Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Strategic Board for Teacher Education met on 4 September to consider their workplan including recruitment and retention issues. This work is ongoing and will be complemented by the project I am commissioning on education workforce modelling and research, which will be completed by the end of the year. The SBTE will use findings from the education workforce modelling and research project provide me with further advice on initial teacher education programmes.

Penalty clauses are not enforceable in Scots law and, as such, there are no penalties included in the R100 Contracts.

If a person believes someone has not obeyed a court order for child contact or residence, they can make the court aware of this and ask it either to vary the order or to have the person in question ordered to appear before the court. It would then be for the court to decide whether any failure to obey the order amounted to contempt of court. Individuals may be eligible for financial assistance to raise a court action through the Scottish Legal Aid Board .The Board is responsible for the administration of the legal aid system, independent of Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision making process to grant or refuse legal assistance and it cannot intervene in or comment on legal aid decisions.

Section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will, when commenced, place a duty on the court to investigate the reasons behind a failure to obey a court order for contact or residence.

The first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) has run since September 2015, and is coming to an end on 29 September 2023. The second phase of the scheme will launch on 02 October 2023, and will run initially for 5 years, with an option for it to run for 7 years. Warmer Homes Scotland is a demand-led scheme which aims to support people in or at risk of fuel poverty through the transition to zero emissions heat, improve their energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from heating. Reaching EPC band C is not a specific objective of either the original or new phase of the scheme, and therefore no target for this has been set.

The following table outlines the number of households who have received measures through Warmer Homes Scotland between September 2015 and 31 July 2023 in each constituency that have reached EPC band C and the average SAP point increase after receiving measures through Warmer Homes Scotland. The data is at constituency level as data at parliamentary region level is not collected.

The Scottish Government has no additional plans to provide specific funding for local road bridges. However, an additional £793 million cash funding has been provided to local government in 2023-24. It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Scottish Ministers are responsible for trunk road bridges and structures and plan to invest £85 million in 2023-24 on maintenance and the operations of trunk road structures.

The information you have requested is set out in the following table. It should be noted that the key criteria for the Local Bridge Maintenance Fund was to rebuild and maintain key lifeline bridges, where diversionary routes are not available or limited.

Limitations when making a representations to the Scottish Ministers on applications made under the Electricity Act 1989 are set out in relevant regulations, namely the Electricity (Applications for Consent) Regulations 1990 and where an application concerns EIA development, Part 5 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment)(Scotland) Regulations 2017 . Relevant regulations set out the time within which, and the manner in which representations to an application may be made. For applications for EIA development, the time within which representations may be made is by a date not earlier than 30 days after the last date on which a relevant notice is published. For all other applications, the time within which representations may be made is by a date which is not less than 28 days from the last date on which a relevant notice is published.

Representations may be made via the energy consents unit website at https://www.energyconsents.scot/Register.aspx , by email to representations@gov.scot, or by post to Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit, 4th Floor, 5 Atlantic Quay, 150 Broomielaw, Glasgow, G2 8LU. Representations must identify the proposal and specify the grounds for representation.

Written or emailed representations should be dated, clearly stating the name and address of the person making the representation. Emailed representations should also include the full return email address of the person making the representation.

I have discussed the national picture on teacher recruitment with COSLA and the Strategic Board for Teacher Education. I will continue to work with Councils on this important issue, recognising that it is they who employ our teachers.

Over the past 10 years the number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at over 80%. It is important to note that temporary teachers play a role in providing flexibility in the teaching workforce for absence cover, including sickness and maternity leave, ensuring continuity of provision of learning for our young people. For some teachers, supply work is a personal choice to suit their own individual circumstances.

I have tasked the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of education bodies, to look at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail. This includes, for example, geographical and subject-specific issues, as well as how we can increase diversity within the profession and improve support for early career teachers.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to discuss with the UK Government the licensing of testosterone treatments for perimenopause or menopause for use in Scotland. As noted in the answer to question S6W-18294, on 14 June 2023, regulations for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines are currently reserved to the UK Government and are the responsibility of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). For a medicine to be routinely prescribed, it firstly needs to receive a licence from the MHRA. It is the responsibility of individual pharmaceutical companies to apply to the MHRA for a marketing authorisation (licence). Whether to submit an application to the MHRA is a decision made by a pharmaceutical company. The application process requires a company to provide data demonstrating the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicine.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR’s) Health Technology and Assessment Programme (HTA) is considering several research applications against the call ‘Testosterone for the treatment of menopause symptoms beyond altered sexual function’. Any applications will be considered by the HTA funding committee in mid-November, with final outcomes known early December 2023. This should help identify any substantive new evidence on the use of testosterone to support pharmaceutical companies in applying to the MHRA for a licence.

The Scottish Government is supportive of the NIHR’s backing for this important research and will monitor the outcomes from the programme.

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

This information is not available in the form requested.

The Scottish Government does not produce counts of homes by parliamentary region.

The number of households and dwellings in each parliamentary constituency is published by the National Records of Scotland, with the latest available estimate dating from 2022. This is available at: Scottish Parliamentary Constituency .

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number of homes which have an EPC rating below band C.

The SHCS survey has not been designed to provide results by Parliamentary Region, however results are available by Local Authority area.

The Scottish Government publishes local authority analysis using a three year pooled data set to ensure sufficient sample sizes. The most recent estimates of homes with an EPC below C at local authority level are for 2017-2019, and are presented in the following table.