Chamber and committees

Responsibility for fire safety and monitoring at Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) sites rests with the duty holder/site owner. Many BESS locations are unmanned and monitored remotely, meaning there is typically no immediate life risk. Some BESS sites may have welfare facilities for workers during short, irregular shifts (outside of construction or decommissioning phases), and certain buildings on these sites may fall under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 in terms of general fire safety. However, these sites are normally not subject to fire risk regulations due to the processes taking place on site.

SFRS adheres to the National Fire Chiefs Council’s guidance for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), developed with the safety of both the public and emergency responders in mind.

A dedicated working group within SFRS will continue to monitor the increasing number of BESS applications and their development, alongside the Service’s role in the planning, consultation, and progression of these sites.

SFRS’ protection efforts focus on four key areas:

• The impact of life safety in the event of a fire.
• A risk-based approach to safety.
• Emerging intelligence, including operational insights and partner communications.
• Post-fire audits and analysis.

A strong focus on prevention and the adherence to industry safety standards is essential for managing risks. The SFRS specialist fire safety enforcement and community safety teams will continue to collaborate with partner agencies, and their highly skilled firefighters are ready to deploy standard and specialised national resources to any incident as needed.

Guidance is covered under The National Fire Chief Council's (NFCC) Grid Scale Planning Guidance for Fire and Rescue Services which covers the UK. These guidelines detail, amongst other things, minimum standards with fire safety systems and design features, water requirements for firefighting and access requirements.

The Scottish Government is not currently planning to establish an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) taskforce.

However, we are undertaking a range of actions to improve access to diagnosis and support for people with ADHD.

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Boards, community partners, and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to improve access to diagnosis, by supporting local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services.

We are working with NAIT to implement Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways across Scotland. By implementing a single diagnostic pathway for autism and ADHD, and by adopting a stepped care model, we hope to ensure that diagnostic and post-diagnostic support is provided in a timely and effective fashion.

We also provide funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to deliver training resources to meet the needs of staff working in ADHD services across health and social care. These include webinars on ‘Assessing ADHD’ and ‘Understanding ADHD in Girls and Women’, which are available to all NHS and Social Care staff via an online knowledge hub.

The Scottish Government has no direct control over pricing at public electric vehicle (EV) charge points and regulation of EV chargers is reserved to the UK Government. The tariffs on the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) EV charging network, which now represents less than half of Scotland’s public charging network, are set by the 400 individual charge point owners, including all of Scotland’s local authorities.

There are several different factors that shape the cost of public EV charging including wholesale electricity prices, a higher rate of VAT (20%) on public EV charging than domestic electricity (5%), the cost of purchasing or leasing the land on which public charge points are located, the cost of network connections and supply upgrades, and the cost of installing, operating and maintaining the charge points. Higher powered rapid chargers tend to cost around 50% more to install and operate than slower chargers and this is reflected in the higher tariffs for energy from these charge points.

The Scottish Government’s vision for the future of public EV charging was published in June 2023 and it sets out the expectation that pricing across the entire public charging network is fair, sustainable and allows for the ongoing growth and maintenance of the public charging network. However, both VAT and energy market policy remain reserved to the UK Government, therefore the Scottish Government cannot take all of the action it would like to in order to support Scottish consumers.

The list of successful applicants for Year 3 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was published in November 2024. This provides details of the local authority where the organisation is based, the name of the project and the amount of funding awarded by the local This Sector Interface.

The list of successful applicants can be found within the following link.

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Projects awarded funding Year 3 - 2023/2024

Year 4 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults opened for applications on or before 30 September 2024 and is well under way. Third Sector Interfaces will submit their End of Year reports in Spring 2025. A full list of the successful applicants will be published thereafter.

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults is distributed in all 32 local authority areas of Scotland by Third Sector Interface (TSI) organisations who, working in collaboration with other local partners, are responsible for determining and allocating the funding to local community initiatives which support mental health and wellbeing.

