Seòmar agus comataidhean

The management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency. Whilst there are currently no supertrawlers in the Scottish fishing fleet, a number of other fleets operate within Scottish waters, including a small number of EU supertrawlers. As well as vessels from the rest of the UK, the TCA UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement allows EU vessels full access to fish shared stocks within UK waters.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licenses, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules, including mesh size restrictions and closed areas. These vessels also operate within agreed quotas. The majority of commercial stocks fished are managed by the use of Total Allowable Catches (TACs). TAC levels are informed by the best available independent scientific advice, and are used with an aim to ensure sustainable fishing levels in the long term. Vessels, regardless of size or gear, are only permitted to fish the quotas that they have been allocated, in line with TACs set for each stock.

I am aware that a multinational fleet has operated in the UK/Faroe ‘Special Area’ for a number of years under the Faroese Government’s authority. This is an area of water overlapping both UK (Scottish) and Faroese waters, which the UK and the Faroe Islands both claim, and over which both Parties are entitled to exercise jurisdiction and other rights. Both the UK/Scottish Government and the Faroese Government can issue sea fishing licences, including to third country vessels, which include the right to fish within the Special Area. Under the 1999 Agreement, neither Party can prevent or impede the other from issuing such licences.

I was, however, deeply troubled by the Russian fishing activity within the Special Area earlier this year. Whilst I fully recognise that the Faroese Government has the right to license third country vessels to fish in this area, I do not condone or support the continuation of any activities which will deliver economic benefit to the Russian Federation at a time when their unlawful invasion of a sovereign state continues to pose such a threat to the global order. In the spirit of the constructive relationship we have developed with the Faroese Government, I met with the Faroese Fisheries Minister on 11 July to discuss this matter, and to reaffirm Scotland’s strong position.

Delivery of the police 101 and 999 services and the recruitment and deployment of resources are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government will continue to support the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland.

Police Scotland’s call handlers continue to work hard to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible. Figures published by the Home Office for July 2022 show that Police Scotland was well above the UK average for 999 call answer times with 79.9% of calls answered in under 10 seconds, compared to 68.3% for the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government regularly discusses the quality of GP services with clinical and management leads for NHS boards.

The works to resurface the A9 around the A822/A923 junction at Dunkeld were completed in late 2021, including changes to road markings to prohibit overtaking through the junction. Illuminated road studs were also installed as part of these works to provide better definition of the junctions during darkness. Solar powered illuminated bollards were also installed at five junctions between the B867 and Dalguise.

In advance of future dualling works Transport Scotland is currently considering further short-term improvements for the A9 between Perth and Inverness, which includes the Birnam and Dunkeld junctions. Officials met with community representatives from the area on 31 October to discuss road safety performance and the scope for short term improvements.

The Scottish Government expects GPs to provide face to face appointments where clinically required within a timescale determined by the need of the patient.

To date, there has been no constructive engagement from the UK Government on a Veterinary Agreement based on regulatory alignment. It is Scottish Government policy to continue to align with EU standards. If the UK Government were to engage and agree to this, it would make a UK-EU veterinary agreement straightforward and eliminate many trade barriers. Unfortunately the UK Government’s refusal to engage prevents this from happening. We continue to urge the UK Government to explore the possibility of such an agreement at the earliest opportunity.

Audit Scotland’s 2017 progress report made seven recommendations for the Scottish Government. Since then, two of the recommendations have been completed in full, four have been partially completed and one has not been completed.

The SDS Implementation Plan 2019-2021 built on the learning from the Audit Scotland report and incorporated the inputs of third sector organisations, COSLA and people with lived experience. The implementation of this plan was disrupted by the emergence of COVID19, and efforts to respond to this included publishing SDS pandemic guidance in July 2020.

The Scottish Government will issue a significant update of the SDS Statutory Guidance later this month, and is currently working with COSLA and a national group of stakeholders to develop an SDS improvement plan to drive improvements in SDS implementation covering the years leading up to the establishment of the National Care Service. This will take into account the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report of 2017 as well as from reports published since then, including the Feeley report of 2021.

The UK PII Scheme started on 26 of September 2022 and covers the whole of the UK.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Local Government annually through the Local Government settlement. This is made up of a combination of the general revenue grant, general capital grant, income from non-domestic rates as well as specific revenue and capital grants.

Included in the table (BIB 63725) is the Local Government budget following the annual Spring Budget Revision ('SBR') as a proportion of both the Scottish Governments total fiscal budget excluding FTs (i.e. its discretionary spending limit) as well as its Total Managed expenditure. Note that the SBR budget figure does not include amounts provided by other portfolios via grant funding to local government.

Given the changes in the Scottish Governments devolved powers since devolution it is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the funding levels since 1999. To illustrate this point we would note that in 2013-14 funding of over £1bn in respect of Police and Fire was removed from Local Government.

ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region or local authority area, but by rail route. The following table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the South Scotland region from 1 April 2022: