Chamber and committees

As well as continuing to seek further legislative powers from the UK Government that will allow us to create a more efficient consenting system, we are also working closely to review consenting processes for larger scale energy proposals, in line with the commitments set out in the UK Government’s response to the Electricity Networks Commissioner’s recommendations.

The Scottish Government are engaging with the UK Government, Ofgem and the Electricity System Operator (ESO) on the implementation of the Transmission Acceleration Action Plan (TAAP) and the Connections Action Plan (CAP). We continue to push for reform, ensure that the proposals in the TAAP and CAP are robust, fit for purpose and tailored to the needs of Great Britain as a whole.

Within the Scottish Government we are increasing staff numbers in the Energy Consents Unit to aid processing times for all Section 36 and Section 37 applications. Additionally, the unit continues to progress a number of efficiency measures and improvements and we are continuing to work closely with stakeholders to improve timescales further; specifically, through implementation of the commitments made in the Onshore Wind Sector Deal and the Transmission Network Short Life Working group.

The following table sets out the comparisons on passenger data for the Aberdeen to Inverness and Glasgow / Edinburgh to Inverness rail services prior and during the peak pilot.

We don’t hold a breakdown of the Perth to Inverness section due to the way the data is collated by route.

A complete ban on the use of snares, as provided for in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, subject to parliamentary procedure, is expected to come into force on 25 November 2024.

Creative Scotland, in its role of supporting the growth of sustainable creative businesses in Scotland, has an explicit focus on environmental sustainability. This is detailed in their 2022 A Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan for Creative Scotland | Creative Scotland and subsequent annual reviews, Environmental Sustainability Review 2023/24 | Creative Scotland as well as in the detailed guidance in the form of funding criteria Environmental Sustainability | Creative Scotland that is employed in assessing applicants to its Grant-in-Aid and National Lottery funds.

The design sector, as defined by Scottish Government, reported GVA of £570.8m in 2022, but its impact and benefits are often overlooked. In response to this, Creative Scotland and V&A Dundee have been working together under the banner of ‘Design for Scotland’ to progress a project involving the design community responding to a call to action of ‘Ask not what Scotland can do for Design, but what Design can do for Scotland’. This has included consideration of the environmental impact of design.

In Scotland, we benefit from excellent design education in our colleges and Universities. Per head of population, Scotland has more of its art and design schools in the global top 100 ranking Universities than any other European country.

Furthermore, Architecture and Design Scotland helps support the design of sustainable buildings and places in Scotland, including with local authorities, agencies, stakeholders and communities to address environmental impacts of the built environment and promote positive environmental outcomes.

We can be confident that both the Design community and the structures that support them are looking forward to ensuring that their skills and aspirations are fully employed in ensuring that environmental impact is at the heart of the design process in Scotland.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) holds the national licence for Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid: Young People- (SMHFA:YP). Following COVID, PHS took the decision to pause the delivery of the SMHFA: YP, due to the content of the course being considered out of date, given changes to the social and cultural context in which young people live in Scotland (for example, content in relation to alcohol and drugs and bullying). There are no current plans to update the content or reverse the current pause on this programme; as many alternative and up-to-date sources of advice are available to adults who support children and young people.

A new professional learning resource for school staff, supported by the Mental Health in Schools Working Group, was published in 2021. The resource provides essential learning required to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The resource is free and can be found at: CYPMH – Professional Learning Resource. A number of education resources linked to Curriculum for Excellence are also available to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools and other settings. Just this week, a new resource will be launched – One Good Adult:Job Description. This was designed by children and young people to help those around them provide the support they need.

In addition, Public Health Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland have developed further digital resources aimed at those supporting the mental health, self-harm and suicide prevention needs of young people. These can be found at: Informed level of practice | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot)

Interactive training is also available on specific topics. For example, Self-Harm Network Scotland provides free training sessions, in-person or online. Anyone can sign up for these sessions, and there are a range of options offered, with more in-depth sessions for professionals. Since these started in early 2023, the service has already trained over 2,500 people.

