Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Following discussions with Historic Environment Scotland (HES), SPS has been granted an extension to the HMP Barlinnie public consultation on the proposed listing of buildings.

The extension has been extended until 31 May 2025 to allow SPS to fully consider the extent of the listing and accurately comment on all aspects that are material to the HES decision making process.

HES supported the request and indicated that an extension such as this is normal when considering complex cases such as HMP Barlinnie.

The delivery of domestic launch capability would close the last link in the end-to-end space value chain. This would allow the manufacture, launch and exploitation of small satellite data all to take place in Scotland and give the sector a unique offering to the global market.

This is something long recognised by the Scottish Government and is why we worked in collaboration with industry and academia to develop the jointly owned “A Strategy for Space in Scotland”. Published in 2021, this document sets out the ambitions for the sector regarding delivery of launch capability and facilitating wider growth of the Scottish space eco-system.

Comparing the figures published in Local Government Finance Circular 2/2013 with those in Local Government Finance Circular 1/2025, the total Local Government finance settlement has increased by over £5 billion or 49.7% since 2013-14, that’s a real terms increase of 8.4%.

As set out in the response to question S6W-34780, increasing the rate of the Additional Dwelling Supplement is intended to support increased opportunities for first-time buyers and home movers while raising vital additional revenue to support public services. This takes account of the latest Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and its assumptions regarding the behavioural effects of the rate increase.

The programme to devolve social security powers sits within DG Communities and accounts for the majority of its contingent worker headcount. This programme employs both directly employed and contingent workers to ensure it has the right blend of skills and experience to deliver ministerial commitments on social security at any one time. In addition, using contingent workers means headcount is increased on a temporary basis when the work of the programme has been at its greatest and allows resources, and therefore costs, to be quickly and easily reduced as the programme moves towards closure. This is why the figures for contingent workers have increased in the period identified (which correlates with the run up to and delivery of the bulk of the devolved benefits, including disability benefits for both children and adults) and now show a significant decline, given the programme comes to an end in the next financial year.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

The current position for the delivery of remediable service statements to retired police officers is set out in the Scottish Public Pension Agency’s website: https://pensions.gov.scot/police/police-remedy-hub/police-remedy-im-retired

SPPA will keep retired officers informed through updates to its website and with a dedicated newsletter which is due to be issued by the end of March 2025.

The Scottish Government is taking action to create jobs and boost employability in our coalfields communities. We are investing over £900 million in Growth Deals for Ayrshire, Glasgow (including North and South Lanarkshire), and Edinburgh and South East Scotland which includes Fife. This funding is creating thousands of new jobs and maintaining existing jobs across these areas. The UK Government is providing match funding.

No One Left Behind is a Scotland-wide strategy delivering employability support to those eligible and furthest from the labour market. It is a collaboration between the Scottish Government and local authorities, and aligns and integrates services in each local area to offer an all-round, holistic approach.

Regeneration programmes such as Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, Investing in Communities Fund and Strengthening Communities Programme are supporting job creation, training, and employability skills. In addition we have provided over £29 million in funding to CRT since 1999 to invest in improving outcomes for former coalfield communities.

Delivering high quality endoscopy is a priority of the NHS Scotland clinical and service teams.

The Scottish Government commissioned the National Endoscopy Programme Team, with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), and Scottish Government officials routinely monitor Health Board performance against the eight key diagnostic tests, including upper endoscopy, lower endoscopy, colonoscopy, cystoscopy, which are used for the diagnosis and surveillance of gastrointestinal problems such as ulcerative colitis and intestinal polyps.

The National Endoscopy Programme Team also supports on-site visits to all Boards to identify local issues, offer Boards support to develop Demand, Capacity, Activity and Queue (DCAQ) information/capacity planning, and promote alternatives to traditional endoscopy such as CytoSCOT, where clinically appropriate.

In addition, CfSD’s Gastroenterology Specialty Delivery Group (SDG) is working to develop national pathway recommendations for gastroenterology diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Disease. These pathways will reduce unwarranted variation by standardising service provision and pathways on a best-of-class and once-for-Scotland basis wherever possible.

Performance data relating to the number of waits for one of eight key diagnostic tests is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on a quarterly basis. The latest publication provides data up to 31 December 2024 and is available here: Diagnostic waiting times - Waits for key diagnostic tests 25 February 2025 - NHS waiting times - diagnostics - Publications - Public Health Scotland

For progress on SaxaVord and Sutherland Spaceports, I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-34559 and S6W-34600 on 6 March 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 Scottish Government is supportive of multiple launch locations, which increase Scotland's offering to the global market, add resilience to the Scottish launch sector and increase the chances of delivering economic benefits to local communities.

Social Security Scotland has the capacity to identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the client count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame. Social Security Scotland do not hold the breakdown of such data by cause of removal.

Social Security Scotland will continue to review and prioritise any new statistics produced and will take account of users’ needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.

The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics. The next release of Adult Disability Payment statistics, covering the period to the end of January 2025, is due to be published on 18 March 2025.