Chamber and committees

The baseline report is aimed at developing the understanding of the roles and functions of the Law Officers with a view to consulting on their role. The Law Officers’ role is secured by the Scotland Act 1998. What any changes to that role would require by way of an Act of the UK or Scottish parliament would depend on any changes proposed. As we have said, the Scottish Government will engage further with the UK Government when the research has concluded.

The 2024 Higher History review is an operational matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in its independent role as an examination body. The Scottish Government accepts the findings of the review.

Richard Harry, Executive Director of Qualifications and Assessment at the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC), Wales’ largest awarding body, independently peer reviewed the report and agreed that its conclusions and recommendations are supported by evidence.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30903 on 11 November 2024. 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

HMP Inverness has a total of 73 cells and a design capacity of 93. As of 12 November, the establishment held 116 prisoners.

SPS are unable to quantify the number of cells that typically accommodate more than one person in our care, due to the many variables that accompany our complex population, however as of the aforementioned date, the establishment had a single cell occupancy rate of 33%

Work is progressing on finalising the baseline report after which it will be presented to Ministers and thereafter published. While its important that this work progresses, it is also important that the report is considered, robust and accurate. I will report back to the Parliament as timescales become available.

The Scottish Government received a draft of the full Higher History Review report from the SQA on 30 October 2024, and the Executive Summary report on 1 November 2024.

We have made significant progress on delivering a Fiscal Framework with Local Government. The foundations of the framework are being applied in practice through the simplification and consolidation of the Local Government Settlement, development of clear routes to deliver local revenue streams such as the Visitor Levy and Cruise Ship Levy, and establishing more frequent and meaningful budget engagement. We continue to work with Local Government to progress the Fiscal Framework and intend to publish an update on the framework around the 2025-26 Scottish Budget and Local Government Settlement.

The brief will be included with the published report.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend manual ear syringing.

We have previously estimated that around 350 high-rise and up to 500 medium-rise buildings across Scotland may require assessment and some level of remediation, across all tenure and building ownership types.

We continue to use this data as an outline planning assumption. However, we are working through a number of routes to enhance both the quality and efficacy of our estimate of potentially affected buildings in Scotland.