Chamber and committees

All children and young people living in Scotland are entitled to an education whatever their immigration status. We are proud of the welcome that Scottish local authorities have given to displaced people from Ukraine, welcoming more than 3,000 children and young people into Scottish schools over the last year.

The Scottish Government set out in a joint letter with COSLA in August 2022 the sources of advice and support available to local authorities to help displaced children and young people from Ukraine.

We also established the Ukraine Education Partners Group, jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, with representation from ADES, Education Scotland, the Scottish Refugee Council and individual local authorities, to help co-ordinate work on this issue.

Firearms holders must be licensed by Police Scotland and may only shoot over land where they have permission, and where it is safe to do so without risk to public safety or the peace. Most firearms licensing law is reserved and Police Scotland are responsible for its enforcement. Any concerns about reckless or unsafe shooting should be reported to Police Scotland in the first instance.

The Scottish Government expects duty holders, including local authorities and the NHS, to deliver a safe environment for all users including the building types in question. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 requires that duty holders carry out a fire safety risk assessment of relevant premises to identify any risks to the safety of persons caused by fire, including the risk posed by combustible cladding.

The ban of combustible cladding that came into force on 1 June 2022 through the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 applies to new buildings, conversions and to existing buildings where the external wall cladding system is being replaced. The regulations do not apply retrospectively to existing buildings.

Calculations are based on commercially sensitive data provided in confidence to Zero Waste Scotland by local authorities. Therefore, we will not provide any additional information.

Zero Waste Scotland has engaged with three local authorities which are modelled to not make a saving and offered modelling support to identify changes that could mitigate the potential net cost. The Recycling Improvement Fund, a £70 million fund designed to support local authorities to make impactful change to their recycling services, is available for any local authority to apply to.

The ban of combustible cladding that came into force on 1 June 2022 through the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 applies to new buildings, conversions and to existing buildings where the external wall cladding system is being replaced. The regulations do not apply retrospectively to existing buildings.

The Scottish Government communicated the changes to the building regulations to all local authorities as well as a range of stakeholders groups including the NHS, by written means and/or through participation in expert panels. Consultation exercises, social media releases, blogs and dissemination events were also used to reach key groups.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14291 on 7 February 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 modelling followed the legislative timeframe of achieving 90% capture of single use drinks containers by 2025. The full benefits would be realised at that time. An indication at 80% performance was also provided to enable mapping of the scheme performance by local authority.

Ministers have not yet had an opportunity to visit any independent schools this parliamentary session, although a visit that I had to postpone due to parliamentary business will be re-scheduled shortly.

We know that deprivation is a significant driver of excess mortality and reduced life expectancy. Reducing poverty and inequality therefore sits at the heart of our investment across all portfolios and remains the best way of improving life expectancy.

Increasing life expectancy across Scotland remains a clear ambition for this Government and we are using all the powers and resources available to us to create a fairer Scotland. We are doing that by ensuring health services are accessible to all, committing £19bn to public services over the next year; committing £4 billion in social security and welfare payments over the next financial year; and extending the Scottish Child Payment to families with eligible under 16s – by increasing it to £25 per week per child.

Furthermore, our Care and Wellbeing Portfolio, as the principle strategic reform vehicle in Health and Social Care, is being designed to promote a ‘health in all policies’ approach in order to strengthen cross-government collaboration on key and critical issues that contribute to the goal of reducing inequalities and increasing life expectancy.

The legislation underpinning Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) requires that NatureScot identifies any activities that are likely to damage the natural features for which the site is designated. These activities are listed for each site as ‘Operations Requiring Consent’ (ORC).

Before a private owner or occupier of a SSSI carries out any activity listed on the ORC list, permission must be sought from NatureScot and a consent issued. A SSSI Consent may be required by the landowner/occupier to undertake wildfowling on a specific SSSI if ORC 10 ‘The killing or removal of any wild mammal, bird, fish or invertebrate’ is in place for the SSSI in question, as this indicates that such activity has the potential to adversely affect nationally important bird populations. Further information on ORC can be found on the NatureScot website .

Most, if not all National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are also SSSIs, and so the provisions above for ORC would also apply. There is also provision in the underpinning legislation for NNRs for the creation of bye-laws to prevent damaging activity.

Where wildfowling takes place on Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) local authorities have powers to make bylaws to protect the interests of LNRs.