Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to an all-age careers information and guidance offer that supports all people, including young people who are at risk of long-term benefit dependency to progress rewarding careers.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) provide an all-age career service in every local authority with an SDS Careers Adviser in every mainstream secondary school to highlight the wide range of career options available. A careers advisor offers impartial advice and supports people to consider and make informed decisions having explored all options and relevant information.

Through the 16+ Data Hub (Participation Portal), SDS are working to ensure that every young person can receive person-centred and proactive support. Having a set of data supplied by a range of partners enables front line staff to identify and provide support to those not in learning, training or employment and who are at risk of disengagement.

Military service can be a rewarding career pathway for many young people, offering a wide range of training and career opportunities as well as valuable transferable skills. To ensure that the knowledge of advisors is accurate, SDS work with the Armed Forces and can direct individuals to armed forces career centre sites if appropriate.

At the invitation of schools, the military may promote the community-based and school based combined cadets programme to young people and provide information about the wide range of careers in the military. There are also sessions promoted to teachers, advisers and Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Co-ordinators such as ‘Meet the Army’ which often includes military personal speaking about their career journey.

As detailed in its ‘Designation Policy and Selection Guidance’, Historic Environment Scotland aims to act proportionately within the Scottish Regulators Code of Practice.

Although that means usually avoiding any unnecessary intervention in the planning process or other regulatory processes where there are development proposals by adding a new designation, the individual circumstances are fully considered, including the implications of the proposed designation and the effect development proposals would have in each case.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to write to the member to explain its policy further.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18505 on 28 September 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

As the lead public body responsible for preserving, maintaining and promoting the historic environment Historic Environment Scotland will consider any application for designation in line with its published policy ‘Designation Policy and Selection Guidance’.

Any individual can apply for a site to be designated and the designation consideration process by Historic Environment Scotland ensures that the historical and cultural significance of each site is fully considered.

Data are available on the number of businesses operating in Scotland, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, broken down by business legal status. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Number of registered businesses (including public sector) operating in Scotland, by business legal status, 2024

Information on patient suicide in NHS mental health facilities is not held centrally.

Any suicide is a tragedy and should not happen when someone is in the care of the state. We are determined to do all we can to improve patient safety, and to reduce suicide deaths in NHS mental health facilities. Our ambitious suicide prevention strategy and action plan which we are delivering with COSLA, has a clear focus on preventing suicides in higher risk settings, including clinical services. We are working with NHS Boards to implement improvements.

The quality and safety of mental health estates is an important issue for the Scottish Government. Health Boards are expected to place significant emphasis on the safety of environments mental health services are delivered from.

The Scottish Government and NHS Assure have developed and piloted a tool to gather information on the built environment, including reviewing completion of ligature assessments. Wider roll out will begin in spring 2025.

The Scottish Government will publish the independent analysis report of the consultation responses, as well as next steps for the regulation of HFSS food and drink promotions in the coming weeks.

Scottish Government officials met with environmental and conservation stakeholders on at least 55 occasions and with fishing stakeholders on at least 65 occasions in a range of different forums to discuss Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) from 1 January 2022 until 18 April 2025.

SEPA reviews, updates and publishes Potentially Vulnerable Areas (PVA) information every 6 years. The most recent update was published in December 2024 following public consultation. Further information on that consultation and how the PVAs are defined can be found on SEPA's website.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 establishes a framework for the assessment and mapping of flood risks and the planning in relation to the management of such risks. Under section 9 of the Act SEPA must prepare a flood risk assessment for each flood risk management district providing an assessment of any flood risk for the district. This is commonly referred to as the National Flood Risk Assessment and was last published by SEPA in 2018.

In addition, section 13 of the Act requires SEPA to prepare and submit to Scottish Ministers a document identifying for each flood risk management district any area in the district for which it considers that significant flood risk either exists or is likely to occur. These are more commonly referred to as Potentially Vulnerable Areas.

Under section 14 of the Act SEPA is required to update the document provided to Scottish Ministers on a six yearly basis. Scottish Ministers approved the latest update of the document in December 2024 and it can found on SEPA’s website.

Under section 2 of the Act the Scottish Ministers may give directions or guidance to SEPA in relation to the exercise of its flood risk related functions.