Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working collaboratively with the UK Government to establish a monitoring and evaluation framework to cover the Investment Zones in Scotland.

The information and metrics included within the framework will be determined by the detailed proposals provided by the Regional Economic Partnerships in Glasgow City and North East Region. The proposals are currently in progress, but will focus on the overall policy goals including innovation and fair work, and will link to the outcomes set out in the Investment Zones Technical Document , published on 8 December 2023.

The Framework Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Rail Holdings confirms under the Stations, Operational Plan section that “particular attention should be given to identifying efficiencies in staffing levels as well as focus on elements which will be monitored through SQUIRE”. This provides ScotRail with the ability to ensure that staff are deployed appropriately across the rail network to deliver a high performing service that passengers rightly expect.

The most recent discussions that Transport Scotland has had with East Ayrshire Council regarding Bellfield Interchange were in 2022. Transport Scotland has engaged with the Council throughout the preparation of the forthcoming second Local Development Plan (LDP2), which has identified that a package of works is required at Bellfield to facilitate development in East Ayrshire.

Officials have been consistent in their advice to the Council that any potential impact to the trunk road network, as a result of development, will require to be mitigated to an acceptable level.

Notwithstanding this, I have written to East Ayrshire Council in August 2023 and March 2024 offering a meeting with officials at Transport Scotland to discuss Bellfield Interchange.

Transport Scotland officials discuss all aspects of the SQUIRe regime with ScotRail including performance and on-going issues.

Under the Public Sector Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 Government bodies are required to publish details of information relating to: public relations; overseas travel; hospitality and entertainment; external consultancy; details of all items of expenditure over £25,000; remuneration; sustainable growth; efficiency; and shared services.

Transport Scotland has also followed the Scottish Government extension of these requirements to publish annual details of Electronic Procurement card transactions. Details can be found on the Transport Scotland website.

Disclosures for the financial years 2022-23 and 2021-22 - Electronic Purchasing Cards | Transport Scotland

The Scottish Government has welcomed the recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) that the 4 UK Nations should move towards implementing a programme of targeted lung screening for those between 55-74 with a history of smoking.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) was established to assess the specific challenges and opportunities for a Scottish programme. The SEAG met for the first time in August 2023. Further meetings are scheduled in the coming months as part of work to develop a business case.

The complexity of the challenge means a national screening programme is likely to take years rather than months to implement. Until the business case is complete, we cannot provide timings for implementation or specifics relating to implementation and annual running costs.

Lung cancer remains a national priority, which is why the Scottish Government has a dedicated chapter in our £114.5 million National Cancer Plan, and last December we redesigned lung cancer diagnostic services to help ensure patients receive faster access to treatment.

Legislation and regulations relating to electricity and gas networks are reserved to the UK Government, with the Electricity System Operator (ESO) responsible for the strategic approach to transmission investment, working with Transmission Owners across Great Britain. Regulation of the electricity and gas networks including approval of investment on infrastructure is carried out by the independent energy regulator Ofgem. Ofgem conducts analysis on the impact of standing charges on consumer bills across Great Britain and sets the framework for investment in the electricity and gas networks through the RIIO price controls. The Scottish Government has no role in networks regulation, apart from our statutory consenting process, however we work closely with the networks companies to promote consideration of Scottish Government policies and ambitions in their business plans and wider activities.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Wales and Northern Ireland, have noted the petition PE1997: Introduce mandatory braille labelling for food products sold in Scotland and the interest in Scotland around progressing this issue under the UK Food Compositional Standards and Labelling Common Framework. Defra have indicated that the UK Government has no immediate plans to initiate a public consultation on policy proposals for the introduction of mandatory braille labelling on food products, citing several factors that need to be explored before policy development can be considered on a UK-wide basis. This includes how viable braille labelling would be on a wide range of packaging, as well as the relative effectiveness and associated costs alongside using alternative different digital technologies. FSS intend to initiate stakeholder engagement in this respect during the 2024-25 business year and will keep the other UK lead departments updated at Common Framework discussions.

SPS has always been clear it is taking an open and transparent approach to the introduction of this policy which is evident in all they have put in the public domain. The SPS policy for the management of transgender people in custody was published on 5 December 2023, with operational guidance and an evidence paper published on 26 February. As these additional documents were intended for publication, they did not need to be released prior to that under freedom of information requests.

The SPS Chief Executive made this clear at the Criminal Justice Committee on 11 January, where she said: “Implementation will therefore commence from 26 February this year. In addition, at that time, we will publish our operational policy guidance, our gender diversity guidance and an evidence review document, which will all underpin the policy that was published last year”.

Table 1 presents the estimated gross cost of setting the Higher Property Rate equal to the Standard Multiplier in England. In England, in all three years, the Standard Multiplier was 51.2p, or 1.3p above the Small Business Multiplier of 49.9p. In Scotland, the Higher Property Rate in all three years was 2.6p above the poundage, which was 49p in 2021-2022 (having been temporarily reduced from 49.8p in 2020-2021 in response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19), and 49.8p in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. The costs therefore represent the impact of setting the Higher Property Rate at 51.2p instead of 51.6p in 2021-2022, and 52.4p in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

The figure for 2023-2024 is presented after General Revaluation Transitional Relief is applied. The figures are gross estimates, and are not adjusted for any other relief. Figures are broken down by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table is based on the valuation roll as at 1 October 2021, 1 October 2022, and 1 October 2023, with figures from 30 March 2023 and 1 April 2023 used to calculate General Revaluation Transitional Relief.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Estimated gross cost of reducing the Higher Property Rate to the level of the English Standard Multiplier (51.2p) (£), broken down by property class.