Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14793 on 2 March 2023. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15310 on 2 March 2023. 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 .

The safe use of breathing apparatus is central in the role of every firefighter. Training, the provision and assessment of equipment requirements, and the competence of firefighters is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Evidence about the number of people with learning disabilities in Scotland is collected through the Learning Disability Statistics Scotland publication. The most recent publication, published in 2019, found there were 23,584 adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities across Scotland.

Officials are in discussions with Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities about how Learning Disability Statistics Scotland will be improved to provide the most precise picture of people with learning disabilities across Scotland.

Scottish Government understands the important of reliable evidence about people with learning disabilities and has committed to improving the evidence base through its autism and learning/intellectual disability transformation plan 'Towards Transformation'.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14814 on 7 March 2023. 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

The Scottish Government recognises that acting as an attorney can be very demanding and attorneys must have information on their rights and responsibilities and the safeguards in place to protect individuals. This will benefit both them and the adults they are supporting.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

Scottish Government officials last met with representatives of Tata Steel UK on 5 December 2022. The minutes of such meetings with officials would not normally be published.

While the Scottish Government holds some relevant information relating to tree removal as a result of onshore windfarm developments on Forestry and Land Scotland sites, it does not hold information relating to all onshore windfarms. Further data is held by Local Planning Authorities.

Where trees are proposed to be felled for the purpose of building an onshore wind farm it is most likely that there would be a condition attached to the consent requiring compensatory planting. This is to accord with the Scottish Government’s policy on the control of woodland removal – The Scottish Government's Policy on Control of Woodland Removal (forestry.gov.scot)

The monitoring and enforcing of such conditions are undertaken by the Local Planning Authority.

The Scottish Government holds limited information on pension contributions and these are contained within the Local Financial Returns (LFRs). Data on LFRs is published as part of the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics.

Teachers

There are currently two occupational pension schemes for teachers in Scotland. These schemes are administered by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The SPPA is the definitive source of information on teachers pensions.

Non-Teachers

The Local Government Pension Scheme in Scotland is a funded, defined benefit, statutory occupational pension scheme. It's one of the main public service pension schemes in Scotland, serving more than 236,000 active members, over 140,000 deferred members and more than 169,000 pensioners and dependents.

The scheme is administered by 11 local government administering authorities. These are:

• Dumfries and Galloway Pension Fund
• Falkirk Council Pension Fund
• Fife Council Pension Fund
• Highland Council Pension Fund
• Lothian Pension Fund
• North East Scotland Pension Fund
• Orkney Islands Pension Fund
• Scottish Borders Pension Fund
• Shetland Islands Pension Fund
• Strathclyde Pension Fund
• Tayside Superannuation Fund

These eleven funds provide information on employee and employer pension contributions, as shown in the table below. The contributions cover all employers in the schemes, and this is broader than just Scotland’s 32 councils. It is not possible to separate out the individual local authority contributions in the data held centrally by Scottish Government.

The Joint Assurance Review group has met 10 times since November 2022. There are currently four more meetings planned up until 28th March 2023.