Seòmar agus comataidhean

The EPC for Strathbeg House in Thurso was completed on 20 May 2023 and has now been lodged with the Scottish EPC register. The EPC rating is D

Information on the facilities available at ScotRail stations can be found on its website at the following link:-

Stations and facilities | ScotRail

The information on cycle storage at stations can be found under each station under the heading “interchange”. This confirms if the station has cycle storage available and how many storage spaces are available at that station.

Education Scotland has four officers with responsibility for improving gender balance and equality. Building on the success of the IGBE team, a new equalities team has recently been established to continue the IGBE activity as part of a workstream to challenge equalities more broadly. The salary costs for these four staff members in financial year 2023/24, including an anticipated pay award of up to 3%, is £284,000.

(a) These four officers comprise:

• a Senior Education Officer for Equality;
• two Education Officers for Equality; and
• an Education Officer for Improving Gender Balance and Equality.

(b) These officers continue to lead a wide range of work to change perceptions, promote gender balance and challenge unconscious assumptions about gender roles and learner pathways, including in STEM subjects. They have developed an extensive range of resources which are hosted on Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub. Up to March 2022, Education Scotland’s Improving Gender Balance and Equality Officers engaged with more than 1150 distinct establishments, and reached over 9400 practitioners.

Education Scotland and Scottish Government recognise that much work that remains to be done in this area which is why we’ve invested in a new team of permanent officers with relevant expertise. Through the work of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, which I have agreed to Chair, we will continue to consider how best to effect systemic change which will remove barriers and promote gender balance and equality.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Education Scotland Improving Gender Balance and Equalities team developed new methods for achieving strong engagement with practitioners, as well as adapting to the new and unprecedented needs of schools, settings and local authorities.

In addition to engaging directly with practitioners and education settings, the team developed a national professional learning offer that could be accessed remotely by practitioners.

The national professional learning offer includes a mixture of remote delivery, online courses, podcasts and YouTube videos. As part of this approach, six podcasts were created and released from August 2021 – November 2021. The podcasts have 6,069 views.

This is a matter for ScotRail. However, it has advised that it is actively considering inclusion of calorie information on its onboard trolley service.

Forestry and Land Scotland employ two members of staff in the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Team. One person is employed on a full-time basis and the other is employed on a 0.6 FTE basis (22.2 hours per week). Both members of staff are employed as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Managers and the total value of their combined salaries is £76,309.60 per annum.

Forestry and Land Scotland also provide Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion support to the SG Agency Scottish Forestry.

I had the pleasure of attending the launch event for this important report. The Scottish Government welcomes the Age Scotland report and recognises that living in the right home with the right support, including housing adaptations, can be the key to enabling older people to live safely and independently at home.

We know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally, so we are considering how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations.

We are also working to increase the supply of accessible and adapted homes. Whenever possible, all new affordable homes are built to Housing for Varying Needs accessibility standards. Housing for Varying Needs offers good practice in the design of homes to help them achieve a good standard of accessibility and flexibility so that they meet people’s needs as they change over time.

We plan to launch a formal consultation on proposals to update the Housing for Varying Needs design guide, and on proposals for introducing the Scottish Accessible Homes Standard, over the coming weeks.

This is a matter for SEPA. The information requested is not held centrally. SEPA have provided the following information.

Calls to Pollution Hotline in each year since 2019

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

We are continuing to progress the implementation of the recommendations of the Women in Agriculture Taskforce. As part of this we continue to deliver solutions that deliver positive change for women living and working in Scottish agriculture through the Women in Agriculture Development Programme.

This financial year (2023-24) we are providing £500,000 to support further activity and opportunities for women in agriculture. We also remain committed to increasing our funding to £600,000 per year over the course of this Parliament.