Chamber and committees

In 2024, the Scottish Government France Office continued to take forward the objectives of the Scottish Government’s International Strategy [Scotland's International Strategy - gov.scot] in bringing benefits to Scotland under our key themes of Economy, Trade and Investment; Climate Change, Biodiversity and Renewable Energy; and Reputation, Influence and Relationships.

Some examples from 2024 include:

To support Economy, Trade and Investment, the Scottish Government and SDI France jointly organised a Saint Andrew’s Day showcase event at the British Embassy and supported a Ministerial-led delegation of Scottish meat producers led by Quality Meat Scotland at the Salon International de l’Agroalimentaire to showcase Scottish products.

To support Climate Change, Biodiversity and Renewable Energy, we continued to engage with French partners to promote green energy including at the Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Conference (FOWT) in Marseille, with a range of potential investors in the offshore wind sector in Paris and with a delegation of Scottish companies at Hyvolution.

To support Reputation, Influence and Relationships, we continued to work with the Brittany Region with our MoU, with UK delegations of multilateral organisations (UNESCO and OECD), and numerous Scottish diaspora organisations (under our Scottish Connections Framework). We also supported a range of cultural events such as the Interceltique Festival in Lorient, and worked with the UK Embassy on remembrance events and ceremonies.

Examples of our international network’s work from last business year can be found here: International network: annual report 2023-2024 - gov.scot

Details of decarbonisation of the Scottish rail network will be outlined in the refreshed Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Our fourth National Planning Framework (NEF) is a long-term plan looking to 2045 that guides spatial development, sets out national planning policies, designates national developments and highlights regional spatial priorities.

Planning authorities are preparing new local development plans, which will be to take forward NPF4 in a way which responds to local challenges and opportunities. NPF4 Policy 22, flood risk and water management, sets out the need to strengthen resilience to flood risk by promoting avoidance as a first principle and reducing the vulnerability of existing and future development to flooding. NPF4 Policy 22 exception iv states that redevelopment of previously used sites in built up areas will only be supported where the LDP has identified a need to bring these into positive use and where proposals demonstrate that long-term safety and resilience can be secured in accordance with relevant SEPA advice.

In 2019 the Scottish Government and COSLA agreed to adopt the Place Principle to help overcome organisational and sectoral boundaries, to encourage better collaboration and community involvement, and improve the impact of combined energy, resources and investment.

It promotes a shared understanding of place, and the need to take a more collaborative approach to a place’s services and assets to achieve better outcomes for people and communities. The principle encourages and enables local flexibility to respond to issues and circumstances in different places.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) embeds and promotes the Place Principle, to ensure all land-use planning decisions take account of place and local circumstances, including flooding. The NPF4 also encourages the use of the Place Standard tool in the early stages of planning, to ensure that the needs and priorities of local communities are incorporated, and for developers to demonstrate how the Place Principle has been incorporated into their proposals.

Changes to legislation came into force in November 2021 which allow for local authorities to put experimental projects on the ground with 7 days’ notice and a minimum 6 month consultation period which begins on the day the project is put in place. There is also a streamlined process to follow if the authority then wish to make the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) a permanent Traffic Road Order (TRO).

No full review of this process has been undertaken since 2021 but officials have had a number of discussions with local authorities to provide further information on the change in process and to assist in putting the new measures in place. No concerns regarding the new procedures have been raised during these discussions.

Significant additional activity is already underway following the allocation of £30 million funding to target reductions to the national backlogs that built up throughout the pandemic. This includes over 40,000 extra diagnostic procedures.

To specifically support scope based diagnostics we have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan backed by £70 million. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign.

To provide further support for timeous diagnosis, the Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) will shortly publish a newly developed Inflammatory Bowel Disease pathway to support earlier identification and management of the disease.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

The Scottish Government currently own 10 Tesla’s. We do not have any leased vehicles.

Individual policy teams within portfolios routinely allocate funding to local government to deliver our shared priorities. The intended allocations at the start of the financial year are set out in table 4.12 of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget, providing transparency to parliament. While the funding is included in the weekly revenue and monthly capital payments made to individual local authorities from the start of the financial year, the budget is formally processed at ABR and SBR – which are also published for transparency.

The Scottish Government’s intention in terms of funding available to local government is fully set out in the budget in the initial presentation, and given full effect as a technical increase to the general revenue or capital grants at ABR and SBR.

There is a range of factors which have had an effect on the net cost of running passenger rail services over the last 10 years. These include the number of services delivered, passenger revenue, Network Rail access charges, inflation, energy and fuel costs, and variations introduced during the Covid period.

The answer to question S6W-32009 shows the additional income arising from the Intermediate Property Rate being set at 55.4p in 2025-26, compared to setting it at 54.5p, keeping rateable values and all other variables constant.

Generally, rateable values only tend to change at revaluations which take place every three years, with the next one scheduled for 1 April 2026. Outwith revaluations, rateable values may change due to factors such as property expansions or improvements, changes due to proposals or appeals, or additions and deletions of property entries from the Valuation Roll.

In Scotland, there is no legislation linking the maximum possible uprating of the rates to inflation in the preceding year. Given that Scottish Ministers have chosen to set the Basic Property Rate to match or be below the Small Business Multiplier in England since 2007-2008, up until 2016-2017, September Retail Price Index (RPI) acted as a cap on inflationary increases in poundage in Scotland because in England, legislation used to link the maximum possible uprating of the Small Business Multiplier to September RPI of the preceding year. The independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates published in 2017 noted calls for increases in the poundage to be linked to the CPI rather than the RPI. Since 2017-18, annual changes in the rates in Scotland have been lower than the CPI increase.

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