Chamber and committees

As set out in the information disclosed by Scottish Government on 26 October 2024, several Scottish Government officials had permissions to access the mailbox used by Mr Hamilton’s secretariat. The reason they were granted access was for business continuity purposes, for example if there were an urgent business requirement in the case of unexpected absence. The individuals who had permissions to access the mailbox were permanent civil servants. To comply with data protection principles the names of those civil servants are not disclosed.

After awarding £1,124,350 to Victim Support Organisations in December the balance in the fund as at December 2024 is £188,525.92.

Criminals made to pay to support victims - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government is currently conducting a programme of work to reform and modernise compulsory purchase to make the system simpler, more streamlined and fairer for all parties. The reforms are intended to support the delivery of all types of project, not just those related to renewable energy infrastructure, net zero and climate adaptation. Our aim is to move towards a system that is:

• Equitable: compensating claimants fairly and timeously;
• Effective: supporting efficient decision-making, whilst ensuring procedural fairness, openness, and transparency; and
• Easy to understand, providing all parties with certainty and clarity about how the process works and their rights, roles and responsibilities within it.

In March 2024, we appointed an expert advisory group to help support the reform process. We are working with the advisory group and engaging with a range of stakeholders to develop reform proposals ahead of a public consultation later this year. A Compulsory Purchase Reform Progress Report was published in December 2024, which recaps progress to date, summarises emerging proposals and sets out next steps:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-reform-scotland-progress-report-december-2024/.

More information on the Compulsory Purchase Reform Programme, can be found at https://blogs.gov.scot/planning-architecture/2024/07/09/compulsory-purchase-reform/.

Scottish Government costs directly associated with the implementation of compulsory purchase orders cannot be disaggregated within the cost information that we hold.

The Scottish Government operates a Shared Services approach to IT. 52 Agencies and Public Bodies out with the core Scottish Government take IT services from a centralised IT Service called SCOTSConnect.

The large customer base of over 21,000 staff and shared network brings a high level of standardisation, meaning we can drive economies of scale with better buying power for software and deliver exceptional value for money without compromising the provision of high quality services.

As explained in the answer to questions S6W-33501 and S6W-33502 on 28 January 2025 , decisions on professional memberships are made by Directorates, Divisions and Departments. Professional memberships are, by their nature, used to develop individuals in a professional capacity. We are not aware of any professional memberships that can be shared between individuals or Departments.

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 Scottish Government is committed to improving road infrastructure throughout Scotland as a key factor in securing economic growth and high-quality public infrastructure across Scotland. This includes our ongoing commitment to dual the A9, delivering improvements to the A96 which includes dualling Inverness to Nairn and the Nairn Bypass, delivering a range of measures of improvements to the A83 to reduce the risk of landslips at the Rest and Be Thankful and taking forward design work on the A75 between Springholm and Crocketford.

During 2025-26 main construction works are expected to commence on the third A9 Dualling contract, Tomatin to Moy, following contract award in July 2024, and preparatory works followed by main construction works are expected to commence on the fourth A9 Dualling contract, Tay Crossing to Ballinluig, following anticipated contract award in Summer 2025. In addition, procurement of the fifth A9 Dualling contract, Pitlochry to Killiecrankie, is expected to commence in Summer 2025.

Subject to completing the necessary statutory procedures, we will also during 2025-26 commence the next phase of the medium term improvements to reduce the impact of landslips at the Rest and Be Thankful.

The Scottish Government has provided £4.2bn of funding from 2024 to 2029 for Network Rail to operate, maintain and renew Scotland’s rail infrastructure. The Scottish Government expects Network rail to deliver significant improvements in the capability, resilience and performance of rail infrastructure across the network with this funding.

In addition, the Scottish Government has an impressive record of delivering a rolling programme of rail enhancement projects. Decisions on which further enhancements will commence in 2025-2026 remain subject to consideration by the Investment Decision Making Board at Transport Scotland and myself and will be announced in due course.

The Scottish Government has committed to conduct any future new build or major refurbishment projects following the Net Zero Public Buildings Standard and will ensure its buildings comply with changes to energy efficiency standards where applicable.

6% of buildings owned by the Scottish Government meet an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or B.

Feasibility studies have been conducted to look at options to improve the lower performing buildings.

In terms of part (a), statistics on police recorded crimes of weapon possession within a school are available in the following table. Information is available from 2017-18 onwards, the first year that data was collected separately for school settings. The fall in 2020-21 will reflect the closure of schools due to the Covid pandemic. Information is not held centrally on the age of the perpetrator, so whilst it is likely the majority of these crimes in a school involve a child or young person, it is not necessarily the case for every incident.