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Ofqual regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Its findings relate to the SQA Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment qualification delivered in England which was withdrawn by SQA in April 2019.

SQA made the Scottish Government aware of the issue through its regular governance channels when it first arose in 2019 and have regularly updated the Scottish Government on developments throughout the process.

SQA formally notified the Scottish Government of the final and published version of the Undertaking given by the SQA to Ofqual on 11 October 2024.

Discussions regarding the 2025-26 budget remain ongoing, and as such we are unable to provide any details regarding the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) or other regeneration capital funding programmes for 2025-26.

The Scottish Government is committed to evidence-based policy making. National Mission activity undertaken to date has been based on the evidence available and informed by people with lived and living experience, as well as the National Mission’s Clinical Advisory Group and National Mission Oversight Group.

For example, our approach to setting up the UK’s first Safer Drug Consumption Facility has been based on evidence from 300 existing safer drug consumption facilities already in operation around the world.

To ensure that our future strategic plans are evidence-based, they will be informed by the National Mission evaluation due to be published in 2026.

We will ensure that any new approaches to reducing deaths and harms is accompanied with evaluation as a matter of course, such as the Safer Drug Consumption Facility (The Thistle Service), which is due to open in the near future.

A full evaluation of the Thistle Service will be carried out, details of the evaluation package will be made available shortly but it will use a range of data to examine the impact of the facility on health, social, community, environmental, and economic outcomes.

IT system faults are unplanned events of a technical nature that result in an IT system that is required to operate the public charging network becoming inoperable or unable to work as intended. Downtime is a period of time when an affected IT system is inoperable or working sub-optimally due to a fault. This does not include planned downtime, for example, as part of routine systems maintenance.

IT system downtime does not necessarily mean that the charging infrastructure itself was affected or that drivers could not get the charge they needed. Most IT system faults that arise on the Charge Place Scotland network are resolved quickly and do not impact the majority of users.

Total Percentage ‘IT systems’ downtime:

• 2022: 3.5 hrs – 0.04% downtime = 99.96% uptime
• 2023: 13 hrs – 0.15% downtime = 99.85% uptime
• 2024: 53 hrs – 0.6% downtime = 99.4% uptime

Breakdown of ‘IT system’ faults over last 3 years:

• 2 December 2021 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – A data centre shut down for maintenance. This caused the system to go down for 1 hour but the system defaulted to ‘any card’ mode which allowed drivers to continue using the network with minimal impact.

• 26 January 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: Network wide outage caused by load balancing issues. Resulted in temporary communication issues between the network and the back office. Drivers still able to charge throughout this event.

• 13 May 2022 Downtime: Unavailable, but noted that fault arose on a Friday and was fully resolved by the Monday.

Systems affected: CPS website map. Status pins freezing and not updating.

• 26 May 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: reoccurrence of map app issue noted above

• 8 June 2022 Downtime: 1 day

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – data centre shut down for maintenance as before (Dec 2021).

• 1 and 2 August 2022 Downtime: Below 1 hour

Systems affected : Third party data centre issue caused back office and website interruptions around 11pm. The issue originating at a data centre in London and impacted multiple customers across the whole sector, not just CPS.

• 18 September 2022 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: eConnect issue – some drivers unable to start a charge with RFID cards. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 1 December 2022 Downtime : 2 hours 25 minutes

Systems affected: network issue resulting in the loss of RFID authentication for some drivers. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 14 December 2022 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: DNS Certificate not approved – affected access to web application and driver accounts. Fixed by renewing certificates.

• 20 January 2023 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: Network connectivity – Third party SIM card issue which affected multiple businesses/services not just the CPS network.

• 18 February 2023 Downtime: 07:13 – 09:15 – 2 hours

Systems affected: Live map/website certification affecting access.

Did not impact the network access in any way.

• 14 July 2023 Downtime: 6 hours 32 minutes

Systems affected: Software vulnerability resulting in the website being taken down until resolved. Network still fully functioned, no impact on driver experience.

• 26 September 2023 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Password reset for drivers on Econnect system. This resulted in high demand for access to the website. Development team placed the CPS website into ‘maintenance mode’ to allow them to investigate and implement a fix for the performance issue. No impact on charging sessions or connectivity between CPS & charge points

• 2 March 2024 to 12 March 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: webpage error relating to Google Maps. CPS live map not allowing a search of charge points to take place.

• 9 April 2024 – 14 April 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Server error caused by too many drivers logging into their account simultaneously to effect a change. Caused the server to run slowly or show an error message. Did not impact network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 3 May 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Customer billing system. Did not result in ‘downtime’, some customers issued invoices with errors due to systems fault.

