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Air Weapons licensing statistics are published by Police Scotland annually. Most recent statistics were published in August 2024 .

A table has been provided below noting the number of Air Weapons Licence applications made since 1 November 2016 including the numbers (a) received, (b) processed, (c) granted and (d) refused.

Total Number of Air Weapon Licence Applications

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that we are able to manage more of our own waste within Scotland both for environmental and economic aims. As part of this, Scottish Government officials and Defra continue to engage regularly on matters regarding international waste exports, a reserved policy area. We are currently seeking confirmation from the new UK Government on its priorities for waste exports policy and continue to encourage Defra to build on work already undertaken to ban the export of plastic waste to non-OECD-countries, and will work closely with them on the development of this.

Through our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map consultation, we are actively progressing actions that we can take under devolved powers to boost Scotland's ability domestically to manage its waste and provide greater incentives for domestic reprocessing. This includes new co-designed recycling standards and consulting on a statutory duty on local authorities and others to report on the final destinations of collected material to increase transparency and strengthen public confidence in recycling services. We have also committed to publish a report on Scotland’s existing and planned domestic reprocessing infrastructure. This builds upon existing measures like extended producer responsibility schemes, and the £63 million-worth of investments made via the Recycling Improvement Fund to improve the quality and quantity of recycling collected.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry is concluded when the presiding Sheriff issues their Determination. COPFS has limited control over the timescale for commencing and concluding a FAI after the First Notice has been lodged.

It is not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the number of death investigations where COPFS expects to conclude its enquiries and initiate FAI proceedings in 2024, particularly in relation to discretionary FAIs. There are a number of factors which affect timescales, such as the need to await the outcome of investigations by reporting agencies and to consider expert evidence or reports from other agencies.

The Head of SFIU writes to all Sheriffs Principal on a quarterly basis to ensure future FAI business is factored into the court programme as efficiently as possible.

As of 19 June 2024, there are scheduled court dates for 45 Fatal Accident Inquiries where proceedings have been initiated (relating to 26 mandatory and 19 discretionary FAIs). There are also a further 14 Inquiries in which evidence has been concluded and the issuing of the Sheriff’s Determination is awaited. In addition, COPFS has 219 death investigations where FAI proceedings have not yet commenced or where court dates have not yet been fixed. Of these, 213 relate to ongoing investigations where a mandatory FAI requires to be held and 6 to investigations where I have instructed that a discretionary FAI is to be held.

These figures do not include cases where enquiries are ongoing and where a decision on the holding of a discretionary FAI will be taken at the conclusion of the investigation.

Before commencing an FAI, COPFS requires to conduct a thorough examination of the whole circumstances surrounding a death. There are often a number of complex factors to take into account including the need to await and consider expert evidence or reports from other agencies, such as the Health and Safety Executive, The National Health Service, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Prison Service, the Office of the Rail Regulator and many others. It can often take several years for these agencies to produce their reports to COPFS.

COPFS understands the impact that the delay in holding an FAI can have on bereaved families and is committed to working in partnership with all other agencies involved in death investigation to reduce the length of time it takes to initiate and conclude FAI’s.

The Framework sets out a longer-term approach on how we will engage with homeowners, tenants and landlords over the next decade. In addition, we have outlined a number of shorter-term actions over the next three years to help build a strong foundation of public awareness. As follows:

? Continued and expanded marketing and communications activity.

? Exploring options for extending the reach of platforms like the Greener Homes Network so that people can share experiences and learn from each other.

? Streamlining customer journeys and ensuring people and organisations know where and how to access advice and support available.

We have committed to undertake a review and evaluate the impact of the strategic framework during 2026.

Development of the Partnership is progressing, with work on-going to identify membership from a wide range of organisations from across the Public, Private and Third Sector. As outlined in the Heat in Building’s Public Engagement Strategic Framework, we have made a commitment to set-up the Partnership during 2024 and will provide further details in the coming months.

Snapshot figures of graduate level posts in early learning and childcare (ELC) are published annually in Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland 2023. Data in the tables is gathered from centres (either local authority or partner provider centres) with children registered for the funded entitlement at the time of the Census. In 2023, this was collected from 11 – 15 September. As of September 2023 there were 364 (322 FTE) equity and excellence leads in post, which equates to 71% of those that are funded .

The majority of the Scottish Government’s funding to Local Government is provided through the General Revenue Grant. As of 2024-25, and in line with the Verity House Agreement, this covers all funding for statutory ELC provision, including for equity and excellence leads.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on ELC, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

We already work with a range of stakeholders to design heat in buildings policies. The Scottish Government has established a number of expert groups including the Green Heat Finance Taskforce, EPC External Reference Group and the Strategic Advisory Group, who provide independent advice on a range of policies.

Recently, we consulted on proposals for legislation to improve energy efficiency and drive the clean heat agenda in the existing built stock – both homes and non-domestic buildings. A number of stakeholder engagement events were held across Scotland for people to learn and give feedback to the consultation proposals. There were c1650 responses to our consultation from various stakeholders and industries which are now being independently analysed.

We also ran a consultation to invite views on proposals for a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard (SHNZS), which will replace the post-2020 Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing, or EESSH2. Stakeholders from the social rented sector, who are part of the EESSH2 Review Group, will be asked to help consider the final design of the proposed SHNZS policy, based on the consultation analysis.

In addition, the Strategic Public Engagement Delivery Partnership, which will be developed in 2024, will further strengthen those relationships.