Chamber and committees

Ethical commissioning was defined in the Bill, as introduced, as making arrangements for services in ways which were consistent with the NCS Principles. As a consequence of the agreement reached on shared accountability for the NCS these specific provisions were removed. There will be other requirements placed on relevant bodies to comply with the NCS Principles more widely which will achieve the same intent for ethical considerations to be embedded in commissioning and procurement of NCS services. Therefore the intent within the Bill remains unchanged.

We will carefully consider the responses to the Scottish Parliament’s call for views.

As laid out in the Programme for Government, the Planning Hub’s initial priority is to help planning authorities make quicker decisions on hydrogen planning applications.

This first phase of the Hub will be a pilot that looks to provide proof of concept for it to be in place for the longer term, with a plan to extend the services offered by the Hub in 2025-26 to support wider developments including the delivery of good quality homes and onshore wind. We will set out further details relating to extending the Hub’s services as this initial work progresses.

The Scottish Budget 2024-25 ensures that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.

The Scottish Government faces a very challenging situation as we continue to manage our finances through the current financial year and look to set the Scottish Budget for 2025-26.

Notwithstanding the very difficult financial situation, we are delivering a range of actions which contribute to improving transitions for disabled young people. This includes:

• Providing almost £400k in grant funding between 2023-25 to ARC Scotland to continue the work of the Scottish Transitions Forum and to support the wider implementation of Principles into Practice and Compass.
• Investing nearly £19m since opening at the end of 2017 in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood.
• Providing £361k in 2024-25 for Enable Scotland (Leading the Way)’s ‘Stepping Up’ transitions programme, which connects disabled young people to fair work, education and productive activities designed to support a successful transition into adult life and work.

We are currently undertaking analysis of our recent engagement with over 500 people to identify what currently works well and what could be even better, in order to consider possible actions for the strategy. The costs of the final strategy will be determined by the actions which are ultimately included in it.

The UK Government’s decision to restrict eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments was taken without consultation with the Scottish Government This decision is estimated to result in a reduction in this year’s Block Grant Adjustment (BGA) provided to the Scottish Government of approximately £150 million, over 80% of the cost of the Scottish Government’s planned replacement benefit, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP). Scottish Government analysis suggests that around 900,000 pensioners will no longer be eligible for this payment, of between £200 and £300, in Scotland in 2024-25.

Despite our best efforts to review our financial position we have no choice but to follow the UK Government and restrict eligibility for Pension Age Winter Heating Payment to older people who receive relevant eligible benefits.

The Scottish Government recognises the incredible contribution that Scotland’s unpaid carers, including our young carers, make to our communities as well as the pressures many carers are under.

The Young Carers Package, delivered by Young Scot, was put in place to provide additional benefits and opportunities for young carers. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 defines a young carer as someone who provides (or intends to provide) care who is under 18 (or over 18 and still at school). The package is designed to support children and young people who are not eligible for social security benefits and other support available to young adults.

In recognition of the fact that transitioning from being a young carer to an adult carer can be difficult, as young people look towards work or further or higher education, the package includes a transition bundle to provide extra benefits before young carers turn 19. There is a Young Scot webpage with further information on the transition bundle and young carers transitions more generally at: www.young.scot/get-informed/young-carers-transitions

I would encourage anyone providing unpaid care to contact their social work department or local carer centre to find out what support they may be able to offer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29341 on 25 September 2024. 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.

We continue to work closely with Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to develop and implement a plan that is informed by the lived experience of disabled people and will deliver actions to help with the challenges they are currently facing. Venues should be familiar with and address their broader duties under UK health and safety, and equalities legislation including, for people with a visual impairment, the requirement for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where disabled people are placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people. The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirement of the Equality Act 2010. We welcome the report’s recommendations which will support venues in meeting these requirements.

Creative Scotland’s regularly funded organisations, which include a number of venues across Scotland, are contractually obliged to develop and implement Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans. Creative Scotland provide their own guidance on how to best achieve this edi-toolkit-dec-2019.pdf (creativescotland.com). This covers all aspects of the work for these organisations, including audience development activities. Facilitating access and participation to culture, is central to the artistic purpose of all Scottish Government funded culture bodies and they all share a desire to communicate with as large and diverse an audience as possible.

Scottish Government do not (a) incentivise (c)inhibit or (d) discriminate against community owned energy providers. Scottish Government conduct all procurement in accordance with the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Public Procurement Regulations. Under Section 8 – General Duties of the Act, procurement authorities must:

“in carrying out a regulated procurement—

(a) treat relevant economic operators equally and without discrimination,

(b) act in a transparent and proportionate manner.”

To actively incentivise or discriminate any provider or group of providers would be a clear breach of the requirements of the Act.

The framework terms and conditions do (b) facilitate self generating sources to approach the Supplier, and there is a mechanism in the Terms and Conditions for local authorities to approach EDF to sell electricity which they have generated. The Framework also has included the option of Power Purchase Agreements.

The terms and conditions state that for the Supply of Electricity from a self-generating source the Supplier shall enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with such Scottish Public Sector Body on normal commercial terms. Such purchase shall stand entirely separate to the arrangements under the Framework and the Supplier shall not be under any obligation to sleeve the electrical output of such Public Body’s facility into the supply of electricity under the framework.

The Supply of Electricity agreement has also included the options of 6 different Power Purchase Agreement variations as part of the Statement of Requirements and the Terms and Conditions, these include.

Option 1 - A PPA entered into between the Scottish Government (Authority) and a third party generator. The generator is not a Client under the Framework. (Direct PPA)

Option 2 - A PPA entered into between the Contractor and a third party generator. The generator is not a Client under the Framework. (Indirect PPA)

Option 3 - A PPA entered into between the Scottish Government (Authority) and a generator. The generator is a Client under the Framework ( for example a Local Authority). Under this category of PPA the power sleeved into the Framework volume for use by the entire portfolio

Option 4 - A PPA entered into between the Contractor and a generator. The generator is a Client under the Framework. Under this category of PPA the power sleeved into the Framework volume would be for use by the entire portfolio.

Option 5 – : Export PPA where Client under the framework sells excess volume to the Contractor

Option 6 (as advice only) - Private Wire. This category is distinct from any of the above as it involves a direct physical connection between the generator and the buyer.

Overall the National Framework for the Supply of Electricity includes a statement of requirements and Ts and Cs which are agreed by the User Intelligence Group made up of public sector representatives (including representatives from local authorities). They have set out that the framework supplier needs to ensure it has the capacity to secure forward purchases on behalf of all framework customers. The Supplier also needs to account manage each individual customer organisation including billing, invoicing, meter reading queries, complaints, energy efficiency queries, and social value programmes within the framework. As well as managing the consumption for over 30,000 meters for electricity that are part of the portfolio. Therefore the supplier needs to have capacity to trade large volumes and achieve Value For Money for the whole Scottish public sector.

All of these aspects have been set out as well as the options of Power Purchase Agreements and the mechanism for local authorities to approach the Supplier to sell the power which has been self-generated.

The Scottish Government has provided Scottish Agritourism with £60k funding in 2024-2025 to support with preparations for Scotland hosting the 2026 World Agritourism Conference.