Seòmar agus comataidhean

Members will be aware that we have been gathering views and evidence from a range of stakeholders around the minimum age of marriage and considering next steps following the recent concluding observation of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that we prohibit all marriages of under 18s in Scotland.

Whilst very few 16- and 17-year-olds marry or register a civil partnership in Scotland each year (in 2022 out of over 30,000 marriages, only 18 involved a party or parties under 18), we are cognisant of the concluding observations. Therefore I have now decided that the Scottish Government should consult formally in this area in 2024.

Reaching a view on reform of the age of marriage is a potentially cross-cutting area given the other rights that we permit 16- and 17-year-olds to exercise whether with or without additional protections. Consequently, we need to carefully consider the full implications of any change in the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership and whether any change may be needed to the existing criminal law on forced marriage.

I also intend to include a number of other areas of family and succession law as part of this consultation.

We will consult on the Scottish Law Commission’s draft Bill to reform the law on a cohabitant’s financial rights against their former partner when they separate.

We committed in the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy in 2018 to consulting on whether the simplified forms-based divorce and dissolution procedure should include cases where a couple have children under 16 and they are not in dispute about their welfare, and this will also be included in the consultation.

Following on from a previous consultation on succession law and from views raised during the passage of the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill, our consultation will also explore a cohabitant’s entitlement to financial provision from their deceased partner’s estate where that partner has died without a will.

In addition, we have not yet implemented a provision in the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 on creating qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies with celebrants who solemnise marriage and register civil partnerships. The aims of this provision include ensuring the continuing dignity and solemnity of ceremonies and tackling forced marriages and civil partnerships. We are planning therefore to also consult formally on the options here.

We will aim to publish the consultation on this substantial range of issues by summer 2024.

I can advise Parliament that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has today published its response to its recent consultation on ‘Managing interactions between sea lice from finfish farms and wild salmonids in Scotland’ .

Our Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture values the role of aquaculture in producing world-renowned healthy and quality seafood, whilst recognising that its delivery and development must be sustainable.

SEPA’s finalised sea lice framework follows an extensive period of consultation. The framework will support sustainable development of fish farming worth over £1 billion to our economy, ensuring our communities continue to realise the benefits of aquaculture, by guiding development to the least-sensitive locations and protecting the environment, whilst making the development process more efficient and effective.

The framework will be implemented in phases and will adopt a proportionate, evidenced and risk-based approach to management. From February 2024, the framework will be used to assess all new and expanding fish farm developments.

Following consultation with each of Scotland five medical schools most students receive taught modules on mental health and psychiatry in years three and four of their medical degrees with the opportunity to specialist mental health units on clinical placements from year four onwards. There are significant core learning requirements in relation to mental health set out by the GMC and each University ensures these are fulfilled.

The GMC also require all medical schools to provide support for the consideration of postgraduate careers and each school has their own way of doing this. For example, the University of Aberdeen hold careers fairs across the whole curriculum wherein Mental Health is always included, and the psychiatric education team engaged. Furthermore each of the medical schools have a ‘PsychSoc’ attached to them. These societies are funded by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and work with the medical schools to encourage and support medical students into a career within the psychiatric fields.

The current e-Rostering Implementation plan is scheduled to complete in December 2024, which will deliver the capability for the majority of NHS Boards to prioritise and progress the necessary local roll-out of eRostering across all of their rosters over time. The system that has been procured will be able to record time for staff in line with local implementation plans.

There is currently no end date where all Boards will be required to have all rosters live on the e-Rostering system. However, a prospective plan to facilitate and accelerate adoption across all roster locations in each board is under consideration and Boards will be expected to demonstrate progress through their Annual Delivery Plans.

Scotland has one of the lowest levels of low pay, insecure work and low paid insecure work across all UK regions, however with 17% of workers in Scotland classed as being in insecure work (which is deeply connected to low pay), we are not complacent. Although employment law is reserved to the UK Government, we are committed to mainstreaming Fair Work throughout Scotland. Our Fair Work Action Plan aims to use the levers that we have control over to ensure that all parts of the Scottish Government set out collectively what we can do to discourage the use of precarious contracts. Our Fair Work First criteria have been applied to over £4bn of public sector funding since 2019 – driving fair work practices across the labour market. For public sector grants awarded on or after 1 July 2023 we have introduced a requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage to all employees, and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, within the bounds of what we can do within devolved competence.

On 6 November 2023, the Scottish Government announced its accreditation as a Living Hours employer, the first government in the UK to do so. The Living Hours scheme recognises that in addition to payment of the real Living Wage, number and frequency of work hours are critical to tackling in-work poverty. Criteria to accredit also includes providing a contract reflecting accurate hours worked, a guaranteed minimum of 16 hours a week (unless the worker requests otherwise), and at least 4 weeks’ notice of shifts and guaranteed payment if shifts are cancelled within this period.

Per the latest available Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings real Living Wage data from the Office for National Statistics, Scotland remains the best performing of all four UK countries with the highest proportion of employees (18+) paid the Real Living Wage or more (91.0%). Ahead of Wales 88.2%, England 87.5%, NI 85.4%, and the UK 87.8%. The data is also recorded by Scottish Industry Sector in table 5.4, and Local Authority area in table 5.7. The full data tables can be accessed and downloaded from the following web page.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings-2022/

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, oil extracted from the North Sea is predominantly exported to international markets. The Scottish Government anticipates that this arrangement will continue and North Sea oil will continue to be refined in a number of international locations.

On 3 March 2023, the Scottish Government published the outputs of an independence analysis of Scotland’s Energy System, which provides a detailed overview of the oil and gas sector in Scotland. A link to this publication can be found here .