Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will only agree to Investment Zones if they reflect Scotland’s regulatory environment, aligning with EU regulation where appropriate and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards across a range of policy areas.

The initial phase of the pilot project is nearly complete. This early work has sought to understand how communities which have been affected by repeated water scarcity events should be identified, to establish the proximity to public water mains, to assess the network capacity and estimate the costs associated with extending the mains to potentially allow those on private water supplies to make a connection. Scottish Water has completed the studies for the pilot projects with final report expected soon. I will write to the Member to provide an update once I have considered the final report.

Officials have initiated exploratory talks with UK Government, pressing for further clarity on the substance and process of proposals in England and the proposed framework for discussing a model for Investment Zones in Scotland.

As the First Minister has made clear, the creation of any Investment Zones here would have to reflect the devolution settlement, particularly as it relates to environmental protection. The Scottish Government is committed to a programme of enhancing nature protections and delivering nature restoration.

NHS Highland has now received all five reports from the Independent Review Panel (IRP) of the Healing Process and the work of the IRP is now concluded.

The Board has made significant progress against the majority of the recommendations included in both the Independent Review Panel (IRP) of the Healing Process and the Sturrock reports. As part of this work, the board have ensured that systems and processes are in place which would allow colleagues to speak up and be heard.

A decision has been taken by Scottish Government Health and Social Care Management Board to de-escalate NHS Highland from Stage 3 to Stage 2 of the NHS Board performance escalation framework in relation to Governance, Leadership and Culture.

NHS Highland will remain at Stage 3 for Financial Management and Mental Health Performance until further progress is made in the provision of mental health services, and a national review of NHS Scotland’s financial position is complete. Measures are in place to support NHS Highland will continue for these areas.

You can find out more about the NHS Board performance escalation framework here: NHS healthcare standards: Board performance escalation framework - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot )

The Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland's businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services more productive and innovative. Productivity growth is the means by which we will build a better society, through higher incomes and living standards, and a fairer, more resilient, wellbeing economy for Scotland. Scotland’s longer term productivity growth has already been outperforming the UK as a whole since the financial crisis, and the Scottish Government is already taking direct action and investing in key policy areas to promote productivity growth and support a wellbeing economy.

Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation’s third programme focuses on making Scotland’s businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services more productive and innovative. We will stimulate business growth by investing in innovation, expanding opportunities internationally and supporting businesses to benefit from the transformational opportunities of digitalisation. Productivity Clubs were launched in 2019 to establish informal networks supporting peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and learning, and nurturing opportunities for collaboration, and have since been expanded.

The 2022-23 Programme for Government commits to undertaking research and advice to improve workplace productivity and wellbeing, including on the delivery of a four-day working week pilot, and to ensure that digital and technological innovation is used as a key driver for improved productivity and work standards/conditions.

This will be considered once further clarity has been provided on proposals for Investment Zones in Scotland. We have made clear that any model for Scotland must reflect the Scottish economic policy and governance landscape.

The Hon. Lord Brailsford replaces the Hon. Lady Poole as Chair of the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry today. The amended terms of reference also come into effect from today to further emphasise the expectation that the Inquiry will take a human rights-based approach, and that it will demonstrate how that approach has informed and improved the recommendations it makes. Specifically, this change will require the Inquiry when reporting, “To demonstrate how a human rights based approach by the inquiry has contributed to the inquiry’s findings in fact and recommendations”.

The amended Terms of Reference can be found in full here: COVID-19 Inquiry - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with CERG members to discuss a range of issues on how to accelerate delivery of climate action, including how to decarbonise our transport systems and cities.

As independent Scheme Administrator established by businesses, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) is responsible for setting the fees for businesses who wish CSL to administer their DRS obligations on their behalf.

The rationale behind a higher fee for producers who use UK-wide labels instead of Scotland-specific ones is to compensate for any drinks containers purchased elsewhere in the UK where a deposit is not paid, but then returned in Scotland for a deposit.

CSL will actively monitor such returns and adjust the higher fee per individual product to reflect the number of such containers processed through its network that were purchased out with Scotland.