Chamber and committees

Once operational Green Freeports will be subject to rigorous monitoring and reporting requirements. The Scottish Government will keep their performance under close review right across the fair work agenda. Provision of appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition, is a key aspect of our Fair Work First approach.

I have met with Julie James, MS, Minister for Climate Change on 4 occasions to share best practice and to cultivate collaboration on building safety.

The Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning chaired all meetings of the working group, it met five times between 28 April 2020 and 15 March 2021.

Eight buildings have received grant payments and all other buildings are being supported through the Single Building Assessment process.

Under the terms of their contracts, our Operating Companies have indemnified Scottish Ministers against claims of damage. As such they are liable for all claims and associated costs made in relation to road defects, and are required to deal directly with claimants with respect to all claims in relation to the operation of the trunk road network.

Since 21 July 2021 representatives of the small brewing sector have met the Scottish Government on a number of occasions to discuss Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS); most recently, representatives of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) discussed DRS with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy on 24 March 2022.

SIBA is also a member of the DRS System-Wide Assurance Group, which ensures that the views of small brewers continue to be heard as industry implements our DRS.

The Building Safety Act 2002 is bringing forward a new regime for high rise buildings in England following Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of the building regulation system there, which concluded that the system was broken.

The reviews of compliance and enforcement and fire safety standards in Scotland following the Edinburgh schools report and the Grenfell Tower fire did not reach the same conclusion, but did recommend that strengthening of the system should be undertaken. The Building Standards Futures Board is leading change to improve our system through work streams on Digital Transformation, Workforce Strategy, Certification Strategy, Compliance Plan, Verification Delivery Model, Technical Strategy and Verification Standard.On 22 April new regulations were laid in Parliament to improve the safety of cladding on new buildings in Scotland and to ensure that replacement cladding, beyond minor repair, meets the current standards.

Scottish Government is committed to using all tools at its disposal to encourage and enforce measures by developers and other key actors to ensure buildings are remediated, cost-effectively and at pace. This could include raising additional revenue where there is an anticipated shortfall – to ensure equity between homeowners in unsafely cladded buildings with linked developers, and those without. We will explore the necessity of additional revenue raising as part of the development of the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord – announced to the Scottish Parliament on 12 May 2022 - Update on cladding remediation programme: Cabinet Secretary's statement - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The framework for assessing applications for Green Freeport status is described in the joint bidding prospectus published on 25 March, which can be accessed at Green Freeports in Scotland: bidding prospectus - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Applicants’ commitments in relation to fair work practices will be considered under the lead objective: promote regeneration and high quality job creation. Only applications which achieve a high score on this objective will be shortlisted for ministerial consideration.

The terms and conditions of all GB - Railcards are set out by “National Rail” (part of the Rail Delivery Group). Neither Transport Scotland nor ScotRail regulate the rules for the use of national railcards.

I would encourage the member to contact The Rail Delivery Group to raise this matter.

The terms of reference for the Cladding Stakeholder Group state the members agreed to maintain confidentiality of discussions. Discussions at the group cover information associated with high priority buildings and this cannot be disclosed due to the privacy notice agreed with homeowners.