Chamber and committees

We take child and adolescent mental health very seriously. Since 2014, Education Scotland has supported delivery of mental health first aid training by offering a grant to local authorities to undertake the Scottish Mental Health First Aid Training programme. To date, 18 local authorities have been offered the training since 2014.

Education Scotland have completed a draft evaluation of the Mental Health First Aid Training year four programme. Which will include information on the take up of the training by teachers and other schools staff. This is currently being reviewed before being formally signed off.

All evaluation reports for year one to year four of the five year programme will be made available on the Scottish Government website shortly.

The Scottish Affairs Office based in Washington DC co-hosted an event on the 4 th June 2019 with the Deputy Head of Mission for the British Embassy, to support wounded US Veterans who were due to visit Scotland as part of the Cateran Yomp. The Yomp takes US Veterans to Scotland for a 54 mile trek through the Highlands to raise money for Veterans’ causes. Members of the US Department of Defence were in attendance along with various Veterans Group representatives. Discussion was focussed on wishing participants well.

The production of natural gas from the North Sea is declining, but remains important for energy system security and flexibility. While Scotland is currently more than self-sufficient in natural gas production, by 2025, the UK is expected to be importing 67% of its gas from outside the UK.

In a hydrogen future scenario, as set out in a scenario in the Scottish Energy Strategy, increased gas demand would be met from a variety of sources by 2050, including a large share of imports of both natural gas from Europe and LNG from world-wide markets. While hydrogen can be generated from electrolysis of water, and there are obvious opportunities for Scotland to harness its very substantial renewable energy resources to this purpose, LNG can also be used to produce hydrogen via a process referred to as ‘steam methane reformation’; this process is thought to be cost-effective and can be rendered carbon neutral when combined with carbon capture technologies.

LNG and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) play a crucial role in supplying energy to the Scottish Independent Undertakings (SIU’s) located in Oban, Campbeltown, Wick, Thurso and Stornoway. These towns have separate networks which aren’t directly connected to the main distribution networks, but maintain the consumer benefits of utilising gas.

Heat accounts for 52% of the energy consumed by Scotland’s homes and businesses, with 79% of Scottish households using mains gas as their primary heating fuel. Both figures show the extent to which Scotland currently relies on natural gas.

Our commitment to energy efficiency, and the growth of more diverse heat networks, means that demand for natural gas is likely to reduce; however, natural gas will remain an important part of Scotland’s energy mix for the foreseeable future. Meeting this demand, and balancing the needs of consumers with a lower carbon secure energy system, will be a key challenge.

Alternative hydrocarbon sources

New and innovative ways of using hydrocarbons are already emerging, and will continue during the coming decades.

Rising demand for alternative hydrocarbon resources in the form of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) could potentially reduce emissions – especially when derived from bio-sources. The marine, power generation, industrial, road transport and residential sectors could all play a part in pushing up demand for these alternatives.

We support the uptake of these energy streams, where the current infrastructure is able to meet the expected growth in demand. Investment could support economic development, safeguarding and creating jobs in the energy sector.

Our transition to net-zero will be just and fair to everyone so that no-one will be left behind. We are now looking across our whole range of responsibilities to make sure we continue with the policies that are working and identify areas where we can go further, faster. However we need the UK Government to act in ‘reserved’ policy areas, such as the regulation of the gas networks, that are not yet devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers. The Committee on Climate Change has been explicit that “Scotland cannot deliver net-zero emissions by 2045 through devolved policy alone”.

The next meeting of the group is scheduled for 31 October 2019. Members have been made aware of this date.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.

I have passed your query on to Steve Dunlop, the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, and asked him to respond to you directly.

Scottish Enterprise has worked closely with Peel Group, Hunterston Port owners, in relation to interest in the site from two train manufacturers. In both cases, though Hunterston was shortlisted by each manufacturer, the site was not chosen by either manufacturer as the final preferred location.

The meeting was arranged to discuss East Dunbartonshire Council concerns regarding performance on the Milngavie line. The historic performance issues were acknowledged, however it was confirmed that the PPM for the day, 29 May was 92%, resulting from the changes made following the Donovan recommendations and recent timetable changes.

Further, since the introduction of the December 2018 timetable there has been a step-change improvement to PPM of around 15% in both arriving and departing services at Milngavie. The first week of the new May 2019 timetable saw on-time arrivals at Milngavie performing 20% better than at any other week in the past year.

The improvements were welcomed by the Council leaders with acknowledgement that further improvements were anticipated following the full implementation of the Donovan recommendations and the introduction of the new timetable developed by ScotRail for the North Electrics and Argyle line in 2020. Additionally Network Rail will be undertaking a review of the North Electrics & Argyle lines which will include considerations on forecast demand identified in the Scotland Route Study whilst taking cognisance of existing performance issues.

A primary or secondary school is to be identified as having an integrated special unit or class if the sole or main purpose of any class or other unit forming part of the school is to provide education especially suited to the additional support needs of children or young persons selected for attendance at the unit or class by reason of those needs.

Integrated special units or classes are distinct from standalone units. Standalone units may be co-located next to a mainstream school but are recorded separately as special schools in Scottish Government statistics.

The number and percentage of primary and secondary schools with an integrated special unit for the period of 2015 to 2018 are detailed below. Data prior to 2015 are not available on a consistent basis due to changes in the reporting methodology of the School Establishments data collection.

Number and percentage of primary and secondary schools with an integrated special unit, 2015 to 2018

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

I have passed your query on to Steve Dunlop and Carroll Buxton, the Chief Executives of SE and HIE respectively, and asked them to respond to you directly.