Seòmar agus comataidhean

Enforcement measures are an operational matter for the British Transport Scotland police. British Transport Police regularly attend rail project meetings and provide expert advice as necessary.

In June, I launched a public consultation on proposals to simplify the post-school funding body landscape. With thanks to all those who submitted responses I have now considered the evidence both from the consultation, and from an Outline Business Case analysing the three options.

I can confirm that a decision has been made to proceed with the proposal to consolidate all post-school provision funding within the Scottish Funding Council and all student support funding within the Student Awards Agency Scotland. I look forward to working with stakeholders to help realise these changes which I am confident will facilitate significant benefits for the post-school system, and importantly for learners and employers.

I will update the Parliament on plans for the Bill announced in Programme for Government 2024-25 in due course.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) does not hold a formal economic impact assessment relating to building its own facilities for processing venison. FLS experience of deer management over many decades, and working with professional meat processing business around Scotland, has provided a well-informed understanding of the significant specialist infrastructure costs, practicalities and ongoing running costs for such facilities. FLS is keen to meet with any stakeholders that wish to contact them to explore any new ideas and viable models for processing venison as part of Scotland’s high quality food and drink sector.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Grampian directly for information.

The Scottish Government published the National Improvement Framework (NIF) for Scottish education in December 2024. The 2025 NIF has been streamlined and refreshed to include a long-term strategy for improvement which will provide clarity and focus to our work on improving standards in Scottish education.

Given the impact of COVID-19 and the financial pressures on schools as a result of austerity, the NIF highlights that the short term focus (this year and for the remainder of this parliamentary term) will be improving the ABC - attendance, achievement, behaviour and the curriculum in schools - to boost standards.

The draft Scottish budget 2025-26 provides £186.5m to local authorities to help protect teacher numbers, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. The budget also sets out an additional £29 million of investment for Additional Support Needs (ASN). This will include an allocation for local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce. The Scottish budget 2025-26 is subject to parliamentary approval in February.

In addition, we have included 7 key outcomes that we expect to achieve to deliver excellence and equity for all of our children and young people. In order to deliver these outcomes, the 2025 NIF sets out the joint responsibility of Ministers and local authorities for education and the requirement for national and local government to work together, with a collective responsibility to improve educational outcomes.

The 2025 Improvement Plan, which accompanies the NIF, will be published later in January. It will set out the full details of the actions that will be taken to deliver the key outcomes, the evidence to support them, and how we will measure progress against them.

The following improvements have been made to laybys adjacent to the A90 carriageway to improve the trunk road network in the last five years:

2020-21

A90 Glamis SB Layby 0309 – Concrete Plinth for HGVS

A90 South Tarbrax SB Layby 0309 Concrete Plinth for HGVs

A90 Layby improvement scheme which included resurfacing and vehicle deterrent on entry and exit tapers at -

Evaluation is essential to the work of Transport Scotland to assess whether policies and interventions are being delivered as intended, and to help identify ways to improve them.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33099 on 22 January 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

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33057 on 22 January 2025.

The Scottish Government has not conducted analysis of spectrum allocation on the development of digital infrastructure at any specific geographic level in Scotland.

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

Incidents relating to unexploded wartime military ordnance are Police operational matters. Unless unexploded ordnance causes a civil contingencies emergency in Scotland that requires co-ordination on a national level, such incidents are not handled through any Scottish or UK Government mechanisms. In the highly unlikely event of this threshold being met, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) would activate to co-ordinate the Scottish Government’s response to the incident, including by liaising closely with Police Scotland, the Ministry of Defence, and other agencies relevant to the response.