Seòmar agus comataidhean

The proposed reforms will make pre-application consultation for electricity infrastructure projects a statutory requirement and also introduce an Acceptance Stage when Scottish Ministers can decline to accept applications which have not fulfilled the necessary requirements. These reforms will reduce timescales for processing applications and increase local input into project proposals.

The Scottish Government will publish detailed guidance on the Acceptance Stage and what happens if the relevant planning authority objects or if an application is not accepted.

The proposed reforms will apply to applications for consent under section 36 and section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 made to Scottish Ministers. Section 36 applications made to Scottish Ministers have a capacity of over 50MW. Therefore, it is not anticipated that the reforms to introduce new fees for pre-application functions will reduce application numbers.

The proposed reforms will make pre-application consultation for electricity infrastructure projects a statutory requirement. This will increase opportunities for meaningful community input.

Information is not held centrally. Students apply directly to colleges, as such only colleges would hold this information.

We want patients to be treated as soon as possible. However, we know many are facing unacceptable waits and we are determined to do more. That is why we are targeting an additional £200 million to reduce waits and enhance capacity. We are also looking to optimise the full force of the £21.7 billion committed through the Scottish Budget to health and social care to improve performance.

The most recement statistics show that over the 12 months to December 2024, inpatient and day-case activity was over 256,000 (256,209); 7.4% (17,644) more than previous 12 months, demonstrating our plan to improvement in inpatient / day-case waiting times performance is delivering.

The Scottish Government has set out instructions for developers to follow regarding pre-application consultation in our Good Practice Guidance document, which is available online, alongside other guidance documents: https://www.gov.scot/policies/energy-infrastructure/energy-consents/.

In addition, the Scottish Government have been working with the UK Government on strengthening community consultation for electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The proposed reforms will make pre-application consultation for electricity infrastructure projects a statutory requirement. It will also introduce an Acceptance Stage where Scottish Ministers can decline to accept applications which have not fulfilled the necessary requirements, thereby increasing local input into project proposals.

We are committed to co-developing and co-designing our agricultural policies with industry and rural partners.

The Scottish Government continue to urge all retailers and their staff to keep reporting crimes. While it might feel like some minor incidents aren’t worth it, or individual retailers may feel like the police won’t be able to do anything, each crime report aids our collective understanding of who is doing this and why. Local officers may also well have intelligence they can use to catch the perpetrators.

Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

• Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
• Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
• Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
• Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.

Determinations, recommendations and the response(s) to those recommendations from the body at which they were aimed are published on the website of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and are publicly available. The Scottish Government expects that the individual policy area or public body at which the recommendations were aimed would take action in light of any repeated recommendations.

I was pleased to welcome the launch of Police Scotland’s plans to tackle retail crime last month, which is being funded by an additional £3 million from the Scottish Government.

I hope to see these plans make a difference to the rates of shoplifting Scotland has seen in recent months, and we will continue to liaise closely with Police Scotland as their planned actions are rolled out.

We have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has initiated planning for the next Scottish Spending Review, that will identify opportunities to optimise the use of Scottish Government funding over the longer term.

The conclusion of the UK Government’s 2025 spending review will provide key funding information to underpin the Scottish Government’s own multi-year spending review. Provision of funding in future years will also be part of discussions with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to understand the budget requirement to deliver their three-year business plan.