Chamber and committees

We are continuing to work at pace on the Developer Remediation Contract to ensure alignment with the Housing (Cladding Remediation) Scotland Act 2024 and the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification, which was published in June 2024. We are committed to sharing a draft with developers with a view to engaging in further discussions and we have been discussing timings with stakeholders.

Following the signing of the Developer Commitment Letter by nine developers in 2023, work has been ongoing on the development of the Developer Remediation Contract. We are continuing to work at pace on the Contract to ensure alignment with the Housing (Cladding Remediation) Scotland Act 2024 and the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification, which was published in June 2024. We appreciate the desire from developers to receive a draft contract and we will share this as soon as we are able.

Following the initial data collection exercise in December 2023 on the presence of RAAC in social housing, the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) published an update to the original figures at the end of March 2024.

This provides information on the number of social homes identified as containing RAAC and how many were still under investigation. At that time 1,994 homes were identified with RAAC present across 13 social landlords and 8,311 homes were still under investigation. The findings are available on the SHR website. Regulator publishes further update on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in social housing | Scottish Housing Regulator.

SHR are shortly undertaking further data collection and will release their updated findings in the coming weeks. In April, SHR published their Engagement Plans for every social landlord in Scotland, setting out why they are working with a landlord and what the landlord needs to do. Within these Plans, SHR has set out how they will engage with social landlords who have identified RAAC in their housing.

Scotland’s Accessible Travel Framework and its successive delivery plans set out the means of ensuring that disabled people can travel with the same freedom, choice, dignity and opportunity as other citizens.

Specific programmes to support disabled people to access mobility support include, the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment scheme, under which people receiving a qualifying social security benefit can lease a vehicle or mobility equipment that meets their needs, and the Scottish Driving Assessment Service, which provides advice on people’s ability to resume, continue or begin to drive, along with any potential car modifications, following diagnosis of illness or significant event.

The Scottish Government continues to work with disabled people’s organisations and the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland to provide a focus for action.

The Scottish Government, through the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26 published in 2021, has enabled the upgrade to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre (ECC) at the Western General Hospital in NHS Lothian, which will complete this financial year.

Beyond this, given the extremely challenging financial position, all capital projects are now under review. Publication of the revised Infrastructure Investment Plan will be considered only once allocations from the new UK Government are confirmed and fully appraised by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. It is for Health Boards to ensure best use of available resources whilst prioritising patient safety and care.

Each GP practice’s “Global Sum” allocation is adjusted every quarter to account for changes in their registered patients lists; growing practices should receive a greater share of national funding.

The Scottish Government annually uplifts General Medical Services funding specifically to account for population growth. In 2023-24, this amounted to £8.3 million.

All capital projects are under review and a revised Scottish Government infrastructure investment plan will be published later this year. All due consideration will be given to which projects can be included within that revised plan to ensure it is affordable and deliverable, while providing the best value for money. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement.

Legislation sets out a wide range of permitted development rights. These allow certain types of development to be carried out without a planning application. In doing so, they help provide certainty and save the time and expense associated with applying for planning permission.

In the first phase of the Scottish Government’s review of permitted development rights, we introduced new PDR for the conversion of certain agricultural and forestry buildings to residential and flexible commercial uses (including shops, food and drink and business uses). We also increased the scale of agricultural buildings that may be built without a planning application. Rural businesses can also make use of and benefit from a range of other PDR.

The Scottish Government has worked with partners to develop national guidance on school uniform and clothing in Scotland. This is expected to be published in autumn 2024. The guidance will support schools and education authorities to develop and implement affordable and sustainable uniform and clothing policies that recognise the individual needs, circumstances and identities of all pupils and reduce costs of families.

The guidance will encourage schools to regularly and actively promote the availability of the school clothing grant among pupils and their families, and offer appropriate support to apply for the school clothing grant wherever it is necessary to do so.

In addition to the guidance, we have developed a supporting resource for parents and carers. This will also be published in the autumn. The resource will highlight the key messages from the guidance and signpost families to sources of support, including information about the school clothing grant.

We are working with partners, including organisations who support parents and carers, to ensure that these resources are widely disseminated.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to explore further opportunities to highlight the availability of the school clothing grant to families to ensure that those who are eligible can access this vital support.

Information about school clothing grants is recorded centrally through the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics returns. Information about the number of school clothing grants paid to eligible families as well as expenditure on school clothing grants, during the five most recent financial years for which we hold this information, is as follows: