring jobs and economic growth.

It will begin to be operationalised by the end of 2026, with work underway to developing its remit, governance arrangements, and operating model. Ministerial responsibility for the Major Projects Office will be in the Economy, Tourism and Transport portfolio.

The deployment of resources is a matter for the Chief Constable based on operational priorities. This is also very clearly set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

The consideration to use data acquired by Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology in combination with facial recognition and other biometric technologies would be an operational matter for Police Scotland, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG), recognises that technology can be used to directly track, monitor, and facilitate violence against women and girls. While Equally Safe does not refer specifically to Automatic Number Plate Recognition, it acknowledges the wider risks associated with the misuse of technology and recognises that action to address VAWG must take account of these evolving risks.

It would not be appropriate to comment on the Loch Kemp Pumped Storage Hydro development proposal, as this is a live application under consideration by the Scottish Ministers for determination.

Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process for applications for energy consent.

The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations. In reaching their decision, Scottish Ministers will determine applications in accordance with legislative requirements and relevant policy.

Planning authorities are required to determine all planning applications, including retrospective applications, in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Planning authorities have powers to apply a surcharge (of up to 25% on top of the usual planning application fee) to retrospective planning applications, where development has already commenced or been completed without the necessary permission. The use and level of any such surcharge is a matter for individual planning authorities to set out in a charter.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to issue specific guidance on the determination of retrospective applications for unauthorised alterations to shopfronts.