Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government considers renewable, nuclear, bioenergy and energy from waste generation technologies to be low carbon. This is consistent with the definition used by the UK Government (BEIS).Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type, and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification. Lifecycle emissions are used to classify bioenergy as low carbon, because whilst bioenergy is not necessarily low emissions at the point of generation, it is low carbon over its lifecycle.

Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the impact that the recent price rises in the cost of energy will have on people, especially those using medical equipment at home, such as CPAP machines for the treatment of sleep apnoea.

Decisions about the reimbursement of energy costs associated with CPAP machines and other medical machines in individuals’ homes are made by NHS Boards. The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Boards to address financial pressures across the healthcare system, including the impacts of the increase in energy costs. In May 2022, we published our Resource Spending Review that set out investment of £73 billion in health and social care to 2026-27.

The Scottish Government will also use the Emergency Budget Review to increase the Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million in 2022-23. The Fuel Insecurity Fund is aimed at helping people who are at risk of self-rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely because they cannot afford their energy bills.

The authorisation of plant protection products (PPPs) is an area devolved to the Scottish Government and Scottish Ministers have arranged for functions related to regulating PPPs to be exercised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on our behalf. Whilst Asulox does not currently hold a full approval for use, the Scottish Government carefully considered and consented to, the HSE’s recommendation to authorise limited and controlled emergency use of Asulox for bracken management during 2022.

Delivery of PPPs by drone falls under the HSE regulations covering aerial spraying. To ensure safety on the ground and in the air both the HSE and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are involved in considering any such applications. Scottish Ministers encourage our regulator and stakeholders to look to solutions that decrease risks to human and environmental health.

I refer the member to question S6W-10779 on 20 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Community ownership is an important aim of the Scottish Government and there are numerous examples of communities thriving after being given the opportunity to own and manage their own assets. This leads to better local outcomes, which focus on local needs. It is important that we align our policy in respect of increased community ownership to help deliver the vision and outcomes set out in our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. If we are to meet our ambitious target of halting the decline in Scotland’s biodiversity by 2030 and reverse it by 2045 all land owners and managers across community, private, voluntary and public sectors will have a part to play.

The questions asked and the answers provided, during each of the Building Scotland (Amendment) Regulations 2022 - Online Q&A Sessions, were recorded and have now been collated and organised according to topic within a summary document.

This document is currently being finalised and will be published at: www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-technical-handbooks-2022/ before the end of September.

The Scottish Government are currently co-designing the Disability Equality strategy with Disabled People’s Organisations. The co-design meetings will continue until February 2023. The strategy will be published in Spring 2023 once fully accessible versions are created.

Responsibility for the routine maintenance, upkeep and management of burial grounds in Scotland rests with the relevant burial authority. A burial authority may be a local authority or a private owner. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (as amended), owners must ensure any premises they are responsible for are maintained to a safe standard for both employees and visitors. The Burial ground memorial safety: local authority guidance was produced to assist local authorities meet their obligations to inspect and make safe memorials and headstones.

At this time the Scottish Government has no plans to provide financial support to local authorities for the maintenance of burial grounds.

It is not possible to estimate how much households have spent in total on installing these alarms during the six months before the statutory deadline in February 2022 as the number of households installing alarms during that period is not known.

Estimates of the number of households with legislation-compliant alarms will only be available when the results of the 2022 Scottish House Condition Survey are published. This is expected to be in late 2023 / early 2024.

Bikeability Scotland is a national cycle training programme for school children which supports the next generation of confident and responsible people travelling by bike. More than 41,000 children benefited from cycle training across all levels of the programme in 2020-21, and 37% of all primary schools delivered essential life skills through Level 2 on-road training.

The child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022 recognises transport as a key lever of poverty and child poverty through its impact on household income access to employment, education, goods and services. We have a commitment to provide free bikes to children who cannot afford one, and to date over 2,000 young people in Scotland have benefited from this commitment through our nine pilot projects.

Ensuring that every child leaves school with the ability to cycle safely, is not only about training. It’s also about providing a safe environment through the development of active travel infrastructure. We are committed to supporting many more people to walk, wheel or cycle for everyday journeys and are allocating record funding for that purpose.

The Active Travel budget for 2022-23 increased to a record £150 million; of which £137.7 million is capital investment. This includes the Cycling Walking Safer Routes grant of £35 million that goes directly to local authorities on a pro rata basis. We are investing in ambitious on and off-road segregated walking and cycling routes, safer junctions and improved design of place.