Seòmar agus comataidhean

Of the 95 staff currently employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner:

a) 41% are former police officers, from Police Scotland or the Scottish legacy police forces.

b) 4% were previously employed by the Royal Military Police.

c) 2% were previously employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

There are multiple existing Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship frameworks that include software design and IT Management which are utilised by the gaming industry. The frameworks are flexible with varying pathways and are adaptable to any industry that designs software.

Special medicines or ‘specials’ refer to unlicensed medicinal products that should only be supplied to meet the special clinical needs of an individual patient. An unlicensed medicinal product should not be supplied where an equivalent licensed medicinal product is available. Responsibility for deciding whether an individual patient has “special needs” which a licensed product cannot meet is a matter for the prescribing clinician responsible for their care. Examples of “special needs” include an intolerance or allergy to a particular ingredient, or an inability to ingest solid oral dosage forms. These examples are not exhaustive.

The Scottish Government has no role in designating ‘specials’. Regulation for the licensing, quality safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The Scottish Government expects the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to support fair work practices, and to monitor adherence across the college sector.

As recipients of SFC funding, in line with Scottish Government Fair Work First guidance - reflected in the 2024-25 Ministerial letter of guidance to SFC, colleges must be committed to fair work practices for staff engaged in the delivery of activity associated with public funds. Inclusion of information on compliance with Fair Work First is a requirement of the accounts directions for universities and colleges and SFC encourages institutions to be fulsome in their disclosures. Where there are institutions that do not currently meet requirements around disclosure of this activity, SFC will engage with institutions with a view to ensuring that they do so in their future annual report and accounts.

I also wrote directly to College Principals on 7 June 2023 to re-state this Government’s continued commitment to Fair Work principles. I expect both employers and trade unions to work together to ensure that the Fair Work principles are adhered to across the college sector and that staff are treated fairly.

We are also making progress with the addition of trade union nominees to the college boards to further improve governance and management and to ensure effective employee voice as one of the key principles of Fair Work.

In my appearance on 10 January 2024 at the Education, Children and Young People Committee I undertook to provide further information on the progress of post-school education and skills reform in March. On 27 March 2024 I wrote to the Convenor of the Committee with this update on the key areas of action .

Our plans for post-school education and skills reform have been developed in the light of James Withers’ report Fit for the Future: developing a post-school learning system to fuel economic transformation, and the Scottish Government’s own report of the Purpose and Principles for post-school education, research and skills .

I will continue to engage with partners across the sector and employers, and to update the Parliament.

Private rented homes have a poorer standard of energy efficiency and the tenants who live there are usually unable to make improvements. That’s why our consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill asked for views on private rented homes reaching a good standard of energy efficiency before the end of 2028.

Our Private Rented Sector (PRS) Landlord Loan Scheme – launched in April 2020 – offers landlords interest free or low interest loan funding to support the installation of energy efficiency, clean heating and renewable systems. The scheme offers funding of up to £38,500 per property, including £15,000 for energy efficiency measures, £17,500 for the installation of clean heating and renewable systems, and up to £6,000 for the installation of energy storage systems.

The main aim of our Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) when introduced ten years ago was to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty. The sector also has a role in achieving our climate change targets which require net zero heat in buildings by 2045. This is why we have recently consulted on proposals to establish a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard.

We are making £200 million available up to 2026 to support the installation of zero direct emissions heating systems and energy efficiency measures across the social housing stock.

Recent reforms to Scotland’s planning system are focused on facilitating delivery of high quality development, where and when it is needed. New legislation being implemented through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) is ensuring decisions can be taken about future developments with greater certainty and efficiency. Policy 16 in NPF4 is a distinct, new approach to planning for homes that emphasises delivery and the plan-led approach. We are now taking forward a range of further measures to continue to progress this programme of planning reform.

Our current consultation on ‘Investing in Planning’ includes a range of proposals to support improvement and capacity in planning services, particularly in planning authorities. Our proposals aim to benefit users of the planning system by improving capacity to help reduce decision timescales and improve service quality.

We are also currently consulting on draft regulations relating to the designation of Masterplan Consent Areas, which will be a new upfront consenting mechanism for development proposals, and can include housing, removing the need for planning and other consent applications once a scheme for the area as a whole has been agreed. Once in place, Masterplan Consent Areas have significant potential to give much earlier, and greater, certainty to prospective developers.

A total of 101 applications have been made to date, including 2 for the same project, 1 of which was subsequently withdrawn. From those applications 49 loan offers have been made and accepted, with a total value of £7,389,567. This sum is higher than the value of the Fund due to its recyclable nature, whereby repaid loans can be re-used to fund more self-build projects during the life of the Fund.

At present, there are no plans to increase the value of the Self-Build Loan Fund (“the Fund”). The Fund is demand led, but currently has sufficient uncommitted funding to meet potential demand. The funding is also recyclable, meaning that repaid loans can be re-used to fund more self-build projects during the life of the Fund.

We will shortly be publishing an initial delivery plan for work being taken forward under the Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme. The plan will set out a range of actions that are either underway or planned in the period up to April 2025, against the priorities identified under the Programme. One of the priorities, as noted in our initial response to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review, is to consider Mental Health Law reform.