Seòmar agus comataidhean

The information requested is not held centrally. Pupil Equity Funding empowers headteachers, who know their children best, to provide targeted additional support for children and young people impacted by poverty to achieve their full potential, focusing on targeted improvement activity in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. As set out in the refreshed 2023 National PEF Operational Guidance, intended to help schools plan how they will most effectively and fully invest their Pupil Equity Funding to improve the educational outcomes of children affected by poverty, schools are expected to incorporate details of their Pupil Equity Funding plans and explicitly report on the impact on outcomes for learners impacted by poverty. This should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20954 on 19 September 2023.

Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is owned by many different executive agencies and other public bodies (such as SEPA) which are funded by the Scottish Government, as well as a small proportion owned by the Scottish Government directly. Each individual organisation is responsible for managing their own charge point assets and for making decisions about whether they should be designated for staff, visitors and/or fleet vehicle usage or for general public access. Not all charge point sites are suitable for general public access, for example those in secure staff car parks or in fleet vehicle depots.

There are no plans to centralise the management of EV charging infrastructure across all Scottish Government agencies or public bodies.

Since 2011, the Scottish Government has provided £65 million to support the installation of over 2,600 public charge points across Scotland, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive public EV charging networks in the UK. The Scottish Government’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to provide a further £60 million of public and private sector investment to increase the number of public charge points to 6,000 by 2026.

My thoughts are with the family and friends of the individual, who tragically died in September 2018 at Saughton Mains and it is regrettable that Edinburgh Trams Ltd have been found to have breached health and safety legislation through failures to properly assess risk to pedestrians at this location. Health and safety legislation is a reserved matter.

The Scottish Government have had no discussions with Edinburgh Trams Ltd following this ruling.

The numbers of accused prosecuted and convicted under the new Protection of Retail Workers (Scotland) Act, which came into force in August 2021, will be available when the Criminal Proceedings National Statistics is published on the 24 th of October 2023. These statistics will cover the period up to March 2022.

Although the information about accused prosecuted and convicted under the new Act is not available yet, data about the number of charges resulting in a conviction has been extracted from the management information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard ).

The number of charges under the new Protection of Retail Workers (Scotland) Act that have received a conviction in criminal court from August 2021 up to March 2023 was 543.

No primary care projects previously committed to by the Scottish Government have been cancelled or delayed in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on the percentage of anticipated community benefit payments made to communities from renewable energy projects, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government’s Register of Community Benefit, administered by Local Energy Scotland, shows commitments from operational renewable energy projects and can be accessed here: https://localenergy.scot/community-benefits-register/

The Register relies on developers and communities voluntarily submitting data. It is not exhaustive and does not provide a full picture of community benefit payments across Scotland. The Register should therefore be seen as a guide to community benefit provisions across Scotland.

The Register of Community Benefit, administered by Local Energy Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, indicates that, since 2010, over £198 million in community benefit from onshore renewable projects has been committed to communities, including over £25 million in the 12 months. The register can be accessed here: https://localenergy.scot/community-benefits-register/ .

The Register relies on developers and communities voluntarily submitting data. It is not exhaustive and does not provide a full picture of community benefit payments across Scotland. The Register should therefore be seen as a guide to community benefit provisions across Scotland.

I can confirm that officials from the Building Standards Division met with the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) regarding Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in public buildings on 5 September 2023, and again on 12 September 2023. IStructE presented information at the RAAC cross-sector working group meeting of 27 September. Prior to those meetings, engagement with IStructE was on structural matters in general, including the certification scheme operated through our building standards system.

While the Scottish Government is not required to publish minutes of informal meetings with stakeholders, on this occasion a copy of the notes of these meetings have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) under BIB number 64548. The minutes of RAAC cross-sector working groups will be published at Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15474 on 10 March 2023 .