Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11288 on‎ 19 October 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility of which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

The recently re-established Headteacher Recruitment and Retention Working Group works jointly with education stakeholders to develop, agree and take forward actions to help improve the recruitment and retention of headteachers in Scotland. The group has been meeting on a quarterly basis since January 2022 with the last meeting taking place on 7 September 2022.

Taking the ongoing challenges settings and schools face in dealing with COVID-19 and stakeholder views into account, HM Inspectors of Education did not resume the routine early learning and childcare (ELC) and school inspection programme as originally planned last academic year.

HM Inspectors of Education invited ELC settings and schools to “self-select” to take part in recovery visits during the remainder of the academic year.

Overall, 164 settings and schools self-selected for a recovery visit. Due to local circumstances, including the impact of COVID-19, some recovery visits did not proceed as planned. Between March and July 2022, HM Inspectors of Education visited 148 schools and ELC settings.

The aim of the recovery visits was to learn from settings and schools about their own current priorities as they responded to the impact of the current pandemic, what was working well and the challenges education practitioners faced. The visits were tailored to the needs of each school or setting and included both online meetings and face-to-face activities.

Pre COVID-19, 100% of NHS National Services Scotland's (NSS) PPE sources were overseas, now nearly half of all PPE issued by NSS was manufactured here (based on September 2022 figures). This rises to 88% when nitrile gloves are excluded from the figure.

In line with the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report on PPE, a resilient Scottish PPE supply chain is a key consideration as we start to look beyond the current pandemic and plan for the long term future of PPE provision in Scotland. We are committed to supporting the domestic manufacturing PPE base through the Pandemic PPE Supply Implementation Project as far as allowed by procurement and subsidy control rules.

This work aims to provide a more resilient supply across Health, Social Care and the wider public sector for the long term, with due priority given to the need for robust supply chains and reductions in environmental impact. More broadly the Scottish Government offer extensive support to develop the manufacturing sector through our Making Scotland’s Future Programme. This includes £75 million in the world-leading National Manufacturing Institute (NMIS), already operating with the HQ due to open next year. NMIS, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service and our enterprise agencies stand ready to assist companies in exploiting new opportunities or in responding to production challenges.

Scottish Ministers continue to engage with Orkney Islands Council on a regular basis with regard to ferries, including my visit to Orkney in August to meet with the council on these matters.

We have made an offer to all 4 ferry operating local authorities to share learning and explore efficiencies from CMAL’s Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

We have provided more than £56m to Orkney Islands Council for internal ferry services over the last 5 years.

The Scottish Government have invested over £50 million in ChargePlace Scotland, Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2300 publicly available charge points, over 63 thousand member registrations and over 1,770,000 successful charge sessions recorded in the last 12 months.

Responsibility for repair of charge points lies with the host (also known as the ‘owner’) who procured and installed the charge point. The role of CPS is to advise hosts of faults as they arise.

Most faults on the network are transient and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention. This means that a high proportion are closed down swiftly and effectively. Overall reliability across the CPS network is typically very good and on average 95% - 97% of charge points are operational each day.

The subject of correspondence cases varies. These are not recorded or categorised by reason or by local authority area. Each piece of correspondence is dealt with on its own merit, given careful consideration with appropriate actions taken at the time of responding.

In 2021 we received 124 pieces of correspondence relating to ChargePlace Scotland and 80 in 2022.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of police responses to mental health distress emergency calls.

The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a Human Rights Bill in the 2021-26 Parliamentary session. We will consult formally on proposals in 2023.

To date, there have been two Fitness for Judicial Office tribunals in Scotland. Both remain ongoing.

The Court Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 sets out that the First Minister, must, if requested to do so by the Lord President, constitute a Fitness for Judicial Office tribunal. Once constituted, under the Act of Sederunt (Fitness for Judicial Office Tribunal Rules) 2015, the process and procedure of the tribunal is a matter for the Lord President and the Chair of the tribunal and not Scottish Ministers.

Once the tribunal have made their decision, the First Minister will lay the tribunal’s report before the Scottish Parliament. Until such a time, it would not be appropriate to provide further details relating to these tribunals as the process is ongoing.

The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, ensures that action can be taken if the welfare needs of greyhounds are not being met. This applies whether the dogs are still racing or retired. Part 2 of the Act applies to all persons responsible for animals, including breeders, trainers and owners of racing greyhounds.

The Scottish Government strengthened this Act via the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 so those found guilty of cruelty offences now face up to five years imprisonment and unlimited fines.

The Scottish Government has gone further, announcing on 06 October (S6M-05949 – Greyhound Racing in Scotland ) that greyhound racing would be included in the planned consultation on extending licensing legislation to animal care services which may include dog training, walking and grooming services.