TSIs are provided with overarching national guidance for the Fund, which is set by the Scottish Government in consultation with TSIs and the Fund’s National Oversight Group prior to each funding round.

The guidance sets out the broad parameters for how funding should be allocated to community organisations, including criteria around who can apply and what type of project can be funded; in line with the Fund’s aim to tackle mental health inequalities and benefit grassroots groups. The guidance is reviewed annually based on feedback and evidence emerging from monitoring and reporting on the Fund, which is collated by the Scottish Government.

Crucially, it is designed to be flexible in order to allow local partnership groups to identify their own priorities for spend within the terms set out and in line with their local partnership plans.

Non-domestic rates are a tax levied on the occupiers of non-domestic properties. All non-domestic properties, including specified plant and machinery such as pylons, are liable for non-domestic rates. As such, the occupier of a non-domestic property with pylon infrastructure will be liable for non-domestic rates.

The valuation of non-domestic property is a matter for the independent Scottish Assessors who follow applicable statute and case law in making their decisions on non-domestic property valuations.

The rating of plant and machinery, including plant and machinery involved in the transmission of electricity, depends on a number of factors, and The Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery)(Scotland) Regulations 2000, as amended, specifies the plant and machinery which is to be assumed to be part of lands and heritages for the purposes of non-domestic rating valuation.

Meetings with only SSEN in attendance

Patients who have received private diagnoses of ADHD can receive prescription medication through the NHS, via a Shared Care agreement with local NHS providers.

However, whilst GPs are responsible for providing patients with appropriate care whether they have been treated on the NHS or privately, they are not obliged to follow the recommendations of a private provider. All care required should be provided within the package of care sold by the private provider.

The Scottish Government is aware that, for a range of reasons, GPs may be reluctant to enter Shared Care agreements in relation to private diagnoses of ADHD. Accordingly, the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT), which is funded by the Scottish Government, published guidance regarding the prescribing of ADHD medication to adults following a private sector diagnosis in Scotland in 2022.

The Scottish Government has no powers over the smart-meter network or the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS). Telecommunications is also a reserved issue and radio network upgrades are a commercial matter for mobile network operators and wireless infrastructure providers.

However, through the Scottish Government’s £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill Programme, we have delivered 55 mobile masts in rural and island areas, all of which are available on an open access basis and could potentially be used to site smart meter radio infrastructure. It is therefore imperative that the UK Government and Ofgem update the regulations to allow the Data Communications Company (DCC) to use mobile technology to provide a signal to homes in Scotland and ensure that all meters can be appropriately upgraded.

Ofgem and Energy UK are leading a cross-industry response to the RTS switch-off, which includes a public awareness campaign. However, with under six months till the switch-off on 30 June 2025, and no clear Plan B, the UK Government must use its powers to direct urgent and proportionate action.

I have written to the UK Minister for Energy Consumers to request that Ofgem include RTS related obligations in licence conditions for both suppliers and the DCC. This change would compel both to use every tool available to ensure that households and businesses in Scotland and across Britain are not left behind. For suppliers, this must translate in practice to ramping up the number of meters upgraded, including targeting several homes or businesses en masse.

Where access to a fully functional smart-meter is not possible, suppliers should offer a non-connected smart meter with pre-programmed switching times – thus providing a temporary solution in the short term. However, it is critical that consumers are not penalised for upgrading their meter and that suppliers are obliged to ensure that consumers are transferred to a like-for-like or improved tariff as part of their meter upgrade.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with the UK Government on a frequent and sustained basis to ensure that Scottish communities are not caused any detriment as a result of poor smart-meter accessibility and the RTS switch-off. This includes offering to convene a jointly-chaired roundtable on energy consumer issues and participation in the Ofgem-led RTS communications working group, which brings together consumer organisations, government and industry.

It is clear that considerably more needs to be done to raise awareness and oblige suppliers to offer suitable metering solutions, whether smart or pre-programmed, which do not negatively impact the consumer.