Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has created a notable amount of opportunities for new entrants into farming and crofting on publicly owned land. This has been spearheaded by the coordinating efforts of the Farming Opportunities for New Entrants (FONE) Group. The FONE Group membership has key public body representatives including Forestry and Land Scotland, Scottish Ministers’ Estate, Scottish Water and Crown Estate Scotland to name a few.

One of its core functions is to get public bodies around the table to explore what opportunities they can offer new entrants. FONE Group members publicise opportunities where they can and promote the positive impact of new entrant stories to the likes of private estates and owner occupiers in Scotland.

More than 80 new entrants have been given opportunities on over 8,000 hectares of publicly owned land, due to the efforts of the FONE Group.

Also, the Scottish Land Matching Service (SLMS), has facilitated over 300 individuals and formally matched over 50 joint-ventures, some of which includes publicly owned land.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-35253 on 11 March 2025, to confirm, there is no delay in the implementation of the reduction of the working week to 36 hours for Agenda for Change staff. It was always the intention to use the initial 30 minute reduction in April 2024 as an opportunity to learn and assess how best to move forward with any further reduction in the working week.

The Scottish Government is therefore committed to fully implementing the remaining 60 minute reduction in the working week for all Agenda for Change staff on 1 April 2026. This will facilitate patient and staff safety, support the continued recovery of services and avoid any extra burden for our workforce.

As there is no delay in the implementation of the final hour reduction of the working week for Agenda for Change staff, there is no requirement for any financial compensation.

This implementation date of 1 April 2026 remains fully in line with the commitment made as part of the 2023-24 Agenda for Change pay settlement and the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government.

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

All teachers undertake additional support needs (ASN) training during Initial Teacher Education (ITE), which is a requirement to meet the Professional Standards for registration with the General Teaching Council of Scotland.

We have asked the Scottish Council of Deans for Education (SCDE), through their Scottish Universities Inclusion Group, to undertake an analysis of the way ASN are addressed in ITE. We expect to receive an update from SCDE on the progress of this work shortly.

There has been regular communication between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service on HMP Highland, including time-scales for completion, since 2011, in line with updates to the Infrastructure Investment Plan.

• In December 2011 the Scottish Government was updated that completion dates for HMP Highland were uncertain.
• In October 2015 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2019.
• In September 2016 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2020.
• In July 2018 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2021.
• In April 2019 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2023.
• In September 2020 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2024.
• In September 2022 the Scottish Government was updated that estimated operational date was 2025.
• In February 2024 the Scottish Government was updated that the most likely time-scale for construction completion was 2026.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34901 on 3 March 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.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-35129 on 4 March 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

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme Test and Learn Project (SEEP) has been developed in partnership with colleges and universities and over the first 2 years has supported 56 projects focusing on closing the shortfall between the UK Government Turing Scheme and Erasmus+.

Applications for the SEEP must be submitted by a Scottish college or university. The amount of funding for each institution is capped at £25,000. Each applicant has the opportunity to apply for an additional (up to) £10,000 to partner with a recognised Scottish youth work organisation.

Whilst the first year of SEEP focused on staff mobility, criteria in year 2 was extended to include short-term mobility opportunities for Scottish students, addressing a gap in the Turing Scheme. These projects are live, institutions will provide student participation data once the projects conclude in March 2025.

An evaluation of the programme has been commissioned and will be published this summer.

We are carefully considering the recommendations in the UK Farm Animal Welfare Committee report from 2014 and its updated opinion of February 2023, in conjunction with the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s follow-up inquiry report into fish farming that was published on
17 January 2025.

The welfare of farmed fish at the time of slaughter is assured by Article 3.1 of retained Council Regulation (EC) 1099/2009 and as such we have no immediate plans to introduce further legislation. However, once engagement with the industry and other stakeholders is complete, the guidance we intend to publish will provide flexibility for the industry to quickly adopt new technology and management techniques to improve fish welfare at time of slaughter.

To drive progress towards our circular economy goals, Scotland had a set of waste and recycling targets in place over the past decade running to 2025, and spanning the waste hierarchy.

As our Circular Economy & Waste Route Map set out, while these previous 2025 targets have provided a good platform for progress over the past decade, they are not universally the best indicators to deliver our circular economy, emissions and nature objectives.

By 2027, we will set new statutory circular economy targets, using powers from the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024. These targets will follow the development of a monitoring and indicator framework to allow for more holistic tracking of Scotland's consumption levels and wider measures of circularity, and will take into account the waste hierarchy.

Statutory consultees are those set out in legislation as requiring to be consulted on submission of an application.

Community councils are not referred to as statutory consultees of applications for energy consents under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989. However, consultation responses from non-statutory consultees such as community councils and public bodies are important considerations during the determination process.

The Scottish Government is committed to further strengthening engagement for communities by making pre-application consultation a statutory requirement as part of the UK Government’s proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.