Chamber and committees

Overall reliability across the ChargePlace Scotland network is typically very good with the entire network up and running around 95% of the time each month . Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention or a visit by an engineer. Typically around 90% of faults are resolved within 48 hrs with the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk often remedying faults remotely.

ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) has a robust fault management process in place underpinned by KPIs as set out in the CPS contract. The CPS website provides information on fault management and relevant KPIs.

The Scottish Government does not have ready access to information regarding average and longest time in between a fault being identified and being made operational again. However, a new Network Performance page has recently been published on the ChargePlace Scotland website , which will routinely be updated with detailed information on fault tickets and the performance of the network.

As gathering and publishing employment data is the responsibility of HMRC, there is currently no data available to the Scottish Government on the number of Ukrainians living in Scotland under the Super Sponsor Scheme who have been supported into employment. HMRC publish counts of employments held by non-UK nationals in Scotland as part of their experimental statistics publication ‘payrolled employments in the UK by region, industry and nationality’. HMRC are planning to publish an update to these statistics in 2023.

The Scottish Government is taking action to ensure that displaced people seeking work in Scotland are provided with a full range of information, as early as possible, to help inform their employment decisions and settle well in Scotland. Scottish businesses are eager to employ Ukrainians who have arrived, recognising the skills they bring with them. We are working with councils, third and private sectors, Skills Development Scotland and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure arrivals can seek out and secure employment, including through job fairs.

It is not the case that the Government plans to remove the need to install solar PV systems on new properties since no such requirement exists. The focus of the New Build Heat Standard is on heating systems which produce direct greenhouse gas emissions at the point of use.

The Scottish Government’s recent consultation set out our intention to prohibit direct emissions heating systems in new buildings from April 2024.

It is our intention for the NBHS to remain technology neutral. Those technologies which do not emit greenhouse gases and can be used as part of a heating system will continue to be permitted. This includes, for example, heat pumps as well as energy generation such as solar PV.

The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport met with Solar Energy Scotland (SES) in February, with the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth meeting with them in May and myself in September. In addition to ministerial meetings, officials in energy and planning meet with SES and other industry participants regularly. During these ministerial and official meetings a number of points relating to solar have been discussed, including permitted development rights.

Based on charge points available or in use on the ChargePlace Scotland live map there are 137 charge points that are currently operational along the A9.

I have no current plans to do so but I wrote to Councillor Archie Dryburgh of Dumfries and Galloway Council on 20 October 2022. In that letter I confirmed that the Scottish Government would honour the commitment I made during my visit on 3 November 2021 to provide financial support to the Council. I set out that the Scottish Government will provide £33,000 of revenue funding and £25,000 of capital support, which represents half of the Council’s additional expenditure, in relation to the recovery and replacement of the two footbridges.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the use of technology in healthcare environments to improve health outcomes and to create jobs. Support includes the funding of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre and the Medical Devices Manufacturing Centre at Heriot Watt University.

The Scottish Government has also provided City Region Deals funding to develop innovation development capacity across Scotland, including the Inverness Campus which will generate new commercial opportunities in the sector including for companies developing products and services to help with assisted living.

The enterprise agencies also support with a suite of financial support and guidance including through R&D grant funding.

Scottish Government Officials are working towards holding the first meeting of the Joint Regulatory Taskforce as soon as possible and aim to hold before the end of 2022. Communications to key stakeholders to facilitate this will be issued shortly.

The Taskforce will also support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis.

While the Taskforce was announced as part of the Emergency Budget Review in response to the ongoing cost crisis, it is also expected to help support the work towards the longer term goals. Therefore, there is no set date for the conclusion of its work but the terms of reference will be subject to ongoing review to ensure the group continues to be in the best position to support the delivery of these goals.

The latest available information on the number of people convicted under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament is provided in the following table.

Number of people proceeded and convicted under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (where main crime) in Scottish courts, 1999-2000 to 2020-21.

Recruitment, training and deployment of firefighters are Operational decisions for the SFRS board and chief officer. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has provided assurance that at no point was there ever no firefighter cover for any area in Scotland. SFRS ensure that at any time a fire appliance is not available the nearest available appliance is mobilised to ensure every emergency is attended to.

In common with all parts of the UK and beyond, there are challenges with recruitment and retention of on-call firefighters in remote and rural areas in Scotland. SFRS has established a National On Call Leadership Forum which is identifying and driving improvements in recruitment.