Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no plans to amend legislation relating to antique air weapons. Following consultation with the Scottish Government, the UK Government has introduced the Antique Firearms Regulations 2021. These regulations apply to Scotland as they apply to England and Wales, with the single exception of regulation 3(d). This provision is not being replicated because the air weapons it would affect are devolved. It is already the case that, regardless of the date of manufacture, all air weapons in Scotland with a muzzle energy greater than 1 joule must be held on a Scottish air weapon certificate (unless the muzzle energy is above 12 foot pounds, or 6 foot pounds for air pistols, in which case reserved UK legislation already applies).

The 2021 Programme for Scotland announced a short-life Business Purpose Commission for Scotland to promote more purposeful businesses and better corporate governance.

The Business Purpose Commission is tasked with considering whether there would be benefits to a distinct agenda for Purposeful Business in Scotland, and how business and government can better embed this to become a leading Purposeful Business nation. It aims to shed light on purposeful business in Scotland, to gather an evidence base identifying champions of the issue in Scotland and to generate new ideas of ways to drive change towards purposeful business policies and practice in Scotland, whether through advocacy, influence, or policy.

The current membership of the Commission is as follows. A small steering group of around 7 people will be drawn from the Commission’s full membership of around 25:

Co-Chairs

Colin Mayer CBE, Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, The University of Oxford/ Academic Lead, The Future of the Corporation Programme, The British Academy*

Amanda Young, Global Head of Responsible Investment, Aberdeen Standard Investments*

Commission

Stephen Boyd, Senior Economic Policy Officer, Scottish Government*

Sarah Davidson, Chief Executive, Carnegie Trust UK

Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work, Employment and Organisation, University of Strathclyde*

Crawford Gillies, Chair, Edrington

Alison Graham, Company Secretary, Baillie Gifford

Jamie Grant, Owner & Director, Glen Lyon Coffee

Poonam Gupta OBE, CEO, PG Paper Company Ltd

Dr Ifeyniwa Kanu, CEO & Founder, IntelliDigest

David McNeill, Director of Development, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

Jamie Maxton, Head of External Relations (Scotland), SSE Renewables

Andrew Murphy, Group Operations Director, John Lewis Partnership*

Paula Murphy, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, Wood Group

Brie Read, Entrepreneur and Founder, Snag Tights

Clare Reid, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, SCDI*

Dr Lesley Sawers OBE, Non-Executive Director, Crosswind Developments

Ian Walker, Global Programme Lead, Essential Surgery, Janssen*

Scott Wilson, Executive Director – Development, Robertson Group

Eliot Wishlade, Director, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd

* Members of Steering Group

The Scottish Government has published the Evaluation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism 2011-21 on 24 September. In response I was delighted to announce £650k this financial year, for tests of change on adult neurodevelopmental pathways. Additionally I announced new funding of £425k to trial the Scottish Government’s new Learning Disability and Autism leadership and engagement work and £400k for the understanding autism project charity funding.

The evaluation can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802013696

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02964 on 28 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02924 on 28 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.

This information is not collected centrally.

Section 35B of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets out the statutory basis for annual reporting on progress to implementation of Climate Change Plans.

The Scottish Government’s update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan, which was finalised earlier this year, includes a refreshed monitoring framework to underpin the statutory annual reporting. In May 2021, the first set of monitoring reports prepared on this basis was laid in the Scottish Parliament.

Although not responsible for the site, the Scottish Government has agreed to fund the first phase of work at the Tarbolton landfill site, which will begin to reduce the environmental and amenity impact of the site. As part of this first phase, work to remove giant hogweed from the site was successfully completed in July.

SEPA is currently procuring the bulk of the first phase of work and I am grateful to SEPA for offering to undertake this procurement.

While the Scottish Government is not responsible for the site, we continue to work with our public partners to consider further actions for its longer-term restoration.

My response did seek to answer your question (S6W-01453) regarding the introduction of water conservation measures, however here is some further explanation.

To date, water usage has been controlled through SEPA abstraction licences, by Scottish Water investment in reducing leakage from its public water supply system, by the provision of advice and guidance to business and domestic water users, and via Scottish Water media campaigns . However more is required to encourage consumers to use water more wisely.

Leakage from the public water supply system has been reduced by over 55% since 2006 and Scottish Water achieved the economic level of leakage in 2013. This equates to a reduction in leakage from over 1,100 mega litres per day (ML/d) in 2006 to 463ML/d in 2021 (down from 495ML/d in 2016/17).

Work with Scottish Water’s non-domestic customers has been ongoing since long before 2014/15 to raise awareness of the importance of water efficiency and promote efficient water use to generate environmental and financial savings. The total reduction in volume of non-domestic water delivered between 2014/15 and 2019/20 was 7,961 mega litres (5.4%) and between 2015/16 and 2020/21, and 15,569 mega litres (10.7%) partly due to the impacts of COVID-19 on businesses.

The EU recast Drinking Water Directive, which we have committed to transpose by 12 January 2023, will provide an opportunity to look closely at water efficiency measures and leakage targets with a view to conserving water.

From March 2020 to 25 August 2021, the Scottish Government has received 26 offers from MSPs (25), MPs (0) and councillors (1) on behalf of a company offering assistance with the making and supply of PPE. Of these offers, 20 were made on behalf of named companies and 6 were speculative contacts that did not name a specific company.

The Scottish Government did not enter into a contract or arrangement for the supply of the equipment with any of these companies.

Further information on the companies which have supplied the Scottish Government with PPE and hand sanitiser since 2020 is detailed in the linked Parliamentary Question, S6W-02212 on 31 August 2021.

From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government has worked with the NHS, and on a four-nation basis to ensure Scotland has adequate supplies of PPE. At no point during the pandemic did Scotland run out of PPE, and our robust stocks allowed us to provide PPE in mutual aid to other parts of the UK during the first wave. PPE supply is now stable, as it has been since summer 2020, and Scotland currently has 4 months’ worth of PPE stockpiled and approved for medical use

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