Chamber and committees

A table showing the number of homes and projects that have been approved from 29 October 2021 to 23 August 2022 using the new benchmarks, broken down by baseline benchmark type for projects and homes which have an applicable benchmark has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63602).

Since 2018-19, as part of our annual Staff Governance Monitoring exercise, the Scottish Government requests information on the number of bullying and harassment cases raised locally each year. This information was not requested in 2019-20 due to the pandemic.

Please note than when numbers of cases are less than 5, we cannot give specific figures for reasons of maintaining anonymity.

The following table contains the figures for each Health Board.

Scottish Government has asked NatureScot to review the contents of Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Schedule 2 lists the species of birds which are protected during the close season but which may be killed or taken outside this period. Consideration of, and proposals for any changes to the shooting season for woodcock will be undertaken within this review, and in the context of other scheduled species.

We expect the review to be completed early next year.

When an applicant submits an application for a wind farm proposal it is considered on a case by case basis. Any wind farm application is assessed on its own merits against the relevant policy.

Under the Electricity Act 1989 an applicant can submit a new application where a previous application has been refused as the design and layout of the proposal may vary and there may be a change in material considerations.

Under the Planning Act 2019 local authorities have discretionary powers to decline to determine planning applications where a “similar application” has been refused (at appeal or following call-in) within the preceding two years by the Scottish Ministers and, in the opinion of the authority, there has not been a “significant change” in the development plan or any other material considerations. The same power also applies where more than one similar application has been refused by the authority within the preceding two years and no appeal has been lodged.

The assessment of low frequency noise for a wind farm proposal is considered on a case by case basis. Onshore wind turbine: planning advice (May 2014) sets out the policy position for assessing the effects of noise for wind turbine developments and requires proposals to be assessed in line with the framework ‘The Assessment and Rating of Noise from Wind Farms’ (ETSU-R-97) (Sept 1996) by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Following the announcement in October 2018, the recruitment process for non-Executive Whistleblowing Champions started in 2019. Given the scale of the recruitment process, most Whistleblowing Champions were appointed in 2020. The dedicated role offers an extra level of scrutiny and assurance, helping NHS Boards to comply with their responsibilities in relation to whistleblowing.

There are currently 2 vacancies within the State Hospital and NHS Shetland, which are currently being recruited through the Public Appointments process.

A table showing the number of homes and projects that have been submitted for approval in each month, from 29 October 2021 to 23 August 2022, broken down by baseline benchmark type and whether above, at, or below benchmark has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63601). To note that the table includes some projects still under active appraisal.

In the Scottish Government’s response to the Sturrock Review, a Ministerially-led Short-Life Working Group was convened, with representation from NHS boards, staff-side organisations, medical Royal Colleges based in Scotland and the professional and regulatory bodies representing medics, nurses and allied healthcare professionals.

The focus of this group was to examine how to take forward measures that support open and honest workplace cultures, specifically with a view to delivering sustainable behavioural and attitudinal changes to leadership and management across NHS Scotland.

This group met on 31 July 2019, 28 October 2019 and 18 June 2020. As this work has evolved, there are no plans for this group to meet.

The Scottish Government continues to provide financial support for bus services to keep services more extensive, and fares more affordable than would otherwise be the case. On 1 April 2022, the Network Support Grant was introduced, with up to £93.5 million allocated for 2022-23 and an additional £25.7 million is being provided to extend the Network Support Grant Plus until October of this year. The Scottish Government continues to engage with bus operators and local government to keep support under review.

Since 2010-11 the Scottish Government has recycled all receipts raised from shared equity sales.

Recycled receipts in each year are as shown in the following table.