Chamber and committees

Non-domestic rates are a tax levied on the occupiers of non-domestic properties. All non-domestic properties, including specified plant and machinery such as pylons, are liable for non-domestic rates. As such, the occupier of a non-domestic property with pylon infrastructure will be liable for non-domestic rates.

The valuation of non-domestic property is a matter for the independent Scottish Assessors who follow applicable statute and case law in making their decisions on non-domestic property valuations.

The rating of plant and machinery, including plant and machinery involved in the transmission of electricity, depends on a number of factors, and The Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery)(Scotland) Regulations 2000, as amended, specifies the plant and machinery which is to be assumed to be part of lands and heritages for the purposes of non-domestic rating valuation.

Meetings with only SSEN in attendance

The Scottish Government remains committed to providing legal aid for a wide scope of actions. The draft Scottish Budget includes a proposed further investment of £14.2 million for the Legal Fund in 2025-26 which is an increase of 10% on this year’s budget (to £155.5 million).

Despite financial constraints, the Scottish Government continues to focus on building a more inclusive Scotland for all, investing in services and support that will help our communities during these difficult times.

Our budget, if passed by Parliament, will ensure that this government can continue to prioritise action to eradicate child poverty, protect our public services including improving access to legal aid and grow Scotland’s economy, while addressing the inequalities that many in our communities still face.

I recognise that change is needed to ensure we have a legal aid system that meets the needs of people. We are publishing our legal aid action plan for reform shortly, and I intend to take forward work in this area in the coming months and I will meet with the legal profession and stakeholders to hear views from across the justice system on areas for reform.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31040 on 13 November 2024 in respect of solicitor numbers. 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-32820 on 15 January 2025. 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-33162 on 23 January 2025. 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 draft budget published on 4 December 2024 includes new investment of £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for long COVID, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions.

The delivery of the Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People in Scotland 2021- 2026 continues to be taken forwards by the Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) into 2026.

The progression of actions in the strategy are regularly reviewed by MSN CYPC and will inform any future national strategy approach required to ensure that children and young people with cancer will have access to the best possible treatment and care.

Current best practice for the management of large infrastructure networks is set out in the international standard for the management of assets ISO 55001, which requires organisations to adopt a formal asset management approach. Transport Scotland is the first UK trunk road authority to reach this standard demonstrating that public funds are being spent in the most efficient and effective manner.

We have developed and implemented a formal value management process for roads structural maintenance schemes for assessing the benefits of undertaking maintenance and the associated risks of not undertaking maintenance. Each scheme in the one-year maintenance programme is scored against a range of criteria:

a. Safety – to maintain a safe network and assess the level of risk to the road user. Those schemes that are safety critical or have a high level of risk will have the highest priority scoring.

b. Journey Time Reliability – to assess the level of risk to the service, e.g. route availability.

c. Environment and Sustainability – to assess the impact of a scheme on the environment, noise reduction, carbon factor, recycling and sustainability.

d. Value for Money – to consider the economic efficiency of the scheme and seek to minimise the whole life costs (i.e. invest now to deliver savings later).

The scores are used to determine which schemes should remain in the current year and which can be deferred until the following year. This ensures that those parts of the network with the greatest need are addressed and that the available funds are allocated in a fair, objective and transparent manner.

The prioritisation of bridges and structures maintenance follows as similar process with a Value Management Risk Approach using the following four criteria:

a. Safety – the overall effects on the end user, including fatalities and injuries that would be caused by a failure.

b. Functionality – the impact of a loss or reduction in service. This may be considered at route, structure or component level.

c. Environment – Environmental impacts, such as pollution caused through traffic delay, the sensitivity of the route/area, etc.

d. Sustainability – of both expenditure and workload, where the aim is to reach a state of steady expenditure and workload, avoiding the build-up of a backlog of unavoidable, essential work by doing effective, targeted preventative maintenance.

The tool includes work identified from inspections, structural capacity assessments, “At-Risk” supports, sub-standard parapets, flood risk, scour risk, environment and local factors for all structure types. It does not yet include other risk programmes, such as hidden defects or safety-critical fixings.

The Addressing Depopulation Action Plan includes an action for Scottish Government to engage with Youth Scotland and the Young Islanders Network (YIN) to co-develop ideas to encourage young people to move to, or remain within our island communities.

Since publication, as part of this engagement the Scottish Government’s independent Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population have met with a cohort from the YIN, to gather their input into a forthcoming report on the mobilities of young working age people in rural and island areas. It is envisaged that recommendations from this report will be considered by Scottish Ministers after publication, and where appropriate these will inform the development of future interventions to support population attraction and retention in rural and island areas.

Additionally, engagement with the YIN around the development of the next National Islands Plan (NIP) has already been conducted by Scottish Government officials, highlighting that the next NIP plans to have an overarching focus on population attraction and retention. This engagement will continue prior to publication and delivery of the next NIP, planned for later this year.

The mainline of the A90 trunk road has been closed to facilitate road maintenance on 12 occasions over the following 5 full financial years:

2019-20 - 0

2020-21 - 2

2021-22 - 0

2022-23 - 5

2023-24 - 5

These closures took place overnight and averaged 13.5 hours per night in duration.

Additionally, there has been 53 slip road closures on the A90 trunk road over the same period. These overnight closures averaged 12.5 hours in duration. During these closures the mainline A90 remained open.