This search includes all content on the Scottish Parliament website, except for Votes and Motions. All Official Reports (what has been said in Parliament) and Questions and Answers are available from 1999. You can refine your search by adding and removing filters.
We are in the current position because Ferguson Marine spoke to the MCA only in June this year about whether the boats would meet the specification that the MCA had set out, which is based on regulations that date from 2016. We have late ferries that are under capacity, over budget and not what islanders were promised.
More than 17,250 businesses have already benefited from the change, with around £413.5 million having been paid out to date. We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis, which, in turn, is a cost of business crisis, which is a cost of farming crisis.
As ministers have said, that figure is no longer appropriate to use because it is out of date. However, I think that Alex Cole-Hamilton would want me to put a complete picture before the chamber.
Now, her Government says that it would be “top-down” and “arbitrary” to set such a date. We have the First Minister setting a date and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills saying that it would be wrong to do so.
I agree with the deputy convener that the issues raised by the petitioner dating back to May are fairly urgent and that we cannot wait for the Audit Scotland report, which will probably look at a narrower set of issues.
Therefore, although you are changing some of the dates for when things are starting, there will not be any serious impact in the current year, 2024-25.
The final question is, that motion S3M-1808, in the name of Bruce Crawford, on parliamentary recessdates, be agreed to. Motion agreed to, That the Parliament agrees the following parliamentary recessdates under Rule 2.3.1: 20 December...
The UK Government says that it will happen in October 2025, which is the date that it aspires to. That is the date that we will aspire to because that is the best information that we have at this time.
As of last week, eight of 15 authorities in Scotland had confirmed their data test date. We are in the process of working with another six authorities to confirm their dates, which should be confirmed in the next few days.