Chamber and committees

Network Rail is ultimately accountable to the UK Government, however, Scottish Ministers have made it clear that any decisions it makes in relation to staffing and staffing levels must be in line with the Scottish Government’s Fair Work principles.

The security offered by the Scottish Government’s continued funding of Scotland’s Railway will assist with Network Rail’s future planning and work-banks for the supply sector.

The Scottish Government receives regular updates on all new vessel builds. The contract for the Little Minch vessels was signed on 11 January and all agreements including full Builders Refund Guarentees were put in place recently. The latest update was received from CMAL on 20 February 2023.

CMAL as procuring authority have confirmed that there have been no changes to the design or specifications for the vessels ordered from the Cemre Marin Endustri yard to serve on the Uig to Lochmaddy and Uig to Tarbert ferry routes.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with the sector, most recently through holding a series of roundtable discussions. While we have had to make difficult choices to live within budgets, we have also listened to the concerns raised by the culture sector. In response, as announced on 21 February, the Scottish Government will provide an uplift of £6.6 million for Creative Scotland for 2023-24 to ensure their accumulated lottery funding reserves can supplement rather than replace grant funding.

This decision means there will be a substantial increase in the Scottish Government’s funding for culture and major events in the next financial year.

We expect Creative Scotland to set out quickly for the culture sector how it will use these additional resources to support organisations and help protect culture sector jobs at this difficult time.

We will continue to have close discussions with Creative Scotland and the wider culture sector to support workers and ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive.

The consultation has been published today and is available on the Scottish Government’s Consultation Hub, Citizen Space https://consult.gov.scot/lifelong-learning-and-skills/rural-and-islands-college-merger-proposal

It seeks views on the proposals put forward by the boards of management of North Highland College (UHI North Highland), West Highland College (UHI West Highland) and Lews Castle College (UHI Outer Hebrides) to merge into a single, incorporated college.

Through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF ), we are co-investing with a diverse range of Scottish manufacturers to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions through increased energy efficiency and deep decarbonisation projects. The requested information can be found in the following table:

Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund applications and awards (to date):

The number of individuals successfully completing the Maritime Occupations Modern Apprenticeship framework across each year since 2018/19 is detailed in the following table. All MA statistics are published on the SDS website at Modern Apprenticeships | Skills Development Scotland . Year-end statistics for‎ 2022-23 are expected to be published in May 2023.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually (based on a three-year average) in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) local authority tables starting with the 2003-2006 publication.

The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 are available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 .

Estimates from 2010-12 to 2016-18 are available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analyses 2010-2012 to 2016-2018

Estimates dating from 2003-2006 to 2013-2015 are also available on our archive at:

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Scottish House Condition Survey - Local Authority

Please Note:

Results from 2016-18 to 2017-19 are based on best estimates under the new definition of fuel poverty as set out in the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019. They reflect amendments made to the legislation during the Bill process up to and including Stage 2.

Results from 2003-06 to 2015-17 are based on the definition of fuel poverty set out in The Scottish fuel Poverty statement 2002 .

As the 2020 SHCS was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and results from the 2021 External+ SHCS are not yet published and unlikely to be consistent with previous years, the 2017-2019 results are the latest available at Local Authority level.

Due to the recent rise in energy prices and lack of recent SHCS data on fuel poverty, we have published scenario modelling of national fuel poverty rates under the Energy Price Guarantee, at both the current £2,500 level from October 2022 as well as the £3,000 level from April 2023.

This modelling estimates that from October 2022 there are around 860,000 households (35%) in fuel poverty in Scotland. This is an increase of 247,000 households or around 10 percentage points from the latest available 2019 SHCS statistics, which showed 613,000 households in fuel poverty (25%). With the increase in the Energy Price Guarantee to £3,000 in April 2023 we estimate that around 980,000 households (39%) in Scotland will be in fuel poverty. While these modelled estimates are not available at Local Authority level, the large increases in the fuel poverty rate will be reflected across each Local Authority in Scotland.

My officials in Scottish Enterprise remain in regular contact with the Joint Administrators and continue to work closely with them to help find a sustainable future for the Stoneywood site in Aberdeen.

The administration process continues to progress and prior to formal marketing of the site, the Administrator has re-engaged with potential interested parties. Any discussions between interested parties and the Administrator will likely take place in the coming weeks.