• 8 May 2024 Downtime: 9 hours 14 minutes

Systems affected: Outage at a third party data centre. Temporarily affected information stored in the CPS customer database. Did not affect the operation of the charge point infrastructure itself and it did not prevent users from accessing the network using either their RFID or other payment methods.

• 26 June 2024 Downtime: 2– 3 hours

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system. Some drivers had issues starting and stopping sessions via the mobile app, although other access methods continued to work as normal.

• 30 June 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Econnect. Some drivers unable to access their online account but this would not stop them from starting or stopping a charge session via the app or RFID card.

• 12 July 2024 Downtime: 13 hours

Systems affected: Third party supplier server outage. Some drivers unable to start/stop a charge using the mobile app. Affected some RFIDs. Those drivers continued to access via webpay, contactless (where available) and by remote starts by the contact centre. Minimal impact on drivers ability to get a charge.

• 22 July 2024 Downtime: 15 minutes

Systems affected. Telephony. CPS staff unable to answer calls.

This did not impact the network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 10 & 11 August 2024 Downtime : 28 hours

Systems affected: network wide performance issue with intra-system communications dropping out unexpectedly, resulting in back office systems working at a reduced capacity.

The capital funding position remains challenging and infrastructure projects remain under review. The Scottish Government is assessing the full implications of the UK Autumn Budget and also await the outcome of the UK Government’s Spending Review in 2025. Full consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline.

We are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

The Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution, as a result of unprecedented economic pressures following the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Despite the financial constraints, the Scottish Government continues to focus on building a more inclusive Scotland for all, including investing in MND services and support that will help our communities during these difficult times.

The new Scottish Budget will be presented to Parliament on Wednesday 4 December 2024. This will detail Scottish Ministers' spend proposals for the year ahead. Funding for future years will be subject to the Scottish budget process, however the Scottish Government remains committed to supporting MND services across Scotland.

Across Scotland, safety cameras are deployed through the Scottish Safety Camera Programme primarily where they have the greatest potential to reduce injury collisions and where there is evidence of both collisions and speeding. This is in accordance with criteria contained in the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook. This can be viewed at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-safety-camera-programme-handbook/.

An annual site prioritisation process is undertaken each year to determine new safety camera sites across our road network and to maximise the casualty reduction potential of the Programme. This national exercise acts to ensure the right camera technology is in the right place at the right time. It involves a range of partners including the three regional safety camera units, all thirty-three road authorities and Police Scotland, and acts to identify potential new camera sites which meet the minimum criteria, while at the same time assessing the performance of existing enforcement strategies.

In 2019, the site at Cumbernauld Road, Riddrie was assessed to have good speed compliance and no evidence of injury collisions with speed as a causation. A decision was taken to make this site dormant through the process set out within the Handbook. This process allows for a thorough assessment of improvements in driver behaviour over a 3 year period. In 2022, a further assessment confirmed that there had been a sustained improvement in driver behaviours during the three year dormancy period and the decision was taken to remove the site from prioritised enforcement.

As part of the annual site selection process, if this location was identified again as meeting minimum site selection criteria to redeploy, this site would be considered for reinstatement.

The Government’s future legislative programmes will be announced in the relevant Programme for Government in the normal way.

The Scottish Government is committed to keep The Promise by 2030 and has recently set out further detail on activity underway in our Promise Implementation Plan Update 2024: Keeping The Promise to our children, young people and families: progress update 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This includes a continued commitment to introduce a Promise Bill by the end of this parliamentary session, dependent on wider pressures on the Parliamentary legislative calendar.

We are currently conducting a number of consultations which will inform the next steps on key areas and, where appropriate to inform The Promise Bill.

This includes the next stages of reform of the children’s hearing system; the future of foster care; the definition of care experience; and the support available to those moving on from care.

(a) The new parapets at Charing Cross have been increased in height from 1.1 metres to 1.5 metres, which is a 36% increase, to comply with the current national design standards that require a minimum of a 1.4 metre high parapets where routes can be used by cyclists. This was necessary due to the installation of the new cycle lanes around Charing Cross.

(b) The works were designed and constructed in collaboration with Glasgow City Council and their Phase 2 of Connecting Woodside Project. Parapets are galvanised to increase their resistance to corrosion, which is more durable than a painted finish. While the galvanising can be over-painted, the paint does not bond well and is more expensive. Over time, the galvanised finish will weather and be less obtrusive.

The Scottish Government intends to update the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967.

Given the previous consultation exercise took place in 2017-18, we must now consider the updated context that the regulations will exist in.

We are now taking this work forward and will re-consult on the Regulations in due course.