Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently developing a draft Energy Strategy to be published in early 2017, alongside the Climate Change Plan. A public consultation on the draft Energy Strategy will take place thereafter, seeking the views and insight of industry, academia, public sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and embarking upon a public dialogue with Scottish communities and energy consumers on Scotland’s energy future. The results of the consultation will inform the production of the final Energy Strategy which will be published in the latter half of 2017.

A review of health and social care targets and indicators was announced in September 2016. This review will be chaired by the University of Strathclyde Professor of Global Public Health, Sir Harry Burns, and will ensure targets and performance indicators lead to the best outcomes for people being cared for, whether in hospital, primary care, community care or social care services. The current indicators on palliative and end of life care, as well as potential additional or alternative indicators, will be considered as part of this review.

As stated in ‘Global Scotland’, Scotland’s Trade and Investment Strategy 2016-21, published in March this year, the Scottish Government is committed to establishing a Ministerial-led Trade Board. We are currently discussing with public and private sector partners a delivery plan. Budget, remit and membership will be considered as part of these discussions.

The details for how this funding will be directed is currently being finalised. However, any projects will have to meet the following criteria:

Spend to save – a demonstration that investment in energy efficiency measures will generate reduced energy bills in future and thereby a saving to the public purse;

Carbon reduction – the potential to deliver a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption;

Economic benefits – the project must have the ability to show a positive economic impact on Scotland and demonstrate that it is additional activity -not current planned investment; and

Work on the project must start in financial year 2016-17.

The Scottish Government launched the Transition Training Fund (TTF), on1 February, to support individuals and help the sector retain talent. The £12 million training fund, currently in its eight month will be available over a three year period.

The international evidence is clear - promoting competitiveness and addressing inequality are interdependent. Reducing inequality is not only important in itself, but is vital to creating the conditions to deliver sustainable economic growth over the long term.

Scotland’s Economic Strategy, published in March last year, contains relevant evidence on the relationship between inequality and growth (pages 22-23). For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that lower income inequality is correlated with faster and more sustainable growth. This is supported by work from Professor Joseph Stiglitz concluding that countries that are more unequal grow more slowly and are less stable. Finally, a recent working paper by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that rising income inequality in the UK has decreased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth by 9 percentage points between 1990 and 2010.

Further Information on Scotland’s Economic Strategy can be found at

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/5984.

The Scottish Government has published a full list of all approved operations, including details of match funding arrangements, on its website at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Business-Industry/support/17404/esifoperations.

The £650 million refers to the total expenditure, of which £290 million is European Structural Funds. The remaining £360 million is being provided by project partners.

This list is a requirement of EU Regulations, and it will be updated as the Scottish Government makes further approvals.

As stated in A Plan for Scotland: The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2016-17, a key action for this year will be developing the business case for a new manufacturing centre of excellence and skills academy. We are currently developing this business plan with a range of partners, and this work includes building an evidence base and working closely with the private sector on the detail of the proposition. Clearly, options for the centre's location, budget and staffing will be considered as key issues as part of this business case process.

We intend to publish a detailed business plan in Spring 2017.

We are working with local government to determine how best to utilise the £10m funding for domestic energy efficiency and will provide further information in due course.