Seòmar agus comataidhean

The legal and commercial arrangements for the Ardrossan project continue to be discussed between the project partners; Transport Scotland, Peel Ports Groups and North Ayrshire Council. The partners will provide an update at the next Ardrossan Task Force meeting on 24 January 2023

The Scottish Government welcomed the Commissioner’s progress report in May. The Scottish Government published its Improvement Plan 2022-23 in July setting out the actions we are taking to address each of the areas where the Commissioner identified a need for further improvement – including in relation to records management in request handling. The Government continues to work on standardising its records management practice and engagement with all staff is ongoing to ensure compliance with appropriate legislation and guidance.

Conditions may be attached to planning permissions for wind farm developments which “require wind turbines to be constructed and operated in accordance with the approved details and maintained in the approved colour, free from external rust, staining or discolouration, until such time as the wind farm is decommissioned”.

The Scottish Government does not monitor or enforce conditions attached to planning permissions, and therefore has not issued any fines relating to the failure to maintain wind turbines. It is the relevant local planning authorities who monitor and enforce development and operational controls imposed through conditions, and who can take enforcement action up to and including requiring removal of the turbine, as well as referring matters to the Procurator Fiscal to consider prosecution.

The Scottish Government recognises that, despite declining cash usage across the country, any reduction in a local area’s ATMs will add to the uncertainty that a community faces on their ability to easily access cash and other banking services.

Whilst the Scottish Government hasn’t undertaken specific economic analysis of declining ATM’s in Lanarkshire, we have, with the limited powers available, delivered reliefs for ATM sites in Scotland to improve their commercial viability. This includes ensuring sites in rural areas are exempt from business rates where the building is used only for the ATM and, more widely, there is 100% rates relief available to ATM sites through the Small Business Bonus Scheme. Ultimately, however, the regulation of financial services is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers cannot intervene in the commercial decisions made by financial services firms to remove ATM’s.

We welcome the provisions around protecting access to cash in the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduced to the UK Parliament this year and we support industry initiatives, including the work of the Post Office and UK Finance’s Cash Action Group, that are aimed at improving access to cash across the country. Through the industries work, local communities can now apply to have their cash access independently reviewed and have new ATMs, or other services, installed should the current cash access be deemed poor. My officials will provide further detail to your office on how communities in your region can apply for these reviews.

The Scottish Government will continue to work constructively with the UK Government on ensuring access to cash is protected for those who need it in Scotland and, through our regular engagement with the financial services industry, we will urge banks and ATM providers to listen to, and address, the very real concerns customers have on accessing cash in their local communities.

All children and young people should receive the support they need to reach their full potential.

Education authorities are legally responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils, including any additional support needs of pupils receiving Gaelic-medium education. The Scottish Government has supported education authorities in the delivery of these duties through the preparation and publication of statutory guidance.

We are also working closely with local government partners, through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board , to ensure we continue to see progress with the delivery of the recommendations from the 2020 additional support for learning review. In November 2022, we published an updated action plan and progress report to further support improvement in the implementation of additional support for learning, including within Gaelic-medium education.

The Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer was a partnership arrangement between Bòrd na Gidhlig and Community Land Scotland and any funding is a matter for their decision-making processes.

Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer post was a pilot project that was run in partnership between Bòrd na Gidhlig and Community Land Scotland . This project is now being evaluated and the report is expected in February 2023. This evaluation report will help inform future funding initiatives in our Gaidhlig communities.

The Water Framework Directive does not currently include the requirement for the monitoring and assessment of microplastic pollution and specifically Bisphenol A in the water environment.

However, the Scottish Government continues to support active research under the current RESAS Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027 , and the Centre of Expertise on Water. Current plans include work which will further develop the understanding of sources and levels of emerging contaminants, including microplastics, in Scotland’s freshwaters and river sediments and recommend priorities and strategic approaches for future monitoring in Scotland.

As per the answer to S6W-12989 on 22 December 2022, it is the responsibility of the wind farm operator to properly maintain their wind turbines, in accordance with their planning permission and any conditions imposed. The Scottish Government is not responsible for taking action in this area.

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

The groups and sub-groups named in response to S6W-12330 that have an allocated budget are:

• Scottish Cities Alliance Leadership Group - £196,000 per annum (this is the Scottish Government’s portion of the funding for the Scottish Cities Alliance)
• Scottish City Region and Growth Deal Delivery Board - £261m for 2022-23
• Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services - £300,000 per annum for three years (2021-24)

Further to this, as indicated in the response to S6W-13018 on 22 December 2022, some further groups have been identified following the response to S6W-12330. Of these additional groups, one has an allocated budget:

• Fair Work Convention - £500,000 per annum (the Fair Work Convention are independent, but secretariat support is provided by the Scottish Government)

The other groups and sub-groups named in the previous response do not have allocated budgets. Any incidental costs associated with the running of these groups are covered by the relevant departments’ budgets.

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 .