Chamber and committees

Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with liver disease is able to access the best possible care and support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and person-centred.

Although the Scottish Government has not directly undertaken any analysis into the impact of geographical variation in primary care pathways for the early detection of liver disease, we are aware of the work currently being conducted by one of our partners, British Liver Trust, who are gathering evidence on how best to improve the management of chronic liver disease in primary care.

Tree Planting is a critical element of the Scottish Government’s plans to tackle the climate emergency and help achieve a net-zero Scotland.

Although data on land use prior to woodland establishment is not available, tree planting takes place on a range of land types, including agricultural, former agricultural, sporting, conservation, restored land, on golf courses and in association with built and infrastructure development.

Official statistics show that 82,840 hectares of new woodland was created in Scotland in the last decade.

Officials from all four UK administrations are engaging on the issue of sustainable long-term alternatives to the control of bracken. At this time, plans for stakeholder engagement have not been finalised. Initial talks with the Bracken Control Group have taken place and their advice on other interested parties will be considered. Those involved will include representatives from farming, environment and wildlife.

In planning proceedings the parties are normally expected to meet their own expenses and expenses are only awarded on grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

Unreasonable behaviour would be deemed if another party to the appeal has acted unreasonably and this caused the party making the claim to incur unnecessary expense, either because it should not have been necessary for the case to come before Scottish Ministers or because of the manner in which the party against whom the claim is made, has conducted their part of the proceedings.

Vehicle registration is generally a reserved matter operated by the DVLA. We have not been involved in discussions to date and would have to establish whether bicycles are classes as vehicles to understand what its impact on Scotland, if any, would be.

We are committed to supporting many more people to walk, wheel or cycle for everyday journeys and are allocating record funding for that purpose. Cycle licences or registration plates have played no part in our proposals and would run counter to our aims by making it harder for people to make the choice to choose cycling for everyday short journeys. There are many more effective steps that can be taken to ensure that roads are safer for all users – for examples, increasing accessible cycle infrastructure, improving street design and making sure that all road users are aware of good safe ways of using the roads.

The decision to bring ScotRail under public control avoided the need to run an expensive and inappropriate rail franchising competition. Though widely acknowledged as a failed model, franchise competitions remain the preferred approach in current UK Legislation. Such exercises typically cost in excess of £10m for franchising authorities, as well as the similarly significant costs of each bidder.

As confirmed during my Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee appearance on 15 March 2022, prior to that date, since the decision to proceed with the “Operator of Last Resort” (OLR) option was taken in March 2021, £3.6 million had been spent on the OLR activity.

Final reconciliation figures confirm that £5.5 million has been spent in total on OLR activity, and ScotRail Trains Ltd. was mobilised successfully on 1 April. I am confident you will notice the saving this achieved when compared with a franchising competition.

NatureScot are considering a range of studies regarding the muirburn season when reviewing the evidence for a muirburn licensing system.  

Research on this topic is continuing and NatureScot will take account of the evidence as it becomes available.  

There was no dedicated budget for the Islands Bond consultation as this work was undertaken as part of our overall policy development activity.

The legislation governing disabled access and vehicle construction is reserved to the UK Government. Since 1 January 2020 all coaches, single and double decker buses have had to be fully accessible.

However, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that transport is accessible for all. Scottish Ministers' have made clear their expectations that Scotland's transport providers and public services will continually improve their performance to help disabled people make better journeys. That is why the Scottish Government launched in 2016 Scotland's Accessible Travel Framework, which is shaped by disabled people to improve the overall journey experience and remove the barriers which prevent them travelling. The Framework sets out a 10 year plan in which 48 actions are to be delivered over the 10 year period. These include:

• Scottish Government provided £35,000 to Neatebox who have developed and trialled an app focusing on bus travel for disabled users with the primary focus on wheelchair users who require use of particular designated space when using the bus, and
• In March 2021, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation that extends the National Concessionary Travel Card to eligible disabled children under the age of five, allowing free bus travel to accompanying companion using the National Entitlement Card. This will give around 4,000 eligible disabled children across Scotland access to the same benefits as those aged five and over, helping to reduce household costs for their families.

The feedback gathered through our engagement on the Islands Bond since October 2021, (including meeting over 100 island residents across 12 island communities in spring 2022), is now being used to shape a range of Practical Policy Tests (PPTs). These in turn will help to inform the development of a new action plan to address depopulation as set out in our 2019 National Islands Plan.

We are carefully considering all options presented to us through the online consultation, meetings with communities and stakeholders, and through the in-person workshops we held in spring 2022. More information will be made available in due course as the PPTs develop.