Chamber and committees

It is the Scottish Government’s view that delay in child contact proceedings will usually not be in the best interests of the child.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) is the key legislation in relation to child contact and residence. In deciding whether to make a contact order under section 11 of the 1995 Act, the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will reform the 1995 Act and a key aim is to ensure that the child’s best interests are at the centre of any contact or residence case. Section 30(2), once in force, will require the court to have regard to any risk of prejudice to the child’s welfare that delay in proceedings would pose.

The Family Law Committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council developed new case management rules: Act of Sederunt (Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 Amendment) (Case Management of Defended Family and Civil Partnership Actions) 2022 (scottishciviljusticecouncil.gov.uk) covering family actions in the sheriff court. The new rules came into effect on 25 September 2023 and are intended to help prevent undue delay in proceedings relating to the welfare of children.

Our rural economies will be hit by the proposed changes to Inheritance Tax’s Agricultural Property Relief.

We continue to make progress on this consultation. As well as the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership, it will cover a wide range of areas: extending simplified divorce and dissolution procedures; qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies when they solemnise marriage or register civil partnership; a Scottish Law Commission report on cohabitant's rights following separation; and some points arising on financial provision when one cohabitant dies.

We are also preparing impact assessments in relation to this consultation. We are planning to issue it within the next few months.

A local authority is required to model projected impacts to local recycling rates of their project during the Recycling Improvement Fund application process.

Projected impacts are then reviewed by technical experts and contribute to an estimate of the total impact of all Recycling Improvement Fund projects on Scotland’s national household recycling rate.

The projected increase to the national household recycling rate from current projects is 2.5 percentage points, subsequent to the conclusion of the Fund in 2026.

The response to both the concluded ScotWind and INTOG leasing rounds provides Scotland with a hugely exciting opportunity to transform its generating capacity, with 30GW of generating potential and significant revenue opportunities. Our focus is on delivering this opportunity, but we remain open to reassessment and possible additional leasing opportunities in the longer term if deemed necessary.

The Scottish Government has not taken specific action as a result of disruption to services attributed to Storm Ashley. When sailings are late or cancelled due to weather such as during Storm Ashley and therefore out with the ferry operators’ control, there are no penalties applied.

All local authorities are required to review the operation and effectiveness of any firework control zones designated within their area. Data gathered as a part of such reviews can be utilised for the Scottish Government's statutory obligation to report on the operation of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 for the period through to 10 August 2027. Ministers also engage with relevant parties, such as Police Scotland, to understand the impact of firework control zones.

As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We remain committed to delivering increased mental health and wellbeing capacity in primary care and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan sets out a range of actions to achieve the ambition in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy to drive a shift in the balance of care across mental health to ensure a focus on prevention and early intervention in the community, including a focus on providing high quality mental health care within General Practice.

Latest available data published in February 2024 by Public Health Scotland in the Scottish Health Service Costs book confirmed that NHS expenditure on mental health rose from £1.282 billion in 2021-22 to £1.307 billion in 2022-23, an increase of £25.1 million or 2% - representing 8.53% of total NHS expenditure.

We continue to work with NHS Boards and Integration Joint Boards towards delivery of the commitment that at least 10% of their frontline health spending will be dedicated to mental health by the end of this parliamentary session.

As part of their statutory responsibilities in relation to home to school transport local authorities are also required by the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to have regard to the safety of pupils.

Where local authorities conclude a route used by pupils to walk to school is unsafe transport should be provided even though the distance falls short of their normal distance criteria. Existing guidance sets out that Ministers expect local authorities to keep their criteria for providing school transport under review and be flexible enough to take into account factors, relative to the nature of the route, which might affect pupil safety.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I have commissioned an update to the Scottish Government’s school transport guidance for local authorities to provide further clarity on our expectations in relation to safety.

The statutory minimum walking distances set out in legislation are a long-standing feature of our education system and there are no plans to change them. The Scottish Government published guidance for local authorities regarding home to school transport in 2021.