Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to minimising the carbon emissions impact of all City Region Growth Deals, including the assessment of their contribution to the achievement of the national net zero target. All City Region Growth Deal projects must follow Green Book guidance by quantifying their whole life carbon emissions impact and incorporating this value into the economic case. This is an ongoing and proactive carbon management process, facilitated by the City Region Growth Deals Sustainable Development Manager.

The Biodiversity Intactness Index focuses on nature in the past, reflecting the many pressures in the past over which we now have no control. I am pleased to say that of the four UK nations, Scotland is highest in the list. However, our Statement of Intent on biodiversity published in December 2020 acknowledges that more needs to be done and sets out our ambition and our commitment to tackling the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

We have made a commitment to produce a new Scottish biodiversity strategy within a year of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COP15), to be held in October 2021 in Kunming, China. A delivery plan will follow, to be developed in conjunction with NatureScot. These will set out our proposals for delivering the step change in our action to address biodiversity loss which is required.

Through the ground-breaking agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party, we have committed to introduce a new Environment Bill which will include targets for nature restoration that cover land and sea based on an overarching goal of preventing any further extinctions of wildlife and halting declines by 2030, and making significant progress in restoring Scotland’s natural environment by 2045.

The Statement of Intent has already made several other key announcements, including:

• an ambitious commitment to protect 30% of our land for nature by 2030 (this has now been further strengthened with a commitment for 10% of land to be highly protected).
• endorsement of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, launched at the UN General Assembly in September 2020.
• our work on National Planning Framework 4 will develop new proposals to secure positive effects for biodiversity through development.

We have made significant funding commitments to protect and restore biodiversity.

• We will invest at least £500 million in the natural economy over the course of this Parliament, including: £100 million to increase forestry planting, £30 million to expand Scotland’s national forests and land, and £20 million to increase nursery stocks.
• We have committed £250 million for peatland restoration over 10 years as part of our climate change plan.
• We have committed £214 million through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) since 2015.
• In July 2021 we launched the Nature Restoration Fund, which provides an additional £10 million capital funding for projects that will restore nature, safeguard wildlife and tackle the causes of biodiversity loss and climate change. We have now committed to extending that Fund throughout this Parliament and allowing multiyear funding.
• The Nature Restoration Fund adds to almost £7 million already committed this year through the Biodiversity Challenge Fund.

Our Programme for Government 2021-22 commits to the creation of at least one new National Park by the end of this Parliament, provided relevant legal conditions can be met.

This is a significant project which will involve widespread consultation, Parliamentary engagement and secondary legislation. There are a number of stages to this work, including scoping of candidate areas and analysis of proposals. The process for selecting and establishing a new National Park is set out in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 which has a number of consultation and drafting stages. The legislation sets out that the first step to identify appropriate candidate areas is a thorough consultation process. Once that consultation has been carried out and a location agreed upon, work can begin on establishing a new public body. Assessment of the resources required to take forward this work is under way and recruitment will follow, with work expected to commence in Spring 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02628 on 14 September 2021. 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.

The Scottish Government has committed to establishing a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a 4 day working week. The pilot will allow us to develop a better understanding of the implications of a broader shift to a 4 day working week across the economy, and aims to represent a broad cross-section of businesses and organisations spanning the Scottish economy, including those who would find the move to a four day work week more challenging.

There has been extensive engagement with individual businesses registering an interest in participating in the pilot and with business representative organisations. Discussions have also taken place with academic experts and organisations regarding the promotion of flexible working. All this engagement is currently informing the careful and rigorous design of the pilot and it is anticipated that a timetable for implementation will be announced later this year.

The Scottish Government has consulted on the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) report recommendations and draft Bill on Judicial factors. The provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (“2017 Act”) was raised in the consultation along with a question asking consultees whether any provisions of the 2017 Act could be usefully replicated in any Scottish Legislation.

The consultation responses suggest that some aspects of the 2017 Act could be considered: Judicial factors: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The issues brought to light in the consultation responses will be explored further when work to consider a programme of the implementation of SLC Reports during this Parliament - which includes Judicial Factors - is commenced.

CalMac Ferries Ltd negotiated the time charter of the MV Arrow with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, in line with the industry standard practice. Responsibility for crewing, repairs & maintenance and regulatory compliance rests with the Seatruck, as the owner of the vessel. CalMac Ferries Ltd did not pay a charter fee for to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for the MV Arrow when the vessel was not available for deployment as a result of mechanical failure.

Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 sets out the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland. After section 1 of the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 has been commenced, children under 12 whose behaviour has caused significant harm to others will be eligible for support provided by the Bairns’ Hoose.

The R100 North lot contract was signed one year later than planned due to a legal challenge which resulted in a necessary pause in the procurement process. The contract we subsequently signed with BT plc will go far beyond our superfast commitment of 30 Mbps by delivering a significant number of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connections, providing future-proofed, gigabit capable connectivity.

The additional engineering work required to deliver these connections will take time, however we remain committed to ensuring that everyone can access superfast broadband services by the end of 2021. Anyone whose home or business broadband speed is less than 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), and where there are no plans under the R100 contracts or commercial build to bring superfast broadband to their address by the end of 2021, will be eligible for a voucher through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

This year we support to hotel facilities, including rural hotels, with £900k by means of our enterprise agencies as part of our highly targeted £14m COVID-19 Hotel Support Programme.

As we look forward beyond immediate business support, we are working closely with the sector and have secured £25m to deliver the recommendations of the Scottish Tourism Recovery Taskforce. These wider actions will stimulate demand for the sector contributing to its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.