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The proposed changes to religious observance (RO) and religious and moral education (RME) in schools will bring legislation into line with existing RO guidance on taking the child’s views into account when their parent/carer exercises their right to withdraw the child from RO and RME.

The Scottish Government has noted the recommendations from the concluding observations of the periodic reports of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. We are confident that our proposal to amend the legislation on RO and RME in schools is in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and will strengthen our commitment to upholding children’s rights in all aspects of their lives, including education.

The Scottish Government have consulted with a wide range of stakeholders on changes to legislation on religious observance (RO) and religious and moral education (RME) in schools, and the public consultation has now closed.

The government will consider all responses to the consultation and publish a consultation analysis report before the end of the academic year.

It remains the Scottish Government’s intention to shortly bring forward a narrowly focussed Bill, with the purpose of amending the current legislation to require that pupils’ views are considered when parents or carers are exercising their right to withdraw their child from RO and RME.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36103 on 15 April 2025. 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 average time for applicants to receive a transcript under the pilot scheme has been seven months, however this does not reflect the length of time that all applicants have waited. The timeline varies across applications, influenced by several factors including the success of the pilot receiving a high number of requests, the volume of transcription work for live court proceedings, the length of the transcript requested, and the amount of redaction required.

SCTS are reviewing current processes and procedures with the aim of reducing the time taken to provide transcripts and to ensure the most efficient and effective service delivery.

The pilot, facilitated by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), has received more than 80 applications up until the start of February this year. We are working closely with SCTS to address the issues that have been raised in a minority of these applications, including how we ensure applicants are kept fully informed of progress in producing their transcript and how that process could be quicker.

The extension of the current pilot for a further twelve months will enable lessons to be learnt as part of the wider evaluation of the programme, so it can achieve its aim of helping improve victims’ experience of the justice system. This includes the potential opportunity to develop and test emerging technology that may assist in producing transcripts and a better understanding of the most efficient and effective operation of servicing applications.

As part of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill I am also exploring how greater access to free transcripts can be provided in the future.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) may be issued by either criminal or civil courts in Scotland. ASBOs do not carry a custodial sentence and a civil court cannot impose a custodial sentence. A criminal court may only impose a custodial sentence where a separate case is brought for a breach of an ASBO which results in a conviction.

Between January 2024 and September 2024, 71 charges prosecuted in Scottish criminal courts receiving a disposal of an ASBO.

Between January 2024 and December 2024, 76 Civil ASBOs were granted in Scottish sheriff courts.

It is not possible to identify how many of these ASBOs have been breached and resulted in imprisonment. The data that the Scottish Government holds does not allow linkage of a specific ASBO, whether civil or criminal, with a criminal charge of breach of ASBO and therefore a conviction resulting in a custodial sentence cannot be identified. Furthermore, any potential breach of a specific ASBO listed above may not yet have occurred, or if it has occurred, its’ associated case may not yet have been disposed in court.

As protected by section 48(5) of the Scotland Act 1998, the Law Officers operate entirely independently of any other person as they undertake their prosecutorial and investigation of deaths functions. The Lord Advocate is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for prosecutions and the investigation of deaths (but may decline to answer questions which might prejudice criminal proceedings or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest under section 27(3) of the Scotland Act).

The recommendations in FAI determinations cover a wide variety of policy areas. Each area will consider what action to take in relation to each recommendation that is relevant to its own area of responsibility.

No.

Latest data from the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey shows that, in 2022, Scotland’s nuclear power sector directly employed 2,700 (full-time equivalent) and had an estimated turnover of £763 million.

A five-year time series – of employment and turnover in the nuclear power sector - from 2018 to 2022, is presented in the following tables.

The results in LCREE are survey-based, as the data is gathered from a sample rather than the whole population. The estimates are therefore subject to uncertainty, and the level of uncertainty is expressed through confidence intervals. These are presented alongside the estimates in the following tables.