These sources of advice complement expanded provision of supports and services for children and young people – with access to counselling available through every secondary school; over 300 community-based mental health and wellbeing supports for children and young people now in place across Scotland; and advice for young people themselves available through the investment we have made in the likes of Young Scot’s Aye Feel website.

The Scottish Government provides significant funding to Creative Scotland each year and will continue doing so. It is disappointing that Creative Scotland took the decision about the Open Fund before the Scottish Government could complete due diligence to release funding, as is normal practice. The due diligence has now been completed and the funding has been released to Creative Scotland.

Protecting and restoring our natural environment is key to addressing the twin crises of nature loss and climate change. Our commitment to the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF), and to introduce a Natural Environment Bill which will set a framework for statutory targets to restore and protect nature, are reiterated in our most recent Programme for Government.

While capital funding of £5 million from this year’s NRF allocation to Local Authorities has been redirected to fund the public sector pay offer, it will be restored in 2025-26. The competitive strand of the NRF, administered by NatureScot, remains unaffected by this temporary reallocation of local authority funding.

NatureScot’s Deer Work Programme Action Plan and spreadsheet showing progress on delivery of the Deer Working Recommendations are on their website (https://www.nature.scot/doc/deer-work-programme).

These show progress across the range of projects, initiatives and activities that are aimed at increasing culls to achieve a more sustainable deer population in Scotland.

NatureScot are also working to improve cull data collection and presentation to better monitor progress.

Supported Businesses make an important contribution to the Scottish economy. Not only through the goods and services they deliver, but also by providing meaningful employment, training, and social support for those who may otherwise be excluded from the workplace.

The Scottish Government values the role of Supported Businesses and is committed to helping them achieve commercial sustainability.

In December 2016, the Scottish Government published the coproduced ‘Scotland’s Social Enterprise Strategy’, in March 2017, the then Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities launched the first of three underpinning action plans, and in March 2021, the then Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, launched the second plan. The second action plan[1] describes our priorities for 2021-24, and details how we will work across the public sector and with partners to build forward and put the social enterprise model at the heart of Scotland's recovery. The action plan includes the following actions:

• We will bring forward a programme to help improve collaborative commissioning and the role of social enterprise in the delivery of public services.
• Review our support for procurement and how we best support mechanisms that will enable social enterprises to prepare, bid, win, and deliver public sector contracts.
• Take continued action to realise the potential of supported businesses to access public contracts, through the use of reserved contracts and other mechanisms.

Procurement officials are working with Supported Businesses and the public sector to make it easier for supported businesses to access public sector contracts.

A multi-supplier Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for Requirements Reserved for Supported Businesses provides Scottish public bodies with a route to market for a range of goods and services which can be provided by Supported Businesses.

Having sought the views of both affected suppliers and buyers and considered feasibility of the various commercial options with procurement leads from each centre of expertise, it is evident that a blended approach to Supported Businesses represents the best way forward. A blended approach comprises:

• a new national collaborative solution;
• scoping of opportunities for sectoral commercial arrangements; and
• non-collaborative interventions to support local contracting activity.

This will be coupled with work already underway to raise the profile of Supported Businesses and make the process of identifying them easier for public bodies.

The Requirements Reserved for Supported Businesses Dynamic Purchasing System commenced on 07 September 2023 for a two-year period, following a detailed stakeholder consultation process. Further information on the DPS can be found within the Scottish Government’s contracts directory.

[1]Social enterprise: action plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s forecasts from December 2023 estimate the cost of Hospitality Relief for Islands and Specified Remote areas to be £4 million in 2024-25. An Island Communities Impact Assessment, published alongside the Non-Domestic Rates (Islands and Remote Areas Hospitality Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 which deliver this relief, considers the impact of this relief.