Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is tackling marine litter with actions detailed in our Marine Litter Strategy, which aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. Our Strategy and action plan was refreshed in September 2022 and focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets. The Strategy drives forward our work and co-ordinates the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

At a Scotland-wide level, our many actions to prevent litter include: improving the management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear to reduce litter and improve recycling rates, contributing to our circular economy; working across the four nations to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic; and developing international solutions to prevent spills of plastic pellets, which can be found on beaches and risk the health of marine wildlife. Litter removal actions include: funding the KIMO Fishing for Litter scheme, to assist the correct disposal of litter caught in fishing nets; and funding the Keep Scotland Beautiful Upstream Battle project, removing litter along rivers.

At a regional level such as Loch Long, we continue to work with key partners relating to the River Clyde catchment and west coast locations including Arrochar. The Upstream Battle project enables communities, businesses, and schools on the River Clyde to develop local solutions to reduce littering, and also support its clean-up. Litter is reduced and intercepted before it reaches the sea, and citizen science outputs will inform further riverine litter policy. We are engaging with Glasgow City Council to consider more options to increase litter removal from the River Clyde which we know is a major source of litter at Loch Long.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33259 on 11 February 2025 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 draft budget for 2025-26 proposes planned investment of £768 million in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, an increase of more than £200m compared to the 2024-25 published budget. This will help tackle the housing emergency while contributing towards our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 70% will be social rented homes and 10% in rural and island areas.

Discussions on the use of the Financial Transaction (FT’s) funding for the 2025-26 financial year are ongoing and no decision has been made at this time.

The Scottish Government continues to support home ownership and have interventions in place to help first time buyers through our Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme which helps people on low to moderate incomes to buy their first home.

A breakdown of the funding support provided by the Scottish Government to the Energy Transition Zone project over the past three financial years is provided in the following table.

From a trunk road maintenance perspective, the following upgrades are currently being planned for the A82 in the 2025-26 financial year:

Renton Rd U/B to Cardross Rd U/B – Structural Maintenance

• Lomond Gate roundabout to Barloan Toll roundabout NB & SB - Structural Maintenance
• A82 Dalnottar Int to Dumbarton Rd Jct NB - Structural Maintenance
• Between Dunglass roundabout and Dumbuck – Drainage improvements
• A82 Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit - New northbound layby
• A82 Glen Coe - Rock slope mitigation works
• A82 Grotaig - Rock slope mitigation works
• Glenurquhart Road, Inverness – Footway improvements
• Auch Estate - Edge strip hardening works
• Stoneymollan to Luss - Junction improvements
• Glen Falloch - Vehicle restraint upgrades
• Fort William to Spean Bridge - Vehicle restraint upgrades
• A82 Lomondgate Roundabout - upgraded road markings and localised widening
• A898/A82 interchange - Road safety measures identified from an investigation in 2024/25 will be programmed for construction.
• A82 Erskine to Dunglass - installation of an advanced direction sign (pending resolution of slope remediation works)
• A82 1110 Leagann Bridge - Concrete repair
• A82 1160 Ceannside Bridge – Re-waterproofing and concrete repairs
• A82 1390 Borlum Bridge – Re-waterproofing
• A82 615 C19 Auch 4 Culvert - Verge repair
• A82 500 Allt Fionne Ghlinne N Bridge – Parapet replacement
• A82 1080 W53 Loch Lochyside 2 Retaining Wall - Gabion repairs
• A82 240 Fruin Old Bridge - Scour repairs

The exact dates for the works are still to be confirmed as all schemes are in the process of being investigated.

The consulting process provided for under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 and the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 ensures that public bodies, communities and members of the public are consulted on proposals for electricity infrastructure. The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful and fair consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations. The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the pre-application consultation process by working with the UK Government on their proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.

As shown in Scottish Water’s Long Term Strategy which was published on 4 February 2025, resolving water deficits is a matter for everyone not simply Scottish Water. At 180 litres per person per day Scotland has one of the highest rates of water consumption, compared to 125 litres in Germany and 105 litres in Denmark. As set out in its Strategy, it is important that Scottish Water continues to reduce rates of leakage, support demand reduction by customers and invest in new water sources and water treatment works.

Scottish Water will publish its draft business plan for the 2027-33 period this summer which will set out prioritised investment proposals to reduce the number of zones in deficit and secure supplies for customers. Each zone is unique and will have its own set of measures to put in place to secure supplies for customers.

The SPS engaged the services of legal advisers, cost consultants, insurance brokers and geo-technical consultants to advise on cost controls within the contract. It would not be appropriate for SPS to publish this advice as it is commercially sensitive information, however SPS will publish a summary of their Business Case on their website.

Each school should have a relationships and behaviour policy setting out clear expectations of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and the responses which staff can utilise. Staff should respond to behaviour in line with this policy. The existing Scottish Government policy framework, including the national policy on exclusion, allows the use of consequences.

This government is committed to doing what it can to provide support and direction at a national level, informed by our national evidence base. Ultimately, it is the responsibility local authorities to decide how to promote positive relationships and behaviour in their schools. We expect local authorities to consider how best to implement our national guidance to meet particular needs and experiences at a local level, identifying areas of local challenge or concern.

As part of the relationships and behaviour action plan, we will be providing clarity on the range of approaches and consequences that are available, including exclusion where there is no appropriate alternative. This guidance is being developed by a sub-group of the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, together with the Head Teacher Taskforce and will be published later this year.

Individual Local Authorities, as employers, are responsible for managing teaching vacancies and providing job opportunities across Scotland.

Teaching vacancies are advertised across Scotland, throughout the year, through a process of fair and open recruitment. Local authorities must balance the teaching jobs they advertise with their local needs and contexts.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes annual data on the number of teachers employed across Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities through the Annual Teacher Census. This data can be accessed at: School education statistics - gov.scot.

The Establishment of an Education Assurance Board, which was part of Scottish Government and local government’s joint agreement published in December 2024, will provide a forum by which we can carry out joint monitoring of employment practices, share best practice and ensure that teacher numbers return to 2023 levels; while understanding and considering local needs and geographical and subject recruitment challenges.