Chamber and committees

Data generated from the day-to-day running of the Thistle Service will be recorded and collated by Glasgow HSCP alongside a range of routine data from other Health and Social Care services to enable a comprehensive evaluation. This includes data to assess:

1.Extent to which people use the service,

2.Interventions provided within the service (such as reviews of injecting practice, peer support and referrals into drug treatment); and

3.Public Health outcomes such as incidence of drug overdose, Accident and Emergency attendances and drug deaths, uptake of testing for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C and engagement in addictions treatment and care.

Data collated for evaluation will be published in due course in aggregate form. The format and timeline for these publications has not been set but likely to consist a full evaluation report which will be published in a few years’ time as well as an interim report which will be produced in the nearer term.

Scottish Forestry is working with partners to develop a project that will provide the small scale nurseries that specialise in native species of northern and western provenances with more resilience. The aim of the project is to share best practice, provide training and share resources where possible. The outcome is to ensure that the supply of harder to source tree stock is increased and more robust.

In partnership, the Scottish Government and COSLA provide £2m investment per year to deliver the training programme for educational psychologists.

The formulation for this investment takes into account the number of students, the tuition fees paid for each student, individual membership to the British Psychological Society and an allocation to help students with living costs associated with studying.

The living costs grant is not income assessed, is not indexed to inflation and does not need to be paid back.

The grant has been reviewed since 2018 and the amount was agreed with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists.

The following table provides the average grant rates for Registered Social Landlord (RSL) and Local Authority social rent new build homes approved through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) between April 2022 and end September 2024.

The 8,000 homes figure attached to 2025-2026 funding is an estimate of the equivalent homes that could be supported by the budget in 2025-2026. The 2025-2026 budget will fund the completion of existing project commitments as well as new project approvals, including voids and acquisitions, and new build starts. We do not therefore have a breakdown of the 8,000 homes figure.

The Scottish Government is aware of the concerns raised by the Foreign Affairs Committee regarding equipment manufactured by Hikvision, and other such companies, where such companies are subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China

Scottish Government, as part of the already underway replacement integrated security system, decommissioned all Hikvision cameras across its estate last year.

As indicted by the First Minister’s answer to S6F-03667 on 9 January 2025, any decision on security cameras used by other public sector organisations is for them to make. Although public agencies may choose to follow the Scottish Government’s lead in decommissioning all Hikvision cameras in the Scottish Government estate, they are under no obligation or duty to do so.

We encourage all organisations to follow National Cyber Security Centre supply-chain security guidance when selecting a technology supplier. The guidance clearly sets out the security standards that suppliers should meet and the considerations that organisations should make during the procurement process.

All answers to oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for the Official Report can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

I refer the member to the answers given in S6W-31234 on 25 November 2024 and S6W-32253 on 9 January 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.

In addition to those earlier answers, I can advise that we currently have Single Building Assessments (SBAs) underway for 13 government-led entries on the Cladding Remediation Programme pilot. We expect to receive the reports of these assessments during the first quarter of the year.

We have also commissioned an independent review of all pilot entries as part of our commitment to ensuring they are on an appropriate pathway to assessment. We will commission further SBAs for any buildings that this review finds to also require government-led assistance.

We recently set out our strategic priorities for cladding remediation during 2025 in the answer given in S6W-32849 on 6 January 2025. These include the development of two new schemes for assessment and remediation, as well as working with partners to develop a clear picture of the position across sectors in Scotland. We will be publishing a renewed plan of action in March that will set out how and when we will be delivering these priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33099 on 22 January 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

Over the last 5 financial years the following has been spent on the maintenance and improvement of the A90 trunk road.

Evaluation is essential to the work of Transport Scotland to assess whether policies and interventions are being delivered as intended, and to help identify ways to improve them.