Seòmar agus comataidhean

Section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 provides that any interested party can make a complaint to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body has failed to discharge a statutory duty relating to education.

Following investigation of the complaint, Scottish Ministers may make an order declaring the responsible body to be in default of the duty and requiring them to discharge the duty by a specified date.

The complaint procedures do not provide an option for the complainant to consent to the publication of an unredacted version of the final decision they receive.

There have been nearly 300 applications to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) from Ukrainian nationals, undertaking a first year of study in Higher Education (HE), for financial support (including tuition fees) in the 2022-23 Academic Year (AY). There have been a further 35 applications from Ukrainian nationals for financial support for postgraduate studies – this package attracts a tuition fee loan.

These figures may continue to rise with applications still being accepted.

It is not possible to confirm how many of these students have applied to the Super Sponsor scheme.

Data in respect of applications for support for courses of Further Education (FE) is not available. At the end of the 2022-23 AY, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will be able to confirm the number of Ukrainian nationals who enrolled on college courses.

The UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) published their Environmental Quality Standards recommendation for emamectin benzoate on 30 June 2022. The Scottish Government will now respond and consult on the implementation of the recent UKTAG environmental standard recommendation. In the meantime the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) updated its interim regulatory position on emamectin benzoate, to apply the new standard when determining new applications to discharge emamectin benzoate.

SEPA is also progressing work to update its framework for regulating bath treatment medicines. This has included introducing a new computer model of the dispersion of the medicines in the environment and taking account of the latest evidence on the persistence of the medicines in the environment. It is also working to support innovation in the capture and removal of bath treatment medicine residues to reduce discharges to the environment. SEPA is looking at the suite of bath medicines to understand if the latest scientific evidence suggests that the existing environmental standards need to be updated.

The Scottish Government remains committed to funding the expansion of free school lunches to all children in primary and special schools during the course of this parliament. We will also establish a pilot of the provision of free school lunches to secondary school pupils.

As the First Minister stated, during her statement to Parliament on our Programme for Government on 6 September, having delivered free school meals for all pupils in primary 1 to 5, we can now announce that we will start work with local authorities to extend universal provision to all pupils in primary 6 and 7. This work will be supported by £30 million of capital funding during this academic year to support the expansion of catering and dining facilities to accommodate increased uptake.

Where families do not meet the regular eligibility criteria for receiving free school meals, local authorities have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals where families are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances. We would encourage any families experiencing difficulty with meeting the cost of school meals to contact their local council to enquire about what assistance may be available.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) makes clear the planning system should maintain a presumption against further marine finfish farm developments on the north and east coasts, and that local development plans, or supplementary guidance, should take account of Marine Scotland’s locational policies when identifying areas potentially suitable for new development and sensitive areas which are unlikely to be appropriate for such development.

All planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. As a statement of Ministers’ priorities, the content of the SPP is a material consideration that carries significant weight, though it is for the decision-maker to determine the appropriate weight in each case.

We laid our fourth Draft National Planning Framework (NPF4) in parliament on 10 November 2021, including proposals for updated planning policy on aquaculture. Alongside Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, we ran a public consultation, supported by an extensive engagement programme, with comments invited by 31 March 2022. Once approved and adopted, NPF4 will be part of the statutory development plan, and will replace Scottish Planning Policy. We are considering the broad range of views shared with us before laying a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.

The recent Programme for Government also commits to the development of a new National Marine Plan to address the global climate and nature crises and to supporting local authorities to guide development to the right places.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07063 on 4 May 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The following table details the number of recorded crimes of theft of a pedal cycle for the March year end data for reporting years 2016-17 to 2021-22.

Table: Number of theft of a pedal cycle crimes recorded by the police, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2021-22

The purpose of the consultation document, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation, is to seek views on a range of proposals for land-related reforms, including specific measures that could be included in the next Land Reform Bill. As part of that, views are sought on criteria that could be used to classify landholdings as 'large-scale'.

The criteria put forward for consultation in the document are based on the principle of proportionality. They are:

a. A fixed threshold of 3000 hectares

b. Land that accounts for more than a fixed percentage of a data zone (or adjacent data zones) or local authority ward(s) designated as an Accessible Rural Area or Remote Rural Area, through our six-fold urban/rural classification scheme

c. Land that accounts for more than a specified minimum proportion of a permanently inhabited island.

Meeting one or more of these criteria would mean that a landholding would be considered 'large-scale'.

The proposal to set the fixed threshold at 3000 hectares reflects a suggestion made by the Scottish Land Commission that the 'aim should be to establish a threshold that would ensure that family farms and small businesses would not fall in scope, but that modest estates that could pose risks [of harm to the public interest] would.'

As set out in the consultation document, the proposed threshold of 3000 hectares has been informed by data held on land and property titles by the Registers of Scotland, and the Scottish Government's Integrated Administration and Control System (which records data on all businesses with agricultural and non-agricultural land in Scotland that receive public subsidies.) Based on this data we consider that setting the threshold of 3000 hectares would be proportionate, in that it would bring into the scope of measures proposed for the Bill a substantial proportion of land in Scotland, while affecting a very small proportion of landowners, few of whom would be considered 'family farms'.

I have recently written to local authority Housing Conveners and Chief Executives to remind them of their duty to establish short-term let licensing schemes by 1 October 2022, and we continue to work with local authorities on implementation matters as they prepare to open licence schemes in their areas by this date.

Each year Scottish vessels land around £100 million worth of fish outside of Scotland, often for species for which our nation already has ready processing capacity. This represents a lost opportunity to bring additional investment and downstream benefit to our coastal communities from Scotland’s fishing quotas.

Our fish quotas are a national asset and I want to ensure that fishing opportunities allocated to our fleet, for the most important Scottish species, deliver a substantial economic return to our businesses and communities in Scotland.

That is why today, I am announcing changes to the economic link condition contained in Scottish sea fishing licences. This change to the economic link conditions is a key policy in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, which supports sustainable and responsible fisheries management in Scotland. The delivery plan which supports the Strategy and outcome of consultation document for changes to the economic link, will be published today at 2pm and can be found at [ Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Changes to economic link licence conditions will take effect from 1 January 2023 and will require vessels that catch stocks of key economic importance to Scotland to either:

• Land a set minimum percentage of these stocks into Scotland.

Or

• Return some fishing opportunity to the Scottish Government for re-distribution amongst the Scottish fishing industry.

These changes will help to redistribute economic returns from Scotland’s fishing opportunities to the Scottish Seafood sector and our coastal communities.