Seòmar agus comataidhean

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any complaints or concerns raised about the conduct of any Members of the Children’s Parliament in the last three years.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

As with all Scottish Government grants, a rigorous process of grant management procedures is in place to ensure accountability of public funds. These procedures ensure the delivery of grant outcomes, continuous improvement, and best value for money. Regular monitoring takes place throughout the lifecycle of the grant.

The Children’s Parliament’s core funding from the Scottish Government via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund is administered by the independent grant making charity, the Corra Foundation. The annual feedback from Corra indicates the work being delivered by the Children’s Parliament to be of a high standard and that they are achieving their outcomes.

The Children’s Parliament are a registered company (SC170891), so their audited accounts are publicly available on Companies House. As a registered charity, SC026247, the Children’s Parliament submits annual returns to OSCR, which includes their accounts.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government is not involved in increasing children's engagement with the Children's Parliament. That is a matter for the Children's Parliament.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA), to respond. His response is as follows:

SPPA is in the process of providing retired police officers with a remediable service statement (RSS) in order to allow them to make an informed choice of benefits in respect of their service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022. To date more than 3,400 RSS have been sent to retired police officers. Approximately 1,850 statements are outstanding, though the majority of retired officers are already in receipt of their final salary scheme benefits, which are anticipated to be more favourable. All retired police officers are expected to receive a RSS by 31 July 2025.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

The legislative provisions of the McCloud remedy ensure that where there is an uplift in pension benefits as a result of an officers choice, interest applies to any arrears. Any retired officers who are entitled to arrears of pension will receive their entitlement in full, plus that interest.

We have had no such discussions with airlines or industry stakeholders.

It is a commercial matter for airlines to determine which routes to operate.

The Scottish Government are contributing £9.08 million towards the cost of this project through the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are contributing the remainder. While the cost of the works exceeds the value of the property, the market value of the property does not relate to its importance either as part of the historic environment or its usefulness as a public building.

This building is used to provide a vital local service in the area and will remain in public ownership over the longer term. Therefore, we must invest in it – and our other public buildings – over time to support public bodies, and other building owners, to end their use of polluting heating to reach net zero by 2045. The Edinburgh Crown Office occupies a Category B listed building, situated in the Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city centre of Edinburgh. We recognise it will be more challenging and more expensive for some properties to achieve this, particularly where they are part of the historic environment and are therefore harder to treat.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government engages with a range of organisations when making policy decisions. It is therefore not possible to directly attribute and quantify the influence of any one organisation. However, it is important to acknowledge since 2007, the Children’s Parliament has worked closely with Scottish Government to impact various policy areas, including:

• Scotland’s Climate Assembly
• COP 26
• Learning for Sustainability Curriculum Development
• Anti Racist Education Principles
• Gender Equality in Education
• Education Reform
• Tobacco Action Plan
• National Performance Framework
• The development of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024
• Scottish AI Strategy
• Mental Health Information and Support (Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board)

The Scottish Government recognises the serious impact that untreated hearing loss can have on individuals, including potential links to cognitive decline and dementia risk in older people.

The Independent Review of Audiology Services, published in August 2023, set out 55 recommendations which the Scottish Government accepted in principle to support improvements to audiology services across Scotland. A significant amount of work has been undertaken to date, to move forward the implementation of recommendations made as part of the Independent Review, involving a wide range of stakeholders across the public and third sector. In December 2024 we concluded this phase of work and will soon publish a report outlining how each of the recommendations set out in the Independent Review has been closed or transitioned, and the rationale for that.

We know that audiology services are facing sustained pressure, and this challenge is not unique to Scotland, with similar issues being felt across the UK. However, it is not acceptable that some people have had to wait longer than they should for appointments and referrals. The Scottish Government is taking action, and the 2025-26 Budget is providing a record £21.7 billion for Health and Social Care.

Audiology is considered a clinical priority area within the NHS in Scotland and improvement work is being progressed through the National Planning and Delivery Board under leadership from the Chief Operating Officer, NHS Scotland.