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The solar panels installed on core Scottish Government buildings have an output warranty of 25 years. The panels will continue to operate past 25 years, however their output will be lower than new panels. Maintenance costs are included in the overall building maintenance costs and cannot be disaggregated. The cost of replacing the panels at the end of their life cannot be estimated due to the timescales involved.

The electricity generated by solar panels on core Scottish Government owned buildings is

2023-24 – 227,433 kWh

2022-23 – 506,430 kWh

2021-22 – 269,187 kWh

2020-21 – 177,409 kWh

2019-20 – 81,246 kWh

The carbon saved in the last 5 financial years is

2023-24 – 51.25 tCO2e

2022-23 – 113.94 tCO2e

2021-22 - 56.8 tCO2e

2020-21 – 41 tCO2e

2019-20 – 20.6 tCO2e

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education. Therefore the Scottish Government does not collect data on teacher absences or the reasons for them.

Data on post-induction scheme teacher employment broken down by subject, Local Authority, contract type (permanent/temporary) and mode of working are published on the Post-Probationer Teacher Employment Dashboard, here: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-post-probationer-employment-dashboard/

The latest available data on teacher contract type, broken down by permanent and temporary, are published in the 2023 Teacher Census Supplementary Statistics here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Data on supply teachers is not collected or held by central government.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing teacher numbers to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people.

The number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at more than 80% over the past 10 years. In addition, the number of teachers in Scotland's classrooms has increased by more than 2,500 over the past decade, as a result of investment by the Scottish Government. While we cannot direct teachers where to work, it is important to note that teacher vacancies arise across Scotland throughout the year.

We recently agreed with local government a commitment to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025-2026, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers.

In order to support each of these measures, the Scottish Government is increasing the funding available to local government to £186.5 million in 2025-2026, and will issue £145.5 million to local government in full this financial year.

Local government will also receive additional funding of £28 million from 2025-2026 to develop the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) education workforce with further funding of £1 million being made available to support national initiatives which will help to recruit and train more ASL teachers.

Our priority at present is to work to change the basis of pitch fee uprating from the Retail Prices Index to the Consumer Prices Index under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Once this is complete, we will work towards undertaking a post implementation review of the Residential Mobile Homes Site Licensing scheme.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to establish an independent body to oversee and regulate residential mobile home sites.

Installing solar panels on owned Scottish Government buildings will be considered as part of holistic approach to decarbonising our buildings. Feasibility studies will be carried out to look at the suitability of roof structures, roof orientation, available space and shading. Not all buildings will be suitable for installing solar panels. We will continue to pursue innovative solutions which may provide opportunities to support the broader energy transition.