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The Aberdeen – Central Belt 2026 Enhancement Project is now known as the Aberdeen – Central Belt Service Improvement Project.

The Aberdeen – Central Belt Service Improvement Project seeks to deliver an hourly freight path, in each direction, between Aberdeen and Perth outwith peak times.

Scottish Government officials had a number of informal discussions with NatureScot in advance of NatureScot introducing guidance and adding a new condition to 16AA licences. NatureScot has the authority to add conditions to grouse shooting licences without requiring approval from Scottish Government Ministers.

Following clarification, this question refers to multi-establishment leadership models.

The following table shows the number of schools which share a headteacher with at least one other school, known as multi-establishment leadership models, by Local Authority. This does not include Grant-Aided schools or centrally employed headteacher posts. Data from before 2007 is not available.

Table 1. Schools in a multi-establishment leadership model, by Local Authority, 2007-2023.

The UK Government has stated its commitment to providing an update as soon as possible, and my officials continue to engage regularly with their UK Government counterparts regarding their plans. Additionally, I recently wrote to the UK Government to request a meeting to gain further insight into the options they are considering in relation to the report.

The Scottish Government remains dedicated to keeping the Scottish Parliament informed of any significant developments.

We also reaffirm our previous apology to all those who have been directly affected by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate, as well as to their caregivers.

The Scottish Government made a written statement to Parliament on 19 November 2024 on the effectiveness of environmental governance arrangements, following an earlier report and consultation. As stated in those documents, the Scottish Government does not see any strong argument for a change in the balance of parliamentary, administrative and judicial roles in decision making on environmental matters, or for the creation of a specialist court. Therefore, there are no plans to conduct any additional analysis of any potential efficiency savings in the judicial system from the creation of an environment court.

The Case for Investment for Clyde Metro is being led by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), supported by Glasgow City Council leading various workstreams alongside SPT, with Transport Scotland providing a project assurance role.

Clyde Metro aims to offer relief for the heavy rail network, freeing rail capacity for longer distance journeys, thus the Clyde Metro project team has been engaging with ScotRail and Network Rail to inform the on-going Case for Investment stage. I understand that the assessment of network options will consider opportunities to improve the integration of rail services in the Greenock and Inverclyde constituency with the wider Clyde Metro network.

The Case for Investment is a key stage of the development process, informing decisions around network selection, phasing and implementation. It is well underway and is currently anticipated to be complete by mid-2027.

Further details on the Case for Investment stage can be obtained by contacting SPT directly at clydemetro@spt.co.uk.

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

The contract for HMP Glasgow was awarded under a two-stage design and build contract using the “Scottish Building Contracts Committee (SBCC) Design and Build Contract for use in Scotland 2016 Edition” contract form.

Whilst this contract form does not include a formal Conflict Avoidance Process, it is designed to avoid unnecessary contractual disputes arising during contract delivery.

The standard clauses in the SBCC conditions contract already recognise that mediation should be utilised before resorting to Adjudication in the event of a dispute or disagreement arising. SPS has however also included a specific amendment which provides an explicit undertaking by directors or senior representatives of the parties to the contract to resolve any contractual differences within 5 business days of the matter arising before mediation is considered.

There is no record that Scottish Government has had any correspondence with Hampton Group International, Pitch@Palace or the UK Chinese Business Association, nor with Mr Yang Tengbo, in the last 12 years.

The next edition of the Disability and Transport publication will be published by Transport Scotland later in March this year.

It is intended that Transport Scotland will update the report on an annual basis in future. However, this is dependent on the availability of data supporting meaningful annual analysis.

Decisions on publication frequency will continue to be made in consultation with the Disability and Transport Monitoring and Evaluation Group: a steering group for Transport Scotland’s work in this area, which includes representatives from the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS), Disability Equality Scotland, and Transport Scotland.

Two businesses were funded in 2021-22, with payments totalling £750,000, located within Mid Scotland & Fife (Region) and North East Scotland (Region).

Two businesses were funded in 2022-23, with payments totalling £570,000, both located within Mid Scotland & Fife (Region).