Chamber and committees

There are currently 21 Scottish Government employees working as Agricultural Wage Inspectors. This role is conducted by Agricultural Officers who work for Rural Payments & Inspections Division and are responsible for other statutory functions in addition to agricultural wages inspections.

No independent contractors conduct the role of Agricultural Wages Inspector on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The full-time equivalent staffed posts within the Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team to ensure compliance with the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order, over the last five years, is:

The Lord Advocate has not provided the statement of prosecution policy regarding the safer drug consumption in Glasgow as of yet. It is anticipated that this will be provided in the coming weeks, ahead of the planned opening of the facility. The decision as to whether or not the statement of prosecution policy is published is one for the Lord Advocate.

NHS boards are responsible for managing their estates and agreeing terms for facilities management costs with their tenants. It would be for NHS Lothian and other boards to carry out any necessary impact assessment of the reported increase in facility management costs for their GP practices and determine publication.

GPs have raised their concerns about reported facility management cost increases by NHS Lothian directly with the Scottish Government and through their elective and professional representatives. As many of the representations received have been on behalf of multiple GPs and their practices, the Scottish Government does not have a count of how many individual GPs have made representations.

Phase Two of the 2018 GMS Contract will change the way that practice expenses are allocated, with direct reimbursement of costs. Scottish Government is discussing GP facility management costs with the BMA as part of this work.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested as it relates to inspection activities undertaken by the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland, who will be able to provide analysis of inspection grades on request.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board doesn’t use the register of criminal legal aid solicitors as an indication of solicitor availability. A small number of solicitors register and do small amounts of work to meet ad hoc requests from individual clients. They often choose to eventually withdraw from the register rather than meeting the requirements for remaining on it. A better indication of solicitor supply is the number of active solicitors – those solicitors who have carried out criminal legal aid work in the last 12 months.

The number of solicitors actively involved in criminal legal assistance has remained relatively stable for the last four years, with activity heavily concentrated among the busier solicitors. Based on active solicitor numbers there has been a reduction of 23 active solicitors – or 3% - in last four years.

All agricultural businesses that have employees are required to comply with the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order (AWO). The monitoring of compliance with the AWO takes the form of Control Test Inspection (CTIs). Each year, a selection of 120 businesses, encompassing employers and workplaces, are randomly selected from the information taken from the June Scottish Agricultural Census. In 2024, circa 8200 businesses were deemed to have employees covered by the AWO. In addition to CTIs, the Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team will investigate all businesses where employees have raised complaints.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I have asked their Chief Executive, Adrian Gillespie, to contact you directly with a response.