Chamber and committees

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water is able to provide figures for 2022-23 onward, as a new system was introduced then which means that any figures before this would not be comparable, with some data representing reporting anomalies rather than leak repair times. Scottish Water has also advised that these figures do not necessarily relate to customers but are reports into their contact centre of visible leaks. Work to identify and repair some leaks can in some cases be complex in nature or require preparations such as traffic management, notice of roadworks, etc., and there can be cases where the timescales relate to administration of the record as opposed to the leak repair.

For 2022-23, 3280 (or 37.8%) burst repairs took over the 4.2 day average. For 2023-24, 2125 (23.9%) burst repairs took over the 4.2 day average.

A 2019 Scottish Government-commissioned review by the Scottish Health Technologies Group recommended that where patients understand and accept the risks, HSCT should be considered as a treatment option for patients with relapsing-MS who have significant disease activity which has not responded to adequate treatment with licensed high-efficacy drugs.

We are committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and person-centred.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the availability of medicines that patients in Scotland need.

The reduction of £1 million referred to in the letter from the Finance Secretary to the Scottish Parliament's Finance and Public Administration Committee dated 3 September relates to the nature restoration budget line, rather than the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). The £1m reduction will result in reduced scope of some projects and delay in implementing other projects.

The Edinburgh Process strand of the NRF is provided directly to Local Authorities and the £5 million allocated to this strand for 2024-25 has been redirected to help meet the public sector pay offer. Scottish Ministers have made a commitment to replace this funding in 2025-26. The Edinburgh Process strand of the NRF supports the devolved delivery of nature restoration projects that best meet local priorities for climate and nature. It helps Local Authorities to deliver upon their commitment to the Edinburgh Declaration for biodiversity, and to meet their Biodiversity Duty in taking action to conserve biodiversity.

In the period 2021-22 to 2023-24, individual Local Authorities across the Highlands and Islands have received around £2.4 million from the Edinburgh Process NRF strand, to support a range of nature restoration projects.

This funding announcement has not affected the competitive strand of the NRF which is administered by NatureScot. Funding awarded is supporting 14 projects across Scotland including the Highland and Island region in 2024-25, for river and woodland restoration, rainforest regeneration, and restoring coastal habitats. Full details of projects funding by the NRF competitive strand can be found at Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) - Supported Projects | NatureScot.

The Scottish Government freeze on public sector marketing expenditure for the remainder of the year is a necessary decision to ensure we have a balanced budget.

There will be some limited Scottish Government marketing activity where costs have already been committed, or an essential need is identified, and the process to identify exceptions is still underway.

The Flood resilience Strategy is currently scheduled for publication by the end of this year. The report on the analysis of the Flood Resilience Strategy consultation responses is scheduled for publication on the Citizen Space website at the beginning of November. This will be accompanied by all of the responses that have given their permission to be published and a “We Asked, You Said, We Did” summary. This highlights the main points of the consultation ("We Asked”), how many responses there were and key messages coming out of the responses (“You Said”) and what we have done, or plan to do as a result of the consultation (“We Did”).

As part of the application process for energy infrastructure projects, the Scottish Government undertake a full and thorough consultation with stakeholders, including the relevant Local Planning Authorities, to ensure all aspects of the development are considered.

Where it is necessary to understand the environmental impact of an infrastructure project, a full Environment Impact Assessment is required to be undertaken which takes into account the cumulative impacts of the full development.

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year on gov.scot including a breakdown by campaign and media type. Spend for 2024-25 has still to be agreed in light of the need to freeze public sector marketing expenditure and the ongoing process to identify exceptions.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water is able to provide figures for 2022-23 onward, as a new system was introduced then which means that any figures before this would not be comparable, with some data representing reporting anomalies rather than leak repair times. Scottish Water has also advised that these figures do not necessarily relate to customers but are reports into their contact centre of visible leaks. Work to identify and repair some leaks can in some cases be complex in nature or require preparations such as traffic management, notice of roadworks, etc., and there can be cases where the timescales relate to administration of the record as opposed to the leak repair.

For 2022-23, repairs of 4 bursts took over 100 days. For 2023-24, repairs of 8 bursts took over 100 days.