Chamber and committees

Of the fifteen gateway review recommendations for the period the question relates to, eleven are complete and four are ongoing.

A table has been placed has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 64087). The table details the recommendation and the status against each individually at this present time.

This is a matter for NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The information requested is already available in the public domain on CalMac’s website by following the link:

Annual Carrying Statistics | CalMac Ferries

The Scottish Government engages continuously with the UK Government about energy costs in Scotland and the specific difficulties experienced by some Scottish consumers throughout the cost of living crisis. These costs can be even more pronounced for those living in our more remote areas where there may be fewer energy supply options and the climate can be more severe.

We are disappointed that the UK Government’s Spring Budget didn’t deliver an extension to the Energy Bills Support Scheme or any progress on targeting support towards those who need it the most – both of which we have been calling for on a regular basis.

The Scottish Government is investing in the bus network to support long term growth, with the 2023-24 budget allocating £425.7m for concessionary fares and bus. The aim of the Network Support Grant is to help commercial operators keep their fares lower, and enable these operators to run services that might not otherwise be commercially viable, thus contributing to the maintenance of the overall bus network.

I appreciate that operators are experiencing challenges with rising costs and driver shortages which has led to concerns over the Network Support Grant base rate. I chair the Bus Taskforce to consider these issues with stakeholders, while recognising that many of the levers are reserved to the UK Government. These are matters which the UK Government could be providing assistance with but have thus far failed to do so.

The Scottish Government is providing extra funding to support a marketing campaign to encourage people back to bus. In line with our long-term goal to encourage a shift from private vehicles to sustainable modes of transport, we continue to engage with operators, delivery partners and other key stakeholders to promote public transport as an attractive way to travel as more people begin to return to workplaces and travel for leisure purposes more often.

The Scottish Government has no plans to commission such research.

The BuiltPlace article itself refers to the methodology being “limited in multiple ways”.

The Scottish Government set out in response to question on 22 May 2022 how it monitors the size of the private rented sector using data from the Scottish Landlord Register.

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

MV Hebrides and MV Isle of Lewis have Changing Places toilets onboard. There are 22 Accessible Toilets between the major and small vessels however, on 9 of the small vessels there are no Accessible Toilet facilities.

Spending data on additional support for learning (ASL) is provided below. This data is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). In addition to 2021-22 expenditure data, figures for 2020-21 have also been provided due to revisions in LFR statistics since the response to S6W-08040 in April 2022. These revisions reflect an upward revision in ASL spending reported by Clackmannanshire Council, and an upward revision in total education expenditure reported by Renfrewshire Council.

Local authorities are asked to provide this data in line with guidance to ensure returns are completed on a consistent basis to allow for a reasonable degree of comparability. However, these figures may be affected by variations in local accounting practices and education strategies. It is important to bear this in mind when making comparisons between local authorities and years.

Local authorities are asked to record all centrally funded ASL expenditure under Special Education, irrespective of where it is delivered. Decisions about prioritisation and budgets, including those for the provision of services for pupils with additional support needs, are a matter for individual councils. We recognise the challenges facing authorities in balancing their need to meet a wide range of statutory duties, local priorities and local circumstances.

Tables 1 and 2 show gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning (ASL) education from 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively, split by Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Special Education.

Table 1 – 2021-22 ASL expenditure by Local Authority (£000)

The Scottish Government has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

We strongly encourage all employers to adopt Fair Work practices and apply a flexible approach regarding continuous and prolonged night shift working to protect the health and wellbeing of the workforce.

The potential carbon footprint of the vehicles used in Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme was factored into the modelling work carried out during the scheme’s development and the work concluded that scheme will reduce CO2 emissions by 4 million tonnes over 25 years – the equivalent to taking 83,000 cars off the road.

More information is contained in the Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum published on 22 December 2021, which you can read here .