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We have implemented extensive reforms to streamline and improve the planning system to support our economy and give greater certainty to developers and investors. Our reforms include removing certain applications from the system, increasing capacity to focus on applications where most value can be added; extending the review cycle of Local Development Plans to allow planning authorities to focus on delivery; and appointing Scotland’s first National Planning Improvement Champion to work with all those involved to support improvement within the service.

We recognise there is scope to improve on current planning timescales with the most recent annual data for the 2022-23 period showing that the average timescale for major developments is 39.5 weeks, and local (non householder) development is 14.4 weeks. It is important to note that there can be many reasons for delays in determining applications, including requests for and submission of additional information, delays with responses from consultees and the requirement for a legal agreement. However, constructive and collaborative working between applicants and authorities means that consistently over 93% of applications are approved annually.

Our current consultation "Investing in Planning - a consultation on resourcing Scotland's planning system" aims to further support improvement in the delivery of planning services, including streamlining the assessments required to support applications, project managing applications, improving engagement and taking a proactive approach to development and consenting.

Lothian Buses provided an update on service 69 to Transport Scotland officials in 2022, noting they had no plans to reinstate the service at that time. Most bus services across Scotland operate in an open de-regulated market and have done so since the 1980s. Scottish Ministers do not have the power to intervene directly in the provision of local services. This is solely a matter for individual bus operators who use their own commercial judgement on service routes, frequencies, and vehicle types.

Lothian Buses is owned by the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian Councils. However, it is operated and managed as an arms-length commercial operation by a board of directors. It would remain a matter for the local authority to determine whether there is a social need for a bus service that is not being provided commercially. Local authorities can subsidise these at their discretion.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 offers legal protections to workers. Workers are defined in the Act where they have a contract or other arrangement to do work or services personally for a reward; their reward is for money or a benefit in kind, for example the promise of a contract or future work; they only have a limited right to send someone else to do the work (subcontract); their employer has to have work for them to do as long as the contract or arrangement lasts; they are not doing the work as part of their own limited company in an arrangement where the ‘employer’ is a customer or client.

Panel members within Scotland’s children’s hearings system are volunteers. The inclusion of volunteers within the Act is a matter for the UK government. By virtue of Schedule 2 Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 the Panel members are appointed by the National Convener rather than Scottish Ministers.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials have clearly and comprehensively explained the Scottish Government’s position in relation to the matters raised by the group of former panel members and their representatives on numerous occasions dating back several years.

Scottish Ministers are satisfied that there are appropriate safeguards and procedures in place for any panel member to raise a concern or complaint via the Children’s Hearing Scotland (CHS) complaints procedure, with appropriate recourse to appeal to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. As such, Scottish Ministers do not feel it is appropriate to raise this subject with the UK Government

The position described is entirely a matter for the CHS Chair. The Scottish Government is aware that the Chair of Children’s Hearings Scotland has been pleased to meet with other Members. The Member may wish to meet the Chair to seek further reassurance that these matters have been fully and appropriately addressed.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the recommendations in partnership with COSLA. It is important that appropriate consideration and deliberation is applied and a response will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government has always recognised the importance of Scotland’s international connectivity. Our ambition is to make Scotland at least as well connected as peer nations. Transport Scotland, in partnership with VisitScotland and Scottish Development International, works to help Scotland’s airports secure new routes that are essential for inbound tourism, business connectivity and the economy as a whole. Recent successes include direct routes from Atlanta, Calgary and Beijing and we look forward to welcoming the arrival of a new airline for Scotland later this month, with JetBlue launching their first ever Scottish service to New York JFK.

Representatives from the cross government partnership recently took part in the route development forum Routes Europe 2024, meeting with a number of airlines to discuss future opportunities and promote Scotland as a market that can sustain more direct connectivity.

The Scottish Government recognises that tax is one factor in airlines’ decision-making on where to fly. We will review the rates and bands of Air Departure Tax prior to the implementation of the tax once a solution to the Highland & Islands exemption has been identified.

None of the concerns or grievances raised by this group in respect of their own experiences within the children's hearings system justify a wider review of the well-established and highly-regarded multidisciplinary children's hearings system. More broadly, and working with system partners and with people bringing lived experience of children’s care and justice, the Scottish Government is currently engaged in redesigning the children’s hearings system. This work follows publication of the independent ‘Hearings for Children’ report in May 2023. The Scottish Government published its own response to those recommendations in December. A redesign board was established in January to progress non-legislative improvements to the system. For those improvements that require new legislation, a full public consultation on proposed reforms will take place in summer 2024.

As a public body CHS are required by law to operate in line with the SPSO requirements, and all complainants must have recourse to the SPSO as the final stage for complaints. The SPSO has statutory powers to investigate complaints, the National Convener is independent of Government in the exercise of his children’s panel appointment and tenure functions. The Scottish Government has no locus.

As a public body, Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) is required to operate its complaints policy in line with the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) model complaints handling procedure. This includes recourse to the SPSO as the final stage for complaints.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27466 on 21 May 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 .