Chamber and committees

This report adds to understanding about what can happen early in the process of natural colonisation, when trees established in this way grow relatively slowly. The efficacy of tree planting for carbon capture must also consider their contribution to removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and then storing carbon in the longer term.

The UK Forestry Standard applies requirements to minimise soil carbon losses when creating new woodlands. No planting is supported in Scotland on soils with peat exceeding 50 cm depth. In addition recently revised guidance for soil cultivation effectively limits ploughing of organic soils of less than 10 cm depth.

We are investing over £190 million annually in the implementation of primary care multidisciplinary teams through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) as well as additional funding for annual pay uplifts. The utilisation of PCIF funding held in reserve from the previous year to support in-year PCIF objectives is an approach we have now taken for a number of years. It is prudent to reinvest these public funds given the challenging financial context.

As had been made clear, there remains challenge and uncertainty in the capital funding position.

All due consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline, following the outcome of the UK Government’s spending review and clarity on our longer-term capital funding position.

To this end, we are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

The information held by our Building Maintenance, Mechanical and Engineering contractor, shows the following spend on TVs via the FM Works Requests budget.

2015-2016 - £1317.60

2016-2017 - £1784.60

2017-2018 - £296

2018-2019 - £6393.88

2019-2020 - £5075.71

2020-2021 - £11,160.00

2021-2022 - £12,133.18

2022-2023 - £6520.20

2023-2024 - £699.56

Since the publication of the research report, ‘Public Space CCTV in Scotland’, the Scottish Government has been engaging with COSLA and Police Scotland to consider what the next steps in relation to public space CCTV should be. This includes consideration of whether there needs to be an updated National Strategy for Public Space CCTV. This work is ongoing.

As referenced in the answer to S6W-34140 on 20 February 2025, the format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

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 following table summarises the value of hospitality costs on the Scottish Government’s financial reporting system for each of the last 5 full financial years.

NHS Boards have exceeded the commitment to deliver 64,000 appointments and procedures in 2024-25, funded through our additional investment of £30 million to drive action to address the longest waits.

To the end of January 2025, Boards are reporting delivery of 75,500 appointments and procedures, as follows:

• Over 9,800 of 12,000 new outpatient appointments;
• almost 9,200 of 12,000 surgeries delivered;
• and almost 56,500 diagnostic procedures delivered, exceeding the original plan to deliver 40,000 by 41%.

Funding was targeted in specialties including Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Urology, Diagnostics and Cancer. Since April 2024, Scottish Government has been closely monitoring progress and impact and will continue to do so until the end of March 2025.

Across Scotland, the latest published data in the PHS Stage of Treatment Statistics show that, between April 2024 and September 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, there has been an 8.3% increase in activity for inpatient/daycase procedures and 2.5% increase for new outpatients appointments. While the activity through the additional investment cannot be directly attributed to the increased activity, we are confident that has supported increased throughput.

The targeted funding has also helped reduce the total national diagnostics waiting list size. Between April 2024 and September 2024 imaging list size reduced by 7.5% and scopes by 7.3%.

At Board level, we have seen significant percentage reductions in waiting times across a number of specialities where funding has been targeted, as set out in the following table:

The following table sets out the total number of premises currently contracted to receive connections through the R100 North contract by 2028, the number of premises connected as of 13 January 2025 and the number of premises yet to be connected as of the same date.

Openreach are also delivering a number of additional connections to premises that were not in the contracts, but have been connected as a result of nearby R100 contract build. This is known as overspill. The number of such connections delivered are also provided in the following table.

It should also be noted that our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available for those not expected to benefit from superfast broadband through R100 contract or commercial build plans.