Chamber and committees

I meet local authority representatives on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of issues which I am responsible for as the Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning. The Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council 2023 raised third party rights of appeal with me at a meeting on 11 May. Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council officials met on 30 May 2023 to discuss planning appeal procedures – the matter of third party rights of appeal was briefly raised during that discussion.

A summary of available information on each project is provided in the following table, based on information provided by Zero Waste Scotland.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) is provided by Zero Waste Scotland in order to build capacity, raise the profile of circular economy models and accelerate their adoption. Through CEBS Zero Waste Scotland provide technical support and advice to businesses, not funding, and businesses are under no obligation to report to Zero Waste Scotland. Up to date information on projects’ status is reliant on engagement from businesses, and recipients of previous support do occasionally cease contact. It is therefore not possible to provide a detailed status update for all of the referenced projects.

As this support is primarily provided to early stage or start-up businesses, any impact in terms of job creation and on the environment, including carbon reduction, is dependent on the scale and replication of the supported business model or circular innovation.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). SCTS is an independent body corporate and does not answer directly to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government typically meets OPG once every 3 - 6 months to discuss ongoing business matters, including registration of powers of attorney. The most recent meeting was in May 2023, where the introduction of a new IT system at OPG was discussed, which is expected to reduce processing times for power of attorney applications.

We will meet again over the course of the year to discuss what progress has been made with regard to power of attorney processing times.

The Scottish Government has not had any meetings with Scotia Arts since May 2021.

In 2023-24, the average household charge in Scotland is £411 (estimated by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS)). This compares to the average charge of £448 in England and Wales as published by Discover Water.

The majority of planning appeals are decided by reporters from Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government. Whilst Scottish ministers have the power to recall an appeal for their own decision, they would normally only do so in appeals that raise issues of national importance.

Windfarm appeal decisions are made on the planning merits of the case and in overall accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Reporters take full account of all submissions made by parties, including any representations from members of the local community. The reporter will carry out an inspection of the appeal site and surrounding area.

The current starting salary for a fully qualified/registered teacher in Scotland is £37,896, compared to (a) £28,000 in England and (b) £29,278 in Wales.

The £2m programme commitment was initially set out in the digital health and care delivery plan and aims to benefit more than 2,000 people by providing devices and building digital skills and confidence to access growing online services such as digital therapies.

As part of this, an initial £600,000 “Digital Pioneers” project funding call was issued in April 2023 . An announcement will be made on the Digital Pioneer projects who have been selected shortly.

Under the Equality Act 2010, which is reserved to the UK Parliament, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments if health conditions are or are likely to be long lasting and have an impact on an employee’s daily life. This may apply in the case of thyroid disease, however this would depend on the circumstances surrounding each individual case.

The Scottish Government currently invests in a range of initiatives to support people with health conditions to sustain or return to work, including through the NHS delivered Working Health Services Scotland and the Public Health Scotland led Healthy Working Lives resource. They provide advice and support on work related physical and mental health promotion and ill health prevention, return to work practices and workplace safety for employers.

We also recognise that improving access to flexible working is an important means to help people balance work and health conditions, without dropping out of the workplace with the loss of income, experience and skills that this entails. To that end, we have provided a total of £222,000 in 2022-23 to flexible working experts, Flexibility Works to promote flexible working and support employers across Scotland to adopt flexible and family friendly workplaces. A further £86,000 has been committed so far this financial year.

The Workforce Action Plan and Delivery Plan which support the Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be published in Autumn 2023.