Chamber and committees

The one-off payment will be made following completion of teachers’ and lecturers’ work in relation to the Alternative Certification Model. We are continuing to work with partners to finalise the details and delivery mechanisms for the payment which will be announced in due course.

The Scottish Government is committed to bringing forward a Circular Economy Bill to advance Scotland's ambitions to promote an economy where materials remain in use for as long as possible, rather than being thrown away. Legislative plans will be set out in future Programmes for Government.

National maximum class sizes for different types of class are set through legislation or in teachers’ terms and conditions. Any additional provision, for example, for small schools, is a matter of local policy.

The Scottish Government has had no formal discussions with Dumfries & Galloway Council regarding its policy on staff thresholds in small rural schools.

American foulbrood (AFB) is a notifiable disease of honey bees. Figures of the disease incidence in GB are publically available in BeeBase, the database used by Scottish Government and the National Bee Unit in England and Wales. Last season in 2020, AFB was found in 8 honey bee colonies in 5 different apiaries.

Since 2015 there has been 60 honey bee colonies diagnosed with AFB in Scotland.

For context the number of inspections in Scotland recorded in BeeBase varies between 3,000 and 8,000 per year and there are currently 2830 beekeepers with a total of 17,783 honey bee colonies in 3,754 apiaries registered.

The Scottish Government takes the matter of honey bee health extremely seriously. Our honey bee health team continues to work with the affected beekeepers on disease control measures and has established a surveillance area to detect possible spread of disease to other colonies.

Although AFB has been historically present in Scotland, the work of the Scottish honey bee health team has achieved a significant reduction in the incidence and spread of the disease in Scotland. Unfortunately, as the causative bacterium is spore forming it can remain dormant on infected equipment and outbreaks continue to occur.

Beekeepers have a significant role to play in preventing and controlling disease within their apiaries and they have a legal obligation to report suspicion of a notifiable disease to their bee inspector. Training and education in biosecurity, good hygiene best practice and the ability to recognise diseases are essential aspects of beekeeping which are supported by Scottish Government.

The COVID-19 sectoral guidance for close contact services is kept under constant review to reflect the latest public health advice and the latest information for all Strategic Framework levels. All close contact services are able to operate in Level 3 and below, in line with this guidance. The guidance was last updated on 26 May 2021 to reflect the outcome of the recent rapid review on face coverings in the sector.

Following a necessary pause to the implementation of Part 3 (Bus Services) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 last year owing to the reallocation of national and local government resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, work resumed with a virtual stakeholder event held in March this year.

The outputs of that and ongoing engagement will feed into a consultation paper for launch later this year. That will inform the development of secondary legislation and supporting guidance. The timetable for the introduction of secondary legislation will be dependent, to an extent, on parliamentary process.

Ice accretion and precipitation sensors were installed on the towers and deck in 2020. Weather forecasting, bridge monitoring and traffic management procedures have been continuously improved, and the mechanism of ice accumulation specific to the Queensferry Crossing is now better understood. A working group comprising Transport Scotland, the bridge Operating Company BEAR Scotland and a number of expert consultants has been established. A number of possible solutions are under consideration in terms of their feasibility.

Following detailed analysis and consideration of all available options against the current UK rail legislation, the Scottish Ministers took the decision that it was not appropriate to award a franchise agreement to any party at the expiry of the current ScotRail franchise. In such circumstances, the Scottish Ministers have a statutory duty to provide, or secure the provision of, rail services. This will be done through a wholly owned company of the Scottish Government in a similar manner to the UK Government’s current direct control of the Northern and LNER train operating companies.

The analysis of options that was undertaken included consideration of a range of commercially sensitive matters. Therefore it is not Transport Scotland’s intention to publish the analysis.

We recognise that globally, as well as here in Scotland, the aviation industry faces one of the longest recovery periods given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on route networks, which is why we have extended the 100% non-domestic rates relief for the aviation sector for another year (2021-22). We are also funding a skeleton service to the Islands until at least the end of June to ensure that essential connectivity is maintained and have provided training development support to help provide training for staff in the aviation sector to support job retention.

The Scottish Government is working with airports on route recovery, to help rebuild connectivity for business and inbound tourism once we are able to safely lift travel restrictions. Transport Scotland, working in partnership with VisitScotland and Scottish Development International, has a well-established process in place to help Scotland’s airports recover routes lost as well as help secure new ones. In addition to our work with the airports, the Scottish Government also has regular engagement with airlines. Most recently this included productive discussions held in April with 19 airlines, all of which are important to Scotland’s international connectivity. Given the commercial nature of these discussions I am unable to share specific details.

Now more than ever it is essential that we are well connected to the rest of Europe and the rest of the World and our ambition is to help airports restore 2019 levels of connectivity as quickly as possible.

Transport Scotland publishes information on changes in transport emissions in the Carbon Account for Transport. The most recent version of the Carbon Account for Transport, which covers emissions up until 2018 is available at the following link: Carbon Account for Transport - No. 12: 2020 Edition