Chamber and committees

We publish a six-monthly update on the progress of infrastructure projects with a capital value of £5 million or more which are at the Outline Business Case (or equivalent) approved stage or beyond and the most recent update can be found via the following web link: IIP - Major Capital Projects Progress Update - March 2022 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/infrastructure-investment-plan-2021-22-2025-26-major-capital-projects-progress-update-march-2022/documents/ )

The update mainly comprises those projects included within Annex D of our Infrastructure Investment Plan which was published in February 2021. The update provides details on the progress of projects as a whole and does not provide information on outturn against budgets or align directly to a single financial year.

Financial information on expenditure against budget by portfolio was provided to Parliament in the Provisional Outturn statement on 23 June 2022. A copy of this information has been replicated in the table below, while a more detailed breakdown providing further analysis is included in Annex A.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table indicates the number of incidents in each month where an individual was identified as being Unlawfully at Large in that month from January 2020 until July 2022:

The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 places a responsibility on any person who has control of any premises to ensure that those occupying the premises are safe from harm caused by fire. The legislation places a duty on those responsible for fire safety within relevant premises to carry out a fire risk assessment.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is the authority responsible for enforcing this legislation. The Service may visit certain premises to ascertain whether the fire precautions are being maintained to a satisfactory standard and that the requirements of the legislation are being met.

As for SEPA's role, it ensures waste management operators operate their sites in a manner that does not pollute the environment or harm human health. In the event of a serious fire, SEPA typically works with the SFRS, the local authority and the public health authorities.

SEPA will continue to work with the SFRS to address fire risk in the waste industry, taking account of any lessons from the recent fire at the Suez Recycling and Recovery plant, and in particular, will continue to support the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum which is a partnership between the HSE, the waste industry, the fire and rescue services and the UK environmental regulators. The WISH forum has produced guidance on fire prevention for the industry and this can be found at the following link: https://www.wishforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WASTE-28.pdf .

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board has the highest of ambitions for all children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and is overseeing a set of reforms designed to ensure they receive the support they need when they need it. Led jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA, the Board is made up of a number of key stakeholders with a wide range of experience in this area of work.

The voices and experiences of children, young people and their families both at Board level and wider engagement is a key part of our work to improve access to mental health support. Significant engagement with children and young people from a wide range of demographics has been undertaken since the Board commenced in April 2021.

Mental Health also remains a priority of The Armed Forces Personnel & Veterans Health Joint Group. The Scottish Government has established an Implementation Board, led by Dr Charles Winstanley, to take forward the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Action Plan. Its aim is to create a new national service providing visible, consistent and timely mental health and wellbeing services of high quality to support veterans in Scotland, combining equity of access with a rapid response to evidenced need. This will ensure that veterans and their families can access appropriate services and support, in the right place, at the right time. The lived experience of veterans and their families will be the starting point for discussions and decisions, and people with lived experience will be engaged, listened to and supported to participate.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Councils have the responsibility for providing a complement of teachers and other education staff which best meets the needs of their schools and pupils within the resources available. This includes providing a complement of teachers and headteachers which meets the needs of their schools and pupils in light of their local needs and circumstances.

With regard to teacher numbers, whilst the Scottish Government does not hold data on teacher employment, you may wish to note that the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG) undertakes an annual exercise to forecast the likely requirement for new teachers which sets the target intakes for initial teacher education programmes in both primary and secondary by subject. COSLA are represented on the TWPAG which is jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Council of Deans of Education. The modelling outputs from the TWPAG use projections on pupil rolls and teacher census information. Whilst we now have more teachers than at any time since 2008, we are aware some LAs continue to find recruitment challenging in some subjects and in some geographical areas.

During the pandemic the Scottish Government provided £240 million of additional investment to local authorities to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery. We are also providing additional permanent funding of £145.5 million per year to support the recruitment of these extra teachers.

I refer the member to my response on this matter, which was sent to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee on 25 March 2022, and which is published in the correspondence of that Committee on the Scottish Parliament website at response-from-shona-robison-25-march.pdf (parliament.scot) .

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of homes, and can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/.

The published statistics for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme include the latest figures on affordable housing delivery to the end of March 2022, with the next set of quarterly affordable housing statistics covering the period April to June 2022 expected to be published in October.

We remain committed to making regulations under section 4 of the Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2020 to enable marriages to become civil partnerships.

We are currently in discussion with the UK Government on reserved consequential legislation and will consider timings once these discussions have completed.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Assure have prepared the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022 to 2026 setting out actions for NHS Scotland to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and improve its environmental impact. The strategy includes a commitment to achieving a net-zero health service by 2040.

The 2021-22 season has seen the UK’s largest outbreak of avian flu to date, which has affected wild bird populations, including some internationally important seabird populations.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carries out year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds reported to Defra’s GB national helpline. As of 10 August 2022, 588 wild birds from multiple locations across Scotland, consisting of 29 species, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). These figures capture information on the general location and strains of avian influenza that are present in wild birds and are not an indication of the total estimated mortality. More information, including the findings of HPAI in wild birds are available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/avian-influenza-outbreaks/#wildbirds .

In addition to the GB surveillance programme, NatureScot and other relevant parties have been carrying out monitoring at key seabird colonies across Scotland to collect data on bird numbers and any mortality events. While the full extent of mortality is unknown, some seabird colonies have clearly been affected by the current avian influenza outbreak. Colony surveys will be undertaken during the 2023 breeding season to assess the status of seabird colonies