Chamber and committees

Security of supply for gas and electricity is a reserved matter and is delivered by the National Electricity System Operator (NESO) across the whole of Great Britain, under regulation from Ofgem. The National Grid has also confirmed that Great Britain’s eight main gas storage sites remain healthy. However, we remain engaged to plan for any challenging scenarios that might emerge this winter, and engage regularly with the UK Government on issues of energy security.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the offshore oil and gas industry on a range of topics, including workforce planning. For example, the First Minister last met with Offshore Energies UK along with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in September 2024 and this included discussion of jobs in the context of the energy transition.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work in partnership with business and industry to plan for a multi-skilled energy workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across sectors as the transition to net zero progresses. This includes exploring opportunities for mutual recognition of qualifications between different energy sectors including funding support from the Just Transition Fund to support the industry-led Energy Skills Passport which is now being piloted.

Justices of the Peace are appointed to sheriffdoms not local authorities. The current number of serving Justices of the Peace broken down by sheriffdom is as follows:

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based surveys using specialist vehicles each year to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. The data obtained provides an annual snapshot of the road condition across the network and is used to determine a Road Condition Index for each section of road. The Index values can then be used to identify where detailed engineering investigations should be focused in order to determine maintenance requirements.

The proportion of the A90 that has been assessed as requiring further preliminary investigation to determine whether structural maintenance is required has varied over the last 5 years as follows:

2019-20 – 13%; 2020/21 – 10%; 2021-22 – 9%; 2022-23 – 10%; 2023-24 – 18%

This information is not held by the Scottish Government and responsibility for such rests with the British Transport Police and Police Scotland respectively.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact Network Rail.

Scottish Government committed to reviewing the home education guidance in December 2019. This has now been updated following thorough consultation with stakeholders and the general public.

The updated guidance will be published on 23 January 2025 on the Government website here https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911357

The updated home education guidance reflects the changing context in which home education takes place in Scotland and sets out a child’s rights-based approach to home education.

Scottish Ministers want all those involved in a child’s education to be informed and equipped regarding home education, to better understand the circumstances and choices made by parents, and the responsibilities that parents take on when choosing to home educate.

With this updated guidance, Scottish Ministers continue to encourage local authorities and parents to work together to develop trust, mutual respect and a positive relationship that functions in the best educational interests of the child.

We know that people who inject drugs are at higher risk of contracting blood borne viruses (BBVs), bacterial infections and injection site wounds.

The Scottish Government has committed to effectively eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) as a public health threat in Scotland and to driving improvement through focusing on intensifying case finding and treatment initiation, and ensuring that people who inject drugs have access to, and take up, i) optimal harm reduction services and ii) if deemed clinically ready, antiviral therapy to prevent the onward transmission of infection.

The Scottish Governments ‘Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan’ also aims for everyone in Scotland to have good sexual health and wellbeing, with high quality, innovative, sexual health and BBV prevention, care and support available to those who need it, in a timely manner and irrespective of age, sex, gender, sexual identity or location. We have allocated multi-year funding to a range of projects alongside the action plan which will drive improvement in the areas identified.

In addition, the ‘HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan’ sets out prioritised actions towards achieving our goal of zero people contracting HIV within Scotland by 2030. This aligns with wider global strategic aims, including UNAIDS’ goal “to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.” Alongside the plan we have funded a National Coordinator post to oversee coordination of this Delivery Plan and to work with locally identified HIVTE Champions at NHS Board level towards delivery of actions to support elimination.

Specifically in Glasgow, The WAND (Wound management, Assessment of injecting risk, Naloxone supply and Dry blood-spot test for BBV) model has been implemented in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. WAND has proved effective in engaging with people who inject drugs and who are not in contact with traditional services, reflecting the requirement of MAT Standard 4, and providing them with a unique level of support to address these issues. Other areas are also trailing the model.

The number of publicly funded rural schools in Scotland since 2013 is set out in the following table. Schools were counted as rural if the postcode of the school was classified as accessible rural and remote rural under the Scottish Government’s 6-fold urban rural classification system. Information on a comparable basis is not available prior to 2013.