Seòmar agus comataidhean

This was discussed at the Cladding Stakeholder Group as an option and is currently being explored.

We have received eight pre-final reports.

The working group does not, in general, create new material separate from that created to organise the meetings such as agendas and meeting notes, which are now subject to publication. The Chair will take a view on proactive publication of any new material in line with FOI principles and the need to respect the confidentiality of blocks engaged in the Pilot.

The Single Building Assessment takes a holistic approach of assessing buildings. Following professional advice from fire engineers, splitting the process would not fulfil the critical life safety requirements of the Single Building Assessment.

As all the Railcards listed are GB wide national rail products and not ScotRail products, neither the Scottish Government or ScotRail holds information on how many people make use of the cards listed.

The member may wish to contact the Rail Delivery Group for information on the number of cardholders.

The new powers provided by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 enable local authorities to determine what is best for their own areas. I recognise that not every authority will want to run their own bus services, some may opt for a partnership or franchise approach. It is important that the options within the Act are fully explored to ensure they are appropriate for the area and are sustainable for local authorities' long term. Work is currently ongoing with local authorities and COSLA to determine how best to allocate funding in light of the emergency budget review.

As you know, we are also undertaking a Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares as we recover from the pandemic. As part of the Review, we are considering both the availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes, which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry. We will also consider options that maintain and increase affordability for those who need it most, taking cognisance of the relative changes to the overall cost of travel.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a new Agriculture Bill to Parliament in 2023.

The public consultation on proposals for a new Bill, “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture. Proposals for a new Agriculture Bill” was launched on 29 August and will now be open until 5 December. The consultation seeks views on proposals, which aim to assist in delivering the Vision for Agriculture, and suggests a legislative framework required to replace the current Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

I am grateful to the Inspectorate for doing such a thorough piece of work on this important topic. It is a priority for all prosecutors that complainers are treated with dignity and respect, and that they are not subjected to inappropriate questioning during a trial.

This is a challenging area of work and I was pleased to see that the Inspectorate noted that Crown applications under this section of law were generally good and that it has developed its practices. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has responded swiftly to developments in case law, issuing new instructions to staff and creating a training course dedicated to sexual history and character evidence. This has led to a significant shift in practice regarding how section 275 applications are managed.

There remains improvement work to be done, and I have instructed that this is taken forward through an action plan to address the outstanding recommendations. COPFS is committed to improving the experience of complainers in serious sexual offence cases, both in enhancing its own processes, for example through their ongoing review of its Victim Information and Advice function, and in working with partners across the criminal justice sector.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate all those involved in making Scottish Games Week a hugely successful event.

Scotland has a rich history in the gaming industry and we are proud to have funded Scottish Games Week through the Scottish Government’s Start-up Ecosystem Fund.

That said, we believe gaming has more to offer to the Scottish economy in the years to come. Game developers have shown that their skills and creativity can be applied much more widely, delivering innovative solutions to help solve problems in other areas such as education and healthcare. That is why our Chief Entrepreneur, Mark Logan, is engaging closely with sector leaders to explore opportunities to catalyse the sector’s growth, including how it can benefit from our £42m investment in a new network of tech-scalers – world-class environments to start and scale new companies.

In March 2022, we published The National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland . This Strategy sets out a new framework to shape Scotland’s health and social care workforce over the next decade and places training, wellbeing, job satisfaction and the principles of Fair Work at its heart. The strategy, the first of its kind, stresses the need to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture staff.

As part of this publication, and as announced in the 2021 Programme for Government, we have committed to increasing the number of medical school places by 100 per annum over the lifetime of this Parliament, whilst also doubling the number of Widening Access places over the same period. This will result in an additional 500 medical school places and 120 Widening Access places, ensuring a healthy supply of trainee doctors for further training at postgraduate level.

We have also committed to expanding the number of trainee doctor posts in line with medical workforce modelling intended to achieve a planned and sustainable medical workforce to meet current and future needs. We remain committed to increasing the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. In June of this year we launched our national GP recruitment campaign to promote working as a GP in Scotland as a good career choice.