Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with COSLA to find a way forward on the introduction of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers.

The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendation by the independent Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body (DDRB) of an annual pay uplift of 4.5% for NHS medical and dental staff for this year backdated to 1 April 2022. This is for all NHS Scotland medical and dental staff, general medical practitioners and general dental practitioners.

East Linton station is currently scheduled to open by the end of the current Railway Control Period, which ends on 31 March 2024. The station will be served by all ScotRail services on the route. Timetable planning discussions remain ongoing with other train operators, including UK Government train operating companies, and the wider industry to secure an appropriate service for all stations on the East Coast Mainline. Once these discussion have concluded Transport Scotland will be in a position to advise of the proposed timetable at East Linton station.

Universal Credit is available as support for those unemployed and there are other benefits such as Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), however these are all reserved to the UK Government. Furthermore Employment Law is also reserved to the UK Government and the Scottish Government has no powers over associated policies.

We have provided £240 million of additional investment over two financial years, and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding from April this year, to support the employment of additional teachers and support staff.

We will also fund 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this Parliamentary term – over and above the 1,400 teachers recruited during the pandemic.

We will continue to work closely with COSLA regarding the employment of teachers, to maximise the number of jobs available, including permanent posts.

In 2016 there were 39 air quality management areas designated in Scotland, since then five air quality management areas have been revoked due to improvements in air quality (1 in 2016, 1 in 2020, 2 in 2021 and 1 in 2022).

Revocation procedures for a further two air quality management areas have commenced, and a further 12 are eligible for revocation due to improvements in air quality.

The Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill is concerned with the use of dogs to hunt wild mammals and, as such, does not affect shoots where dogs are only being used to beat or retrieve game birds.

As I stated in the Rural Affairs, Islands, and Natural Environment committee evidence session on the 29 June:

“If someone sets out with the purpose of pursuing a combination of game shooting and control of wild mammals, the bill will apply. The two-dog limit will apply and the person will have to comply with the terms of the bill. If they go out only for game shooting—therefore, not in pursuit of a wild mammal and with no intention of pursuing a wild mammal—the bill will not apply. In those circumstances, I expect that, if the dogs that the person was using went after a wild mammal, and that was not the person’s intention, they would not be caught by the bill.”

The Scottish Government undertook two public consultations on the proposals in the Bill as well as carrying out a series of stakeholder engagement meetings.

There are no plans to combine these systems which operate under distinct legislative requirements.

Both systems, however, seek to achieve shared strategic objectives, including achieving net zero emissions. Our work on planning reform is ongoing, including taking forward the provisions of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 through policy, regulations and guidance. Building regulations address a wide range of building functions or performance standards, and complement broader provisions of the planning system. Improved energy standards will apply from December this year and changes will be made in 2023 to introduce provision for electric charge points in new developments.

Work is also ongoing to improve the consistency, transparency and accessibility of information in both the planning and building standards systems as part of our five year digital planning transformation programme.

The specific level of the producer fee is for Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL), as a private business independent of Government, to set through a commercial negotiation with the producers which it agrees to represent. As such the Scottish Government was not consulted as part of the development of the producer fee.

We met the commitment to begin providing free bikes to schoolchildren within 100 days of the new Government by commencing the ongoing pilot programme. The pilot programme is, by its nature, focused in scope with 9 projects testing a range of delivery models. We aim to roll the programme out more widely in 2023.

The pilot period will conclude at the end of August 2022. The projected spend to the end of the pilot period is £2,601,356.22. This is £870,369.34 resource and £1,730,986.88 capital. The resource element of the budget is not used to procure bikes, but to fund activity such as training sessions and staffing to support the objectives of the pilot programme.

The total number of bikes issued to date is 2067. We expect to have issued 3000 bikes by the end of the pilot period. The bikes include adapted and non-standard bikes to cater for a range of needs.

In addition, fleet bikes delivered by Sustrans Scotland to participating schools, but not given to any individual child, have been used 2927 times.

We do not record data on bike numbers at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The 9 pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

Amey OW Ltd has been awarded the Network Maintenance Contract for the North East Unit. This contract will begin on 16 August and run for 8 years, with a potential to extend for a further 4 years. The procurement process was carried out in compliance with the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2015 (the Regulations) in a fair, equal and transparent manner, Amey OW Ltd being identified as the successful tender in accordance with the competition rules as advertised within the Contract Notice and all competition documentation.