Chamber and committees

Where a planning authority objects to an application made under the Electricity Act 1989 and that objection is not withdrawn, the Scottish Ministers must appoint a reporter to examine the application. Before determining whether to give consent, the Scottish Ministers must consider the objection and the reporter’s report.

The proposed reforms will instead introduce a more proportionate approach, tailored to individual development proposals and the circumstances relating to objections. This would align with established planning appeals processes in Scotland, and reduce the time taken to determine applications.

The proposed reforms will apply to applications for consent under section 36 and section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 made to Scottish Ministers. Section 36 applications made to Scottish Ministers have a capacity of over 50MW. Therefore, it is not anticipated that the reforms will disadvantage smaller developers or community-led projects.

The costs of providing pre-application services and processing necessary wayleaves are currently paid for through the Scottish Budget. These new powers will allow the Scottish Government to set fees to recover these costs from service users. The standard approach to setting fee levels will be full cost recovery in accordance with guidance set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the introduction of these new fees will all be subject to consultation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35885 on 1 April 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

At permission stage of the statutory appeals process, it will continue to be the case that any applicant who demonstrates sufficient interest and that their claim has a reasonable prospect of success can bring a challenge on decisions for onshore electricity consents.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each initial destination (three months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.1a in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition. The supplementary tables with data on initial destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-attainment-and-initial-leaver-destinations-no-7-2025-edition/documents/.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each follow-up destination (nine months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.2 in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations, No. 6: 2024 Edition. The supplementary tables with data on follow-up destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-follow-up-leaver-destinations-no-6-2024-edition/documents/.

Since the publication of the 2020 report by the RSE Scotland's artificial intelligence strategy - Royal Society of Edinburgh : Royal Society of Edinburgh I have commissioned an independent review into the opportunities for AI which was published last year AI+Independent+Review+-+Call+for+Views+-+Initial+Report+-+Advancing+AI+for+Scotland+-+Reformatted+-+January+2024.pdf.

We have been continuously engaging with the UK Government to advocate that their approach to the regulation of AI considers the interests of the citizens and businesses of Scotland. We continue to provide AI support to business through our enterprise agencies and the AI Alliance, our delivery body for Scotland’s AI Strategy. They have recently relaunched the AI Playbook Guidance on AI Adoption Including Information on AI Policies — Scottish AI Playbook which is a one-stop shop for supporting businesses with AI adoption. The playbook also includes information on legal and regulatory provisions relating to the development and use of AI systems.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each initial destination (three months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.1a in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition. The supplementary tables with data on initial destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-attainment-and-initial-leaver-destinations-no-7-2025-edition/documents/.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each follow-up destination (nine months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.2 in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations, No. 6: 2024 Edition. The supplementary tables with data on follow-up destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-follow-up-leaver-destinations-no-6-2024-edition/documents/.

Waiting times for first clinician led chronic pain appointments are currently reported every quarter on the PHS website, Publications - Public Health Scotland. The Pain Management Service Delivery Framework Implementation Plan contains a specific action to work with PHS to improve how we capture and report national data on chronic pain. The current focus of which is to review and improve waiting times data for first appointments. We are considering the feasibility of collecting and reporting national data on waits for return appointments.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

The University of Stirling research was commissioned by the Scottish FA and SPFL. The Scottish Government has not undertaken any detailed analysis of the report to date. Our position remains that we have no plans at the current time to amend the legislation governing alcohol at football but we will consider any proposals put forward by the football authorities, and which we would expect to address the issues set out in the University of Stirling report.