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Pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water as the employer and the Trade Unions. They remain underway, with progress being made.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22482 on‎ 24 November 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

The Scottish Government have agreed the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) budget for 23/24 and SDS have completed contract awards to support up to 25,500 new Modern Apprentice (MA) starts in 23/24. This may include MAs in traditional craft occupations subject to the demand.

Pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water as the employer and the Trade Unions. They remain underway, with progress being made.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 prohibits pavement parking, double parking and parking at dropped kerbs, and gives local authorities the relevant powers to enforce these new provisions. To support these provisions, a suite of regulations is required to bring the new legislation into force.

The first of these regulations regarding the Exemption Order Procedures that local authorities must follow, was laid in Parliament in December 2022. The second set of regulations which will help define how a local authority can issue a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) to someone found to be in contravention of the new national prohibitions are currently laying in Parliament and are due to come into force on 11 December 2023, if approved.

As such no PCNs for the new parking prohibitions have as yet been issued as the regulatory procedures have not been in place.

The SPCB takes very seriously its responsibility for the wellbeing of its staff.  That’s why it approved a Positive About Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy which applies to MSPs, their staff and SPCB staff.  In support of this policy the SPCB has put in place a number of measures including our Employee Assistance Programme and online resources, self-assessment tools and intranet links to external resources.  Our People and Culture team support MSPs, their staff and SPCB staff to access the help that they need, when they need it.

The SPCB provides a free school engagement programme.

Our Education Services staff deliver sessions and tours at the Parliament, online, and visit schools across Scotland.

Digital and outreach education sessions are popular and especially appreciated by those who don’t want to travel to Edinburgh or who find coming to Edinburgh to be too challenging.

Last school year, we reached schools in 69 out of 73 constituencies, and we are continuing work to grow our engagement with schools.

In June, the SPCB commissioned a review into how best to deliver our education services in the most effective and inclusive way post Covid.

As part of this review, our education team is engaging with schools from across Scotland to fully understand their barriers to accessing our services.

Evaluations from the last school year show that the barriers include cost but also things like time and staff availability.

The SPCB will consider the matter again early in 2024.

The Parliament’s Energy Performance Certificate was last updated in 2019 and is renewed every 10 years. The Energy Performance Certificate is displayed at the Visitors Desk and is available on the Parliament’s website. The Parliament achieved a C rating which is a good score but leaves room for improvement. Measures are being adopted to improve the energy efficiency of the building as part of the Carbon Management Plan.

As part of the annual budget cycle, the SPCB considers the indexation for uprating of all provisions, including staff cost provision. The index to be applied is a matter for SPCB judgement rather than automatic application and will be confirmed when the SPCB submits its budget for consideration to the Finance and Public Administration Committee in the coming weeks.

To enable all Members to take part in events and recognising that parliamentary business needs to take precedence, events do not take place at the same time as parliamentary business in the chamber.

However, the SPCB recognises that events involve a great deal of advance planning and that individuals may travel some distance and give up their time to be able to attend.

So when business runs late, parliamentary officials will work with the event organisers to ensure refreshments are served to event guests and they can go to the room where the event is taking place and meet with Members, where possible.  However, speeches should only take place once parliamentary business is concluded so all Members have the opportunity to hear them.

This pragmatic approach appears to be working but we continually keep this under review.