Chamber and committees

A funded stroke bed is a bed which has established funding for the provision of stroke nurse and therapist staffing. There are currently 531 stroke beds available in Scotland, including hyperacute, acute and integrated stroke beds. However, stroke services may adjust the number of beds available to meet service demands.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29165 on 5 September 2024. 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.

Sustrans are funded to manage and administer the Places for Everyone fund and meet with the applicants as appropriate. As Sustrans manage the fund on behalf of Transport Scotland neither Ministers nor Transport Scotland meet regularly to discuss specific projects that are funded through the programme. Transport Scotland does however receive regular updates through our oversight of the programme and management of the grant to Sustrans for the programme.

Community benefits from our abundant energy resources, and the potential for communities to own a share of renewable energy projects, are important components in empowering people and communities to help shape and benefit from the energy transition. We are currently reviewing our Good Practice Principles for Offshore Renewables ahead of public consultation. Further details are included in the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government is having to make very difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year, therefore it is unaffordable to progress our plans to pilot free bus travel for all people seeking asylum in Scotland.

I am grateful to the stakeholders involved in the working group set up to develop the free bus travel for asylum seekers pilot. My officials informed them directly of the difficult decision to cancel the proposed pilot scheme to provide free bus travel for asylum seekers on 16 August 2024.

The third vessel will be designed to serve the Sound of Barra and Sound of Harris routes; however, it will also have the flexibility to provide cover across a variety of other routes. As we progress the SVRP, this will improve resilience and flexibility within the fleet.

We are kick-starting our commitment to invest up to £500m to anchor our offshore wind supply chain in Scotland with investment of £67 million in the sector this financial year. This investment will support market certainty, helping to create a highly productive, competitive offshore wind economy that provides thousands of new jobs, embeds innovation and boosts skills. We are working across public sector delivery partners to ensure that the funding is delivered to projects as quickly as possible subject to rigorous due diligence and value for money assurance processes.

The Supply Chain Development Statements (SCDS) process has been carefully designed and is managed by Crown Estate Scotland. It requires developers to outline their initial commitments to the Scottish supply chain across four project phases - development, manufacturing and fabrication, installation and operations & maintenance.

We welcome developers’ commitments to invest an average projection of £1.5bn per project on the 20 ScotWind projects.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29198 on 5 September 2024. 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.

Following the general election, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray MP, requesting renewal of the agreement to the devolution of the necessary powers for a Building Safety Levy in Scotland that was in place with the previous UK Government.

An affirmative response to this letter was received on 27 August 2024 and arrangements are now being made for the necessary legislative procedures to take place in the Scottish and UK Parliaments to progress the devolution.

The Scottish Government’s 2024-25 Programme for Government announced that, subject to the devolution of powers, the Scottish Government proposes to bring forward a Bill to establish a Building Safety Levy in Scotland.

A consultation will be launched later this month to inform policy development for the proposed Bill. The levy is not expected to come into effect until April 2026 at the earliest.