Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has met with several Local Authorities to discuss their delivery of Free School Meals during which views on being involved in any future pilot were sought. These meetings took place; on the following dates;

• Western Isles Council – 5 July 2023
• Inverclyde Council – 26 July 2023
• North Ayrshire Council – 9 August 2023
• COSLA – 16 August 2023
• Edinburgh City Council – 16 August 2023

Most recently, on 11 October 2023, ADES and COSLA were invited to ask members if they would be interested in taking part in the pilot of universal free school meals at secondary.

The Hydrogen Action Plan, published in December 2022, set out a clear commitment to support renewable hydrogen production.

In May 2023, a funding award totalling over £7 million to thirty-one projects via the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme was announced, which supports innovation in the production, storage, and integration of renewable hydrogen. Thirty of these projects are now underway.

The Energy Transition Fund and the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund were launched in June and September 2020 respectively.

The budget process is underway and we are prioritising programmes of work which have the greatest impact on the delivery of our three core missions of equality, opportunity, and community. We will set out our spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget on 19 December.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research and outputs from the relationships and behaviour summits, which will inform the actions that are included in the national action plan. This will include consideration of what further support local authorities may require. The national action plan will be developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools and we expect it to be published early in the new year.

Education Scotland have already published a suite of practical materials to support schools and authorities, developed with teachers, on areas such as expectations and consequences, available at: Promoting positive relationships and behaviour in educational settings | Resources | Education Scotland

Education Scotland engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders including teachers to develop the practical materials which form part of the behaviours and relationships theme of its professional learning framework. Engagement and evaluation with our teacher networks and partners as well as previous participants in Education Scotland’s professional learning programmes have shaped the current offer over a two to three year period. The resources will undergo further evaluation from now until March 2024.

Education Scotland will continue to develop practical materials to support teachers’ professional learning needs and practice, including those which form part of the behaviours and relationships theme of its professional learning framework. These resources have been developed using the core funding received from the Scottish Government for the functions of Education Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23491 on 19 December 2023. 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

An assessment of current and potential future impacts on Scotland’s native trees from the fungus Curreya pithyophila is ongoing.

In late 2022, reports were received of canker and crown dieback symptoms on Scots pine at various locations across Scotland. Subsequent investigations suggest this is likely to be caused by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, Curreya pithyophila , and an adelgid called pine woolly adelgid ( Pineus pini ). This association has been observed occasionally in the UK, continental Europe and north America since the 1800s.

In 2023, Scottish Forestry and Scotland’s Plant Health Centre commissioned Forest Research and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to investigate the causes and impacts of the current occurrences in Scotland.

Surveys were conducted over the summer to identify the distribution of the fungal-adelgid association and if factors such as climate or site type influence symptom severity. Samples were collected to understand the complex relationships between Curreya pithyophila , the pine woolly adelgid and secondary fungal pathogens and to understand if infection differs between provenances of Scots pine. The findings will be published next year.

An assessment of current and potential future impacts on Scotland’s native trees from the fungus Curreya pithyophila is ongoing.

In late 2022, reports were received of canker and crown dieback symptoms on Scots pine at various locations across Scotland. Subsequent investigations suggest this is likely to be caused by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, Curreya pithyophila , and an adelgid called pine woolly adelgid ( Pineus pini ). This association has been observed occasionally in the UK, continental Europe and north America since the 1800s.

In 2023, Scottish Forestry and Scotland’s Plant Health Centre commissioned Forest Research and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to investigate the causes and impacts of the current occurrences in Scotland.

Surveys were conducted over the summer to identify the distribution of the fungal-adelgid association and if factors such as climate or site type influence symptom severity. Samples were collected to understand the complex relationships between Curreya pithyophila , the pine woolly adelgid and secondary fungal pathogens and to understand if infection differs between provenances of Scots pine. The findings will be published next year.

To support future planning decisions, we accepted the review’s recommendation to develop an indicative capacity cap. It is important that any indicative cap is as robust as possible and developing such a cap is a significant piece of work.

For that reason, we are undertaking work to improve the quality of data on waste to support the development of an indicative cap. This includes, working with other governments of the UK to implement mandatory Digital Waste Tracking from April 2025, which will provide a step-change in the quality of Scottish waste data, and engaging with partners, including ZWS and SEPA, to draw together key waste composition, carbon and environmental impact data insights. In addition, the Strategic Research Programme 2022 to 2027, Theme C: Human Impacts on the Environment includes work on the circular economy. As part of this, a mapping exercise of the waste flows in Scotland is being undertaken by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Together, these initiatives will provide invaluable data to support the accurate forecasting of Scotland’s waste infrastructure needs and the development of an indicative cap.

Further information on these developments can be found here:

Digital Waste Tracking Consultation Response.

Outcome of the Household Waste Composition Analysis.

Information on the Strategic Research Programme 2022 to 2027.

Our draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map, due for publication shortly, will set out further detail and associated timescales on the steps we will take to minimise the environmental and climate impacts of waste, including the development of an indicative capacity cap.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23717 on 19 December 2023. 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 .