Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-26400 on 19 April 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 .

The Scottish Government’s 2023-24 Programme for Government announced that we would be seeking the devolution of powers to introduce a levy equivalent to the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy for England, the revenues from which will be used to provide funding for the Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme.

As the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate for a new national tax in Scotland without devolution of powers from the UK Parliament, the Scottish Government has formally requested the transfer of powers from the UK Government under Section 80B of the Scotland Act 1998.

To inform the UK Government’s decision on this request, the Scottish and UK Governments launched a joint consultation on 8 January. The consultation ran for eight weeks, from 8 January 2024 to 19 February 2024. Respondents were asked to provide evidence that devolving the power may impose a disproportionate negative impact on UK macroeconomic policy or impede the single UK market in housebuilding. They were also asked whether the powers for a Building Safety Levy in Scotland should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish and UK Governments agree that the consultation has surfaced no evidence to prevent the transfer of powers from proceeding. As such, the UK Government has confirmed that it will proceed to legislate for the transfer of powers. An Order in Council will now be subject to scrutiny in both the UK and Scottish Parliaments.

The Scottish Government has been clear that it will do what is right and necessary to fix the issue of unsafe cladding fully and from the outset. This is a significant step towards ensuring that the appropriate funding is in place to meet the associated costs of doing this.

In line with our New Deal for Business, the Scottish Government will now proceed to engage with the residential property development sector and wider stakeholders to ensure that the design and delivery of the Levy is informed by the widest possible range of views. Our approach to design and delivery of tax policy will also be guided by the principles set out in our Framework for Tax.

Low Emission Zones are based on the Euro emission standard of the vehicle in order to reduce levels of harmful air pollution and protect public health.

Whether vehicles use diesel or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a fuel does not change the Euro emission standard of the vehicle. There is no LEZ exemption for vehicles using diesel fuel alternatives such as hydrotreated vegetable oil, however any such vehicle that meets the Euro 6/VI emission standard can be driven within the LEZ.

The information requested on how many full-time equivalent administrative support posts provide support to consultants across the NHS is not centrally available.

Since Sept 2007, administrative services have increased by 21.5% or by 5,316.9 WTE, from 24,737.2 WTE as at Sept 2007 to 30,054.1 WTE as at Dec 2023.

Support to clinical staff, up 45.4% since Sept 2007 to 9,600.5 WTE as at Dec 2023.

Further Information on the administrative services workforce, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: 05 March 2024 Workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has commissioned NHS National Services Scotland to work with a wide range of clinical and other stakeholders to consider how best to meet the needs of the population in terms of young people’s gender healthcare services for NHS Scotland. This work is ongoing, and aims to define the scope of a specialist service in Scotland.

The Scottish Government anticipates that an outline service specification based on this work will be presented to NHS Strategic Planning Board for Scotland for consideration later this year.

All Peatland ACTION delivery partners are subject to relevant Scottish Contracts Legislation.

NatureScot managed Peatland ACTION funding on an annual basis until FY 2021-2022. In order to increase our restoration rates, the Scottish Government made the decision to directly fund selected delivery partners given their proven delivery of restoration work through the existing Peatland ACTION funding model.

This was intended to empower these delivery partners to meet the Scottish Government’s programme targets within their own systems of accountability and management, directing funding streams to the most efficient delivery channels to maximise restoration rates.

The Scottish Government is grateful for the latest advice from the Climate Change Committee. We have always been clear that meeting the legislated 2030 target – agreed by Parliament on a cross party basis - will be extremely challenging, and may not be feasible. Scotland is already half way to net zero and continues to decarbonise faster than the UK average.

On the 18th of April, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, outlined plans for a package to accelerate our actions to achieve net zero by 2045, which include a timeline for implementing demand management, to help us achieve our much needed target to reduce car usage.

We will carefully consider the report’s recommendations and provide a Scottish Government response in due course.

The processing of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) screening request under section 8 of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 involves work across a number of teams within the Energy Consents Unit.

We do not centrally log or track the specific number of working hours spent by individual team members on any particular activity or task. The work is integrated into the broader responsibilities and workflows of the team. It is therefore not possible to calculate the average number of working hours spent processing in the years requested.

Following the completion of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review, an advisory group has been established. Job planning is one area of focus within the delivery plan and the Scottish Government will work in conjunction with wider stakeholders to oversee the effective implementation of the recommendations.

The group held its second meeting on 4 March 2024 and will consider the timescales required to meet the overarching aims at its future meetings, scheduled in June and October 2024.