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The purpose of the meeting on 26 February 2025 was to update myself and the Minister for Climate Action on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the reform options being considered by UK Government, and the potential impact of those options for Scotland.

The briefing paper for this meeting, and list of attendees, including ministers, have already been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). It is standard procedure for names of officials to be redacted in all FOIs under Section 38(1)(b), due to protections around the sharing of Third Party Data, whereby personal data is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR and in section 34(1) of the DPA 2018.

Upon review of the FOI, section 29(1)(a) was not cited as a redaction used. Information has been redacted under 30(b)(i), however, was redacted due to it relating to the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching a settled public position.

In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded.

The Scottish Government endeavours to provide information in response to requests wherever possible. The provisions of section 29(1)(a) (formulation or development of government policy) or other exemptions under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) should only be applied in order to withhold information where necessary, in the public interest.

Anyone who has made a request for information has the right to ask the Scottish Government to carry out a review if they have concerns about the handling of their request. The Scottish Government has a statutory obligation to carry out such a review and provide a further response to the requester within 20 working days. The review will be carried out by a Scottish Government official who was not involved in the decision-making process for the original request, and who can therefore consider afresh any matters of concern raised by the requester - including whether exemptions from disclosure have been appropriately applied. Following the review, the requester has the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision on their request, if they remain dissatisfied.

Outside of the statutory process for individual reviews described above, there is no requirement for the Scottish Government to proactively revisit FOI responses previously issued to see if the sensitivity of information has changed over time in a way which would mean exemptions no longer apply. As the Scottish Government responds to over 5,000 requests per year, it would be impractical to do so.

However, the Scottish Government is also committed to making information about all areas of its work proactively available, for example through its frequent planned publications on the Scottish Government website.

The most recent budget forecast of £261.1 million for the Baird and ANCHOR project remains under pressure until design changes and completion strategies for both buildings are addressed. A full update on project costs is expected by late summer pending the scope of work being developed and agreed.

An important part of any large capital project, is the ongoing testing and refinement of the design. This process is informed by a range of internal and external experts and subject to independent review led by NHS Scotland Assure, and is intended to provide assurance of compliance with the most up to date standards and also that learning from recent large projects is incorporated appropriately.

Decisions on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) are reserved to the UK Government. The UK Government has published impact assessments and is updating its analysis ahead of a final decision this summer. We are awaiting sight of this updated modelling.

In addition, a range of impact assessments have been carried out by consultancies and industry bodies.

We met with researchers, industry and consumer organisations – as well as international electricity market experts – in December 2024 to consider the evidence and have engaged extensively with stakeholders over the past two years to understand all impacts.

This is a complex area and the Scottish Government is clear that UK Government reforms must reduce costs for Scottish consumers, ensure Scotland’s communities feel the benefit of the energy transition and protect investment in our renewables industry and supporting decarbonisation.

Figures representing all rail expenditure for the years 2021-22 to 2023-24 can be found in Transport Scotland accounts:

Year 2022-23: Annual Accounts | Transport Scotland

Year 2023-24: Annual Accounts | Transport Scotland

The budget figures for the current and previous financial years are available at: Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot.

There is no mechanism that exists currently for the Scottish Government to collect data centrally on the provision of CPR training in schools.

As a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland partnership, we continue to work closely with local authorities and schools to ensure that all school aged children in Scotland will be given the opportunity to be equipped with CPR skills.

The purpose of the meeting on 26 February 2025 was to update myself and the Minister for Climate Action on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the reform options being considered by UK Government, and the potential impact of those options for Scotland.

The briefing paper for this meeting, and list of attendees, including ministers, have already been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). It is standard procedure for names of officials to be redacted in all FOIs under Section 38(1)(b), due to protections around the sharing of Third Party Data, whereby personal data is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR and in section 34(1) of the DPA 2018.

Upon review of the FOI, section 29(1)(a) was not cited as a redaction used. Information has been redacted under 30(b)(i), however, was redacted due to it relating to the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching a settled public position.

In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded.

The Scottish Government has committed through its 2024 Programme for Government to review the way the culture sector is supported. This ongoing culture sector support programme will, amongst other things, explore alternative and additional funding mechanisms to grow the overall funding pot for culture in Scotland. A Percentage for the Arts scheme is one of the mechanisms that will be considered as part of this programme.

We have had extensive engagement with stakeholders to ensure we understand all perspectives in this debate and represent this in our engagement with the UK Government. The Scottish Government has not had specific discussions with Ofgem on the interaction between zonal pricing and transmission network use-of-system charges. Officials have been, and will continue to, work with UK Government, Ofgem and other industry stakeholders to ensure we fully consider the impacts of potential market reforms.

Enforcement of the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (Scotland) Order 2007, which is the legislation under which the requirement for bird keepers in Scotland to notify the Scottish Ministers (in writing) in relation to the premises where birds are kept, was extended from those with 50 or more birds to all bird keepers from 1 September 2024. Enforcement is the responsibility of Scotland’s Local Authorities. The measures were enforceable from 1 December 2024. The principal aims of the introduction of the Scottish Kept Bird Register was to communicate risk and best practice to Scotland’s bird keepers, whilst allowing for more efficient and effective surveillance during disease outbreak periods, thereby promoting animal welfare and public health.

This information was previously not available to government and so compliance figures cannot be ascertained by way of a comparison with an established baseline of kept bird numbers, established before the register was extended.

However, prior to the extension of the register to include all keepers, an extrapolation was made from surveillance figures for kept birds, gleaned in previous outbreak periods, and current bird registration numbers are broadly in comparison to these initial estimated number of keepers.

Compliance will continue to be assessed over time as local authority activities disclose non-compliance within their council areas and government communication campaigns encourage those still unaware of their legal requirements in this respect to register their birds.