Chamber and committees

Through Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government provides a range of different types of support to Alexander Dennis Ltd, including for the development of zero emission buses.

In addition, the Scottish Government has been working to transform the market for zero emission buses in Scotland through the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB). This funding programme has been designed to incentivise the adoption of zero emission buses and their supporting infrastructure, increasing the size of the domestic market and encouraging increased levels of private investment. ScotZEB has been designed in collaboration with bus operators and industry, including Alexander Dennis Ltd.

However, while hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their supporting infrastructure were eligible for funding through ScotZEB, it is up to individual bus operators to decide what type of zero emission vehicle best suits their circumstances. No bids have been received for hydrogen fuel cell buses through ScotZEB.

The consultation on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt closed on 21 May 2024.

Work is underway to procure an independent analysis of the consultation feedback. The feedback received will be used as part of the policy decision-making process, alongside a range of other available information and evidence. It is anticipated that the final report will be available for publication in late autumn.

Scotland continues to use public procurement to achieve a vast range of positive economic, social and environmental outcomes making Scotland a better place to live, work and do business.

Latest available figures show that our £16 billion public procurement spend generated around £13.8 billion pounds of economic activity for Scotland and supported around 130,000 full time equivalent jobs.

Spend in Scotland alone was £8.9 billion and, where relevant details are known, 55% of this was with SMEs, and almost half was with businesses in the 60% most disadvantaged areas in Scotland.

Keeping children and young people safe from online sexual abuse and exploitation is of the utmost importance to the Scottish Government.

We welcome the work of Childlight to harness worldwide data to help inform tangible action to protect children. We recognise that these problems are global and require global solutions.

In Scotland, we are working closely with partners to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation in all its forms.

We are establishing a new strategic group to provide national leadership and further improve our shared response in Scotland to child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse. This group will first meet in the summer.

Through the Scottish Government’s membership of Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Group on Preventing Online Child Sexual Abuse, we monitor emerging online threats and agree a shared approach to using technological advancements to tackle abuse, improve data-gathering, improve support for victims and survivors and promote key activities delivered by our partners.

We recognise that prevention is key to protecting children online and we are taking a range of actions to increase awareness of online child sexual abuse and exploitation and improve support to victims.

In 2023-24 we provided around £570,000 to third sector organisations involved in child safeguarding and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse. We have also updated our National Child Protection Guidance to support practitioners to develop effective, evidence-based responses to child sexual abuse and exploitation. In 2022 and 2023, we ran a national public awareness campaign to support parents are carers to keep their children safer online.

While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act, to strengthen protections for children. We will continue to engage with both the UK Government and Ofcom to ensure that the Act does all that it can to protect children online. With the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, I will be meeting Ofcom to discuss implementation of this important legislation and to ensure that children in Scotland are kept safe online.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information that has been requested. Local authorities will have local arrangements in place for managing reports of licence breaches and non-compliance. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28008 on 11 June 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

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27902 on 11 June 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 

Edinburgh Eastern has received £1,903,792 from the Cashback for Communities fund since 2008.

Eight CashBack Partners have delivered projects within Edinburgh Eastern Constituency from 2008 to 2024. They are: Boxing Scotland; Edinburgh Young Carers; Scottish Football Association; Scottish Rugby; SportScotland (Facilities Fund); Street Soccer Scotland; Youth Scotland and YouthLink Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information that has been requested, as local authorities are responsible for administering the scheme and making relevant inspections. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28008 on 11 June 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

The Scottish Government has been listening to the concerns raised regarding the New Build Heat Standard regulations, which is why it was announced to Parliament on 28 May that we will be reviewing the regulations to adapt them to address those concerns. As part of this review, we will speak with stakeholders and Ministers are always happy to discuss issues with MSPs.

As reflected in the answer to S6W-27466, a range of matters related to volunteer retention were discussed. Those included the development of the Tribunal Support Model (TSM) within Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), introduced to better support volunteers in local areas across Scotland. The National Convener also discussed the future additional demand for children’s panel members associated with the commencement of the Care and Justice (Scotland) Bill.

The National Convener had identified a general downward trend in broader volunteering and retention since the covid pandemic, and outlined his plans for future panel recruitment campaigns and retention efforts.

There is a long unbroken record dating back 6 decades of sufficient local volunteers coming forward to serve on the children’s panel, and the Scottish Government , through officials and portfolio Ministers, are in regular dialogue with CHS about recruitment and retention.

The issue of recruitment and retention of volunteers are independent statutory functions for the National Convener. His independence in discharging those functions is enshrined in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. The member may wish to write to the National Convener for further information about the recruitment and retention of volunteers.

The group Children’s Hearings Scotland Scandal were not discussed in the meeting. The Scottish Government is not aware of any concerns from that group which have not already been addressed, or that would have any material bearing on volunteer retention issues at the national level.