Chamber and committees

In line with our commitment to creating safe and nurturing school environments, the Scottish Government prioritises approaches that address behaviour through understanding and positive intervention.

Our approach to relationships and behaviour in schools is focussed on prevention and de-escalation of concerns. School staff should be supported through clear understanding of their establishment’s relationships and behaviour policy, arrangements for de-escalation and support that can be provided to them where situations do escalate.

The Scottish Government has not received any requests from local authorities for funding for teacher self-defence training in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government has not received any requests from local authorities for funding for teacher self-defence training in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government values the contribution of Local Government workers to delivering essential public services across the country and urges all parties to work together to avoid disruptive industrial action.

The Scottish Government respects the independence of Local Government and has no formal role in pay negotiations which take place between COSLA and Scottish Joint Council (SJC) trade unions. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and workforce, including any contractual changes regarding terms and conditions.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with Local Government, including through COSLA, to mitigate the impact of any industrial action that does take place.

I recently wrote to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero regarding the introduction of consumer standards for heat networks. I sought assurance about the use of pre-payment meters, recommending that their installation is banned where householders are identified as vulnerable, and that affordable repayment plans are offered as a prior step.

Implementation of the Great Britain wide consumer protection regime is progressing. Consumer Advocacy and Advice functions and a new Consumer Redress scheme started on 1 April 2025. Consumer Scotland is the new statutory advocacy body for heat network consumers in Scotland. Heat network consumers are now able to access direct support through Advice Direct Scotland either via Energy Advice | Energy Advice | energyadvice.scot or through the helpline (0808 196 8660). The Energy Ombudsman also started its statutory role in providing a dispute resolution service across Great Britain.

New heat networks consumer protection regulations across Great Britain will give Ofgem powers to investigate and intervene where prices appear to be disproportionate or unfair. Further detail of the forthcoming regulation can be found on Ofgem’s website: Heat networks | Ofgem.

Scottish Government officials regularly engage with their UK Government counterparts about consumer regulations, pricing and technical standards on heat networks and other energy policy.

The Scottish Government, in its response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (13 March 2025), committed to exploring options for how to best to set welfare standards for production going forward and will update the Committee in September 2025 on progress and next steps.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are responsible for considering welfare complaints and investigating potential breaches in welfare legislation. A lack of prosecution does not equate to a lack of enforcement; actions such as provision of verbal advice, written advice and follow-on visits are also legitimate elements of enforcement.

APHA veterinarians will continue to apply their professional knowledge and training to assess fish welfare against the provisions set out in The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, and use a range of evidence when considering whether obligations have been breached.

The Scottish Government recognises the value and special characteristics of Scotland’s traditional and protected buildings. Traditionally built properties make up around 18% of all homes in Scotland and may have different requirements to other homes because of their construction type, location or status.

Although Edinburgh College ceased delivery of the Stonemasonry Modern Apprenticeship in 2023, there are still three centres of stonemasonry MA training across Scotland: City of Glasgow College (CoGC) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) at Stirling and Elgin.

The Scottish Government continues to work to ensure traditional skills needed to undertake retrofitting work are available. Scotland’s revised strategy for the historic environment “Our Past Our Future” has as one of its three key priorities “Delivering the transition to net zero”. Collaboration will be key to achieving success, as is working across different sectors and employer groups, and working nationwide across regional borders.

On 3 April 2025 it was announced that a new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, had secured £3.7 million of National Lottery support. Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills will be located near Lock 16 on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal in Falkirk. The centre, which will see Scottish Canals partner with Historic Environment Scotland, will focus on developing pathways into heritage skills training, volunteering, and employment within the historic environment sector.

On 8 April 2025, Historic Environment Scotland, Historic England and Cadw, published a new retrofit training handbook to support learners undertaking retrofit qualifications.

A domestic commercial fishing licence provides a general authority to fish within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (UK EEZ). UK Fisheries Administrations operate a restrictive licensing scheme, this means that a regulatory ceiling is maintained on the total fleet capacity (engine power - kilowatts and registered tonnage).

Individual licenses have attached a defined value of tonnage and kilowatts which may be transferred (moved to another vessel/owner), detached from a vessel and placed on an entitlement document, aggregated or disaggregated. There can be multiple changes involved in one licence transaction, for example, transfer of vessel and/or licence between owners or Fisheries Administration and a change of vessel name.

Fishers also trade licence commodities across the UK market. It is important to note that this happens externally to the Scottish Government (and likewise the other UK fisheries policy authorities) and as such we do not ascribe a monetary value and do not participate in any financial transaction.

For the reasons detailed above recorded licence transactions do not directly correlate with the Scottish fleet and fishing method data provided in table 41 of the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics series of publications.

We have provided the number of Scottish recorded licence transactions by year:

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Combined sewer overflows are licensed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and are designed to prevent the sewer network from becoming overwhelmed during times of heavy rainfall and putting homes and businesses at risk of internal flooding.

Scottish Water does not hold information for reported spills during dry weather, or the reasons for spills, however it publishes all reportable pollution events each year to SEPA and this information is available in its annual reports, which can be found at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports. In addition, Scottish Water has recently launched an online map to provide customers with near real-time information about the operation of their monitored storm overflows and this map, as well as information about storm overflows, is available on its website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Live-Overflow-Map. To help address the issue of pollution incidents, Scottish Water is already expanding its intelligent sensor network to predict and prevent incidents and help speed up the operational response.

Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process.

When an application is received, a full public consultation is carried out. Scottish Ministers invite representations from members of the public, appropriate community councils and other public bodies, seeking their expertise to assist in examining applications.

The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations.

The post of Traffic Commissioner for Scotland is currently vacant but I understand the role has been advertised on the UK Government’s Public Appointment website. The closing date for applications is 28 April 2025.

On 2 April, I received a letter from the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt. Hon. Heidi Alexander MP advising that Richard Turfitt (Senior Traffic Commissioner) will cover the role on a temporary basis. I welcome Mr Turfitt’s temporary appointment to allow work to progress on improving bus services in Scotland.