Chamber and committees

The landfill ban and infrastructure capacity report was published by Zero Waste Scotland on 11 October 2024. At the time of the Environmental Information Regulations request (EIR), 19 June 2024, the report was still being reviewed by ZWS. Scottish Government considered outputs and considerations of various draft versions of the report prior to its final publication.

Substances used within the service are procured by the individuals using the service and not by the service itself. The Lord Advocate indicated in September 2023 that she would be prepared to publish a statement of prosecution policy to the effect that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of the facility in terms of section 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for simple possession offences committed within the confines of the safer drug consumption facility. This does not apply to the staff. No substances have been or will be purchased, and therefore there are no associated costs.

The SDCF website contains information on the service and highlights that those attending the service ‘can only use the drug they bring onto the site’.

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

SPS have no specific evidence as to why the use of steroids is reportedly increasing within prisons. However, in collaboration with our Partners at Dundee University, the regular re-calibration of Rapiscan machines does support our ability to identify new substances.

We recognise the profound impact that illicit articles entering our prisons and acknowledge the continued need to support to those in our care who misuse substances and those who are on their recovery journey.

There is no set timescale for ministerial decisions on energy consents. The consideration to be undertaken by ministers before reaching a determination will depend on the particulars of each application.

Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) is a ten-year strategy, and we stand by its vision to grow a sustainable and inclusive wellbeing economy. Two and a half years into that ten-year strategy, significant progress has already been made in driving us towards that vision of a fairer, greener wellbeing economy.

Through NSET we have established a Centre of Expertise in Equality and Human Rights, which is embedding equality and human rights in our economic policy development. We are committed to addressing the range of labour market barriers, including intersectional barriers, experienced by women that lead them to be paid less on average than men. In line with NSET’s ambition to tackle structural inequalities, we are supporting women furthest from the labour market through delivery of our person-centered employability support. Through our Fair Work approach, we are supporting the creation of good quality, well-paid and flexible jobs to support women to raise their income levels and progress in the workplace. Further, our work to tackle economic inactivity seeks to support more people to enter, remain and progress in employment. Women are more likely to be economically inactive than men and the main reason for inactivity for both women and men is long term sickness, therefore we have focussed our efforts on addressing this challenge.

Since publishing NSET we recognise that much has changed – fiscally, politically and internationally. Our focus is therefore now on accelerating delivery of NSET through our Programme for Government by prioritising actions that are affordable, deliverable and will have the greatest impact on the Government’s four priorities of eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency, and delivering high quality and sustainable public services.

The Scottish Government is committed to aligning with a four-nation approach towards banning the sale and supply of single-use vapes.

In order to align with timescales recently announced by the Welsh and UK governments and provide consistency across the four nations, the Scottish Government will lay legislation to amend the coming into force date in the Scottish regulations banning the sale and supply of these vapes recently passed by the Scottish Parliament from 1 April 2025 to 1 June 2025.

The Scottish Government was disappointed to hear of the decision to close the Albion Automotive site in Glasgow. This has obviously been a very worrying time for the workforce, their families and the local area.

Scottish Enterprise worked closely with the company to explore all viable options to retain these highly skilled jobs in Scotland, but unfortunately a solution could not be found.

The Scottish Government’s initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, has been working with the company to support the affected staff and will continue to provide support as required. We understand that a number of staff have secured alternative employment.

The most recent discussion on workplace planning for renewable energy projects took place at The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) on 18 September 2024, where members discussed barriers and opportunities in relation to skills and the workforce for the offshore wind industry.

We will continue to engage with industry stakeholders to plan for a multi-skilled energy workforce that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system.

The Scottish Government is committed to land reform and improving transparency of those who own and control land in Scotland is at the heart of our land reform objectives.

The Scottish Government will continue to review any evidence – including that arising from the Scottish Land Commission’s report on land and property taxation – and assess this as part of our wider approach to tax policy

Registers of Scotland are currently working to deliver the benefits of a completed land register through their Unlocking Sasines project. This uses spatial data to help ‘unlock’ the historic information in the Sasine register, which means that they can link Sasine property search sheets to a map for the first time, making it visually more helpful and accessible. Additionally, the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will improve transparency and help ensure that large scale land holdings deliver in the public interest. The Bill will place legal responsibilities on the owners of the very largest landholdings to set out – through Land Management Plans - how they use their land and how that contributes to key public policy priorities, like addressing climate change and protecting and restoring nature.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30309 on 28 October 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