Chamber and committees

The Ministerial-led working group last convened on 26 th October 2022 and the minutes of this meeting will be published within the coming weeks. The working group was formed to consider short, medium and long term actions to address anti-abortion activities which take place outside of healthcare facilities providing abortion services.

A significant proportion of the group’s work was to consider the use of Local Authority bye-laws to potentially deliver the zones. The Scottish Government was committed to supporting councils to use bye-laws to implement safe access zones, but Local Authorities concluded that national legislation would be a more appropriate route, and the work to consider bye-laws has now concluded.

We are now clear that delivering national legislation is the best and most secure route to ensure buffer zones are delivered and sustained. We are therefore fully focused on supporting the drafting and development of Gillian Mackay MSP’s national Abortion Service Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill. We will continue to take forward discussions with stakeholders to ensure that robust and effective legislation is introduced as soon as possible.

Although there are no plans for a final report of the working group’s findings to be published, the group agreed that the Scottish Government should commission research into the impact of protests and vigils in Scotland. This research is ongoing, and a final report on this will be published following its completion.

As the Bank is a non-departmental public body, ministers meet with the Chair and senior officials on a regular basis. These meetings address the Bank’s progress against its strategic aims and how its investment activity across its three missions can support government priorities.

The First Minister met Chair Willie Watt and new CEO Al Denholm on 2 May This was an introductory meeting.

A full list of all ministerial engagements and when they have met the Bank can be found here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has no plans to establish an independent review of governance of its portfolio of strategic commercial assets.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Ltd to review the Framework Document, which sets out governance arrangements between the parties.

The Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme will invest, as a minimum, capital funding of £30 million in 2023-24 to enable the delivery of heat decarbonisation projects across the public sector, including the NHS, and £1.5 million of resource funding to enable the building of a pipeline of investment ready, strategic heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects across the public sector. Since the scheme was relaunched in 2022-23, Health Boards have successfully applied for over £13 million.

In addition, the Scottish Government has funded Health Boards to prepare initial net-zero route maps which will be used as a basis for planning the decarbonisation of the NHS estate.

More information on NHS Scotland’s approach to decarbonisation is set out in the NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 which is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-climate-emergency-sustainability-strategy-2022-2026/

As part of our New Deal for Local Government, we are working with COSLA to agree a Fiscal Framework for Local Government, with the aim of delivering greater flexibility over financial arrangements, improving accountability for the delivery of national priorities, including net zero objectives, whilst ensuring maximum value for money. We anticipate the new Fiscal Framework will facilitate opportunities for greater local fiscal empowerment in the future, and aim to give councils more flexibility with greater scope for discretionary local revenue-raising. This will include exploring new ways to raise revenue and reviewing existing local taxes and powers, to make best use of all available and potential sources of local funding.

Last year the Scottish Government announced the £60 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund that aims to draw commercial investment in the public charging network across all parts of Scotland. Transport Scotland has already provided funding to Scotland’s local authorities to help them to work together to establish electric vehicle charging strategies and infrastructure expansion plans. These plans are identifying local and regional charge point needs and locations, the investment requirements, as well as the best approaches to delivering collaborative investments with commercial charge point operators. Opportunities to consider the installation of lamppost charge points, or other appropriate solutions, as part of their approach, will fall to local authorities.

The Scottish Government is committed to a fair, inclusive and fiscally sustainable form of local taxation. We convened a Joint Working Group co-chaired by Scottish Ministers and COSLA which is actively considering targeted changes to reflect the current circumstances created by the cost crisis, including delivering a joint consultation on measures which would allow local authorities to increase the rate of Council Tax on second and empty homes. The group will also consider approaches to longer term reform, utilising effective deliberative engagement. I will ensure that Parliament is kept appraised of this work at suitable junctures.

The Scottish Government recognise the valuable role that sport and physical activity can play to the overall health of the nation.

Encouraging people to take part in sport at all levels, including in newer sports such as pickleball, is key to getting more people more active more often, and can create wider benefits in areas such as health, education, communities and the economy.

In the last 20 years, sportscotland has invested over £235 million of Scottish Government and National Lottery funding in clubs, communities, and leisure trusts across Scotland to improve the places where people take part in sport and physical activity. As a sport that’s primarily played on a badminton court, we already have fantastic facilities across the country where pickleball can be played.

Through sportscotland’s Community Sport Hubs’ programmes, local community organisations are beginning to explore opportunities to develop links with pickleball clubs and to promote the sport. There are now five pickleball clubs across three local authorities that are part of the Community Sport Hub programme and these numbers are expected to grow as the sport continues to develop.

As is standard practice, any planned changes to Scottish Income Tax will be announced during the regular annual Budget process. Our approach to taxation will continue to be guided by the strategic objectives and principles set out in our Framework for Tax, which underpins our fair and progressive approach.

We are committed to engaging with the public to explore how best we can use our existing powers to continue to deliver the most progressive taxation system in the UK, and achieve the Government’s three key missions of equality, opportunity and community.

Tackling poverty and protecting people from harm is one of three critical and interdependent missions for the government – alongside our focus on the economy and strengthening public services.

The Scottish Government is taking a wide range of action to tackle and reduce poverty, with almost £3 billion allocated both last year and this to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Key actions, which will benefit people from a minority ethnic background, include continued investment in the delivery of more affordable homes, providing free transport for over two million people in Scotland and delivering five family payments including the Scottish Child Payment, which was increased in value to £25 per child per week as of November 2022.

In addition to these key anti-poverty actions, we are also taking action targeted to supporting people from a minority ethnic background. This includes f unding local community organisations such as BEMIS, CEMVO and SAREC, who work predominantly with minority ethnic householders, and have been able to offer targeted support to vulnerable households. This includes issuing direct hardship payments and ensuring they are supported to access welfare support they are entitled to.

The Scottish Government also published ‘A Fairer Scotland for All: An anti-racist strategy’, in December 2022, which includes guidance, advice, and examples of good practice for employers in order to address the issues and disadvantages experienced by people from racialised minorities. The strategy is a key component to reaching the ambition of a becoming a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025.