Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government meets regularly with representatives of the Scotch whisky industry to discuss Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The Scotch Whisky Association is a member of the DRS System Wide Assurance Group which meets often to monitor the progress of the scheme’s implementation.

Most recently, on 20 April this year, the First Minister and the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy, and Biodiversity, met with industry leaders, including representatives from the Scotch Whisky Association and other producers and retailers to discuss DRS and how all parties can work together to ensure a successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Apprenticeships are a vital resource for employers to invest in their workforce and for people to develop their skills. Investing in skills across people’s lifetimes is critical to our future productivity and success, underlining our commitment to a skilled workforce set out within the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

Our priority is for high quality apprenticeships that provide sustainable jobs and careers, supporting our transition to net zero.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) have issued contract awards to support up to 25,500 new Modern Apprenticeship starts in 2023/24. This builds upon the 25,000 Modern Apprenticeship starts which Ministers asked SDS to deliver in 2022/23. SDS previously issued contracts in March for over 39,000 Modern Apprentices in training for 2023/24, supporting businesses and individuals across Scotland.

Bute House is the Official Residence of the First Minister.

Bute House is Category A listed building and is owned by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

There are no costs associated with the transfer of the use of the House between First Ministers: the lease for Bute House is between the National Trust for Scotland and Scottish Ministers (the Scottish Government).

The Scottish Government are in the process of competitively tendering for parts of the Bute House repair schedule and therefore the full cost of the planned repairs has yet to be determined.

In Scotland, guidance in relation to preparing for emergencies is generally structured around key consequences or themes, rather than specific risks. The Scottish Government’s suite of emergency planning guidance, “Preparing Scotland” ( https://ready.scot/how-scotland-prepares/preparing-scotland-guidance ), covers topics such as response, exercising, scientific and technical advice, preparedness assessments, public communications, and recovery from emergencies, which are all directly relevant to pandemic preparedness.

This guidance is developed in consultation with the organisations which have legal duties in relation to emergency preparedness under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which includes all local authorities.

Officials from the Scottish Government are in touch with MG ALBA every week on detailed items of business. In addition, the Scottish Government has had more formal meetings with MG ALBA on 22 June 2022 and 15 March 2023.

These meetings covered a wide range of business outcomes including staffing, funding, performance figures, programme plans, projects and wider discussions with Ofcom, BBC and DCMS. For the year ahead the Scottish Government has arranged quarterly meetings with MG ALBA and these will continue to focus on our support for the channel.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost, due to the significant number of meetings which take place between Energy Saving Trust and the Scottish Government. Energy officials alone meet with EST a number of times a week, both ad hoc and scheduled, to discuss the programme of work they deliver on the government's behalf. A significant number of meetings have also taken place within the specified timeframe between transport and water policy officials and EST.

Data on the poverty-related attainment gap in schools for each year since 2016 is publicly available in the NIF Interactive Evidence Report , which holds data on a range of key measures by academic year from 2016-17 onwards. In December we published the 2023 National Improvement Framework and Plan , which set out the latest evidence for progress and our plans, shared with local government, for closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Further to this, in February 2023, the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations were published, providing information on the attainment and initial destinations of 2021-22 school leavers in Scotland. This information is also publicly available and may be accessed here: Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 5: 2023 Edition (www.gov.scot) .

I refer the member to answer to question S6W-07294 on 22 March 2022. 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

Decisions on device procurement, distribution and use of devices are taken by local authorities themselves.

We provided £25 million of funding in 2020-21 to local authorities across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion.