The number of Apprenticeship providers by year are as follows:

The Scottish Government does not plan to withdraw the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill. The Bill, if passed, will give councils the power to introduce a visitor levy in all or part of their area, if they think it is right to do so and after they have consulted local businesses, communities, and tourism organisations. A visitor levy can be a force for good, delivering benefits for businesses, communities, and visitors.

The Western Isles fall within the £421.6 million Scottish Government investment in the R100 North contract which is expected to connect over 2,200 premises across the Western Isles to full fibre broadband. Work is currently scheduled to begin in the latter half of 2025.

As at 15 April 2024, 30 connections had been delivered through our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher scheme, with a further 24 vouchers requested.

Between 2014 and 2020 the publicly-funded Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme brought a minimum of a superfast broadband service to over 12,600 premises across the Western Isles with new subsea cables laid across the west coast of Scotland delivering fibre connections to the Western Isles for the first time.

The Scottish Government provided funding for adult neurodevelopmental pathway trials in 2022. Following the adult neurodevelopmental pilots, a final report was published in March 2023 outlining what is required to provide a multi-disciplinary neurodevelopmental approach across Scotland. The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendations and we are working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) on implementation. This included launching a new Neuro-affirming Community of Practice in October last year.

The Scottish Government funds the NAIT to support local areas to improve their neurodevelopmental support and diagnosis for adults. Additionally, the Scottish Government has commissioned work through NHS Education for Scotland and the NAIT to provide a range of professional learning about ADHD and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Various Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medicines continue to experience limited and intermittent supply issues. We are aware that market data has indicated that some of these issues will continue beyond May 2024 into the Summer.

As the pricing and supply of medicines is a reserved matter for the UK Government, we continue to engage with them to find a lasting solution on minimising the impact of these medicine shortages on patients and their families.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) sits on the UK Government’s Medicine Shortages Response Group (MSRG). The CPO continues to raise the issue of ADHD medicine shortages and has urged the UK Government to consider alternative solutions, if possible, for medicines with continuous and intermittent supply issues. There was general agreement that the situation wasn’t improving, and that the UK medicine supply team would consider what further could be done, including organising a meeting with the manufacturers to seek further solutions. We hope to be in a position to update on this further in due course.

For anyone who experiences difficulties in obtaining their prescribed ADHD medication, I encourage them to discuss this with their specialist, who should be able to review their circumstances and prescribe an alternative treatment if appropriate until stock supplies are stabilised.

The Scottish Government plans to investment £7.53m through the Scottish Safety Camera Programme (“the Programme”) in 2024/25. This is the highest level of investment in the Programme since 2007 and almost double the investment ten years ago in 2014. This acts to ensure safety camera technology continues to deliver its aim of reducing the number of casualties on Scotland’s roads by encouraging improved driver behaviour.

To maximise the casualty reduction potential of the Programme an annual safety camera site prioritisation exercise is undertaken. This robust exercise, which has been undertaken in collaboration between Police Scotland, Transport Scotland and all local road authorities, assessed the performance of approximately 500 existing safety camera sites. This process identified 13 new safety camera sites which are being progressed towards delivery, and that at 119 existing camera sites there had been a sustained positive impact on driver behaviour for a number of years and therefore no longer a priority for camera deployment and being placed into dormancy.

At each of these sites the camera infrastructure and signage will remain in place and a bag displayed over any fixed camera to indicate its non-operational status. This pause allows for a thorough assessment over a three-year period, after which decisions will be made regarding potential decommissioning or reactivation.

Local authorities are responsible for the provision of local waste services and are, therefore, best placed to comment on readiness to comply with the ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill in 2025.

The Scottish Government continues to provide procurement support to local authorities to secure contracts in preparation for the forthcoming ban. As part of this support, Zero Waste Scotland is working with local authorities to provide technical, legal and procurement advice.

Through this support, we understand that 28 local authorities have contracts in place for 2025 that comply with the landfill ban, covering over 90% of household residual waste, these are: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Edinburgh, City of Glasgow, Clackmannanshire, Dundee City, East Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Fife, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, and West Lothian.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the recommendations in partnership with COSLA. It is important that appropriate consideration and deliberation is applied and a response will be published in due course.

This question relates to recommendations in the report on HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (HMIPS)’s inspection of the prosecution of summary domestic abuse cases which was instructed by the Lord Advocate and was published on 17 April 2024.

The relevant recommendations are:

Recommendation 6

COPFS should ensure that domestic abuse cases at summary level are prepared effectively. This will require that:

(a) new information is brought to the attention of deputes and acted on promptly

(b) deputes are available to deal with urgent and unexpected queries as they arise

(c) the tasking of reporting officers is followed up timeously

(d) action is taken to address any risks to the efficient progression of the case

(e) deputes have sufficient time to address issues during their case preparation.

Recommendation 11

As well as monitoring the domestic abuse waiting period, COPFS should work with its partners to monitor the overall journey time for domestic abuse cases. This monitoring should lead to action to address any barriers to progressing cases efficiently.

The Lord Advocate has accepted these recommendations.

COPFS is commencing work in relation to the areas identified in the HMIPS report and will provide updates on the work undertaken in implementing the recommendations contained within the report in due course.

This question relates to a recommendation in the report on HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (HMIPS)’s inspection of the prosecution of summary domestic abuse cases which was instructed by the Lord Advocate and was published on 17 April 2024.

The relevant recommendation is:

Recommendation 2

In relation to the reporting of domestic abuse cases, COPFS should work with Police Scotland to:

[...]

(b) ensure that Standard Prosecution Reports fully address the victim’s views on court proceedings, bail conditions and non-harassment orders. Reasons for victims’ views should be fully explored and should be described, by both COPFS and Police Scotland, in appropriate and accurate language [...]

The Lord Advocate has accepted this recommendation.

COPFS is commencing work in relation to the areas identified in the HMIPS report and will provide updates on the work undertaken in implementing the recommendations contained within the report in due course.