Chamber and committees

This is another hugely important aspect of the agenda. The Parliament passed the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 in the previous parliamentary session, and we are implementing that legislation. Public bodies are under a new duty to assess whether their estate would be suitable to connect to district heating systems, and local authorities have powers to identify areas that are suited to district heating. We are exploring the potential for further legislation to strongly encourage buildings to connect to heat networks. Meanwhile, district heating projects in Scotland can receive pre-development support from our Heat Network Support Unit and grant and loan funding from Scotland’s £300 million heat network fund or our district heating loan fund.

It is clear that the Government is already doing far more than Governments in other parts of the UK on the financial support that people need to retrofit their homes. Will the member commit her party to supporting us and working with us on a heat in buildings bill, or does she share her party leader’s attachment to the rhetoric on green extremism?

Will the member take an intervention?

Having 20mph speed limits in cities, towns and villages—particularly in places where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix—is internationally recognised as a key element in reducing road casualties and creating safe conditions for people to walk, wheel and cycle.

The multipartner task group, which includes members of the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, as well as various active travel and sustainable travel partners, agreed that the wider policy objectives should be considered alongside road assessments being conducted.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a national strategy for 20mph speed limits, which supports commitments in the 2021 Bute house agreement and the 2022 programme for government.

We welcome Highland Council’s enthusiasm as an early adopter of the strategy and we want to see more areas of Scotland benefiting. In addition to the £1.4 million that was allocated to road authorities in the most recent financial year to help them to identify the number of roads affected and to assess the financial implications, we will also be providing funding to all road authorities to fully implement 20mph speed limits by 2025.

I would certainly be happy to discuss that with the new transport minister once they are in post. For chargers on the ChargePlace Scotland network, the helpdesk initially tries to remedy faults remotely where that is possible. If the fault cannot be fixed remotely, a fault ticket is sent to the charge point owner and their chosen contractor to make them aware of an issue, and engineers should be on site within 48 hours of receipt of the fault ticket.

I recognise that there will be concerns around the country, in particular in remote and rural areas, where there may be additional challenges, but we think that across the country as whole, the level of reliability of the network is high.

I am sorry that Forth Bike has ceased to operate. We provided £181,000 of pilot funding to Forth Environment Link when it launched in 2019. That and other schemes have found themselves in similar positions as a result of issues that face Bewegen Technologies.

Enabling people to access bikes in an affordable and easy way is vital to reducing health and income inequality, and making communities safer and more pleasant. We are working with Cycling UK to establish a new £1 million fund for non-ownership cycle options—to support start-up and existing cycle schemes—which we expect to launch this summer.

Through the grant funding that the Scottish Government has provided to local authorities to purchase warranty and maintenance agreements, we expect suppliers to honour their contractual obligations so that, when a charge point is broken, it is fixed on time. Local authorities that own EV charge points, including those on ChargePlace Scotland, are responsible for procuring chargers, selecting installers and agreeing appropriate maintenance packages with their chosen supplier. Once their initial servicing packages have expired, they may choose to extend agreements with their supplier or to seek alternative contractors.

It is disappointing to see services cuts in Renfrewshire. As Mr Bibby is well aware, since the deregulation in the Thatcher era, Scottish ministers do not have the power to intervene over specific bus services.

We remain committed to supporting the sector, with £421 million allocated in 2023-24 for bus services and concessionary fares. We have delivered powers for local authorities to run their own services, which sit alongside existing powers to subsidise services. We are working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the community bus fund, and we encourage operators and local authorities to collaborate for the benefit of passengers.

Last year, the Scottish Government published “A Network Fit For The Future: Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network”, envisaging a well-designed, comprehensive network that works for everyone. Our electric vehicle infrastructure fund aims to enable £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to at least 6,000 charge points by 2026.

Transport Scotland has considered the range of skills that are required for the maintenance of the charge points. The lack of formal recognition of qualifications has been identified as a barrier and will be assessed as part of a review within the update of the “Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan 2020-2025”. Access to training across Scotland is critical, and Transport Scotland has been investing in mobile equipment for colleges to support training in more remote areas and support a just transition to net zero.