Chamber and committees

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) wrote to all college and university principals on 8 August 2023 highlighting the issue of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and where they can find guidance on the identification and assessment of RAAC.

The SFC has asked all colleges and universities to provide information on the presence of RAAC in their estate buildings.

The Scottish Government and SFC are working closely together on this matter; and SFC will keep principals informed of further guidance and sources of information.

Under the GP Contract, GP practices are required to provide online services to patients such as appointment booking and repeat prescription ordering. We recognise, however, there have been limitations to the systems currently in use, which is why, through continued investment in the national ‘GP IT’ re-provisioning programme, Health Boards will have the ability to offer new and advanced, modernised systems for General Practice in Scotland.

The rollout of the new National GP IT system is now underway and provides a number of improvements for GPs and practices in relation to booking appointments, prescribing, connectivity to systems, shared community care and more robust centralised hosting. As the new GP IT system is rolled out, we expect more GP practices to offer a booking service for their patients, in line with the GP contract. More information is available in our refreshed delivery plan of the Digital Strategy: Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2023-24 (www.gov.scot) .

Communities have a number of rights in terms of community ownership. There are four separate community rights to buy, most of which are compulsory purchase rights, as well as the right to request an asset transfer of an asset from a public body.

In addition, the Scottish Land Fund, which was increased to £11m this year, is available to community groups across Scotland, whether they are acquiring an asset through any of these rights, or entering into a negotiated sale with a willing seller. We have committed to increasing this to £20m by the end of 2026.

The Scottish Government Community Land Team regularly assist community groups with guidance on the rights to buy, whilst the Community Empowerment Team can help with asset transfer rights.

The Scottish Government also provides grants to Community Land Scotland to promote and educate community groups on all aspects of community ownership. This includes the annual Community Land Week which allows anyone to go along to a participating community group and see for themselves the benefits that ownership can bring.

The Scottish Government is committed to land reform and improving transparency of those who own and control land in Scotland is at the heart of our land reform objectives. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI). The policy intention of the RCI is to ensure there can no longer be categories of land owner or tenant where, intentionally or otherwise, control of decision-making is obscured.

As well as the RCI, we fully supported UK wide emergency legislation in the UK Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, introduced following the invasion of Ukraine last year, to improve transparency of overseas entities who own land in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK through the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE).

To assist in engagement with public sector organisations, we have convened a Cross-Sector Working Group. This group met for the first time on 14 August. Organisations represented at the meeting were: Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers; Built Environment Forum Scotland; Chartered Institute of Housing; City of Edinburgh Council; COSLA; Fife Council; Heads of Planning Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland; Local Authority Building Standards Scotland; NHS Scotland Assure; Police Scotland; Scottish Funding Council; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; Scottish Association of University Directors of Estates and Scottish Property Federation. This is an open group and other sectors are likely to join as RAAC is discovered within their estate.

A note of the meeting will be published on a resource page for the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety.

I refer the member to the question S6W-20630 on 29 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The legal use of electric scooters and decisions around their introduction is broadly a reserved matter for the UK Government. The UK Government has stated its intention to bring forward a new regulatory framework for vehicles such as electric scooters, however the timescales for this are unclear.

Enabling the use of electric scooters through such a regulatory framework would also require amendments to devolved legislation, therefore the Scottish Government are monitoring developments in this area and will continue to engage with the Department for Transport on this matter.

It is not illegal to sell electric scooters in the UK, however responsible vendors will give customers accurate information about the legal restrictions on their use.

The Scottish Government currently has no formal position on the regulation of electric scooters, however this position is currently under review.

The Lord Advocate is not undertaking a review of the legal feasibility of safe drug consumption rooms.

The Lord Advocate received information in relation to a proposed safe drug consumption room which would operate in Glasgow. The Lord Advocate was asked, if a safe drug consumption room of the type described in that proposal were to be established, whether the Lord Advocate would consider a Statement of Prosecution Policy, which would confirm that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute individuals for the possession of illegal substances within the confines of the described facility.

Such a statement would not be a ban on prosecution or decriminalisation of an offence, rather it would be an articulation of the way that the public interest considerations relevant to a prosecutorial decision would fall to be applied in a particular context.

All prosecution policy requires careful consideration. In this case in particular, further information has been sought in relation to the practical operation and policing of the facility.

The Lord Advocate’s consideration of the request is supported by officials within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The following table presents the budget for NHS estate maintenance in each of the last three financial years. It is the intention of the Scottish Government to double the NHS estate maintenance funding over the Capital Spending Review period of 2021-2026.

We recognise the hazard of asbestos and the risks to health it poses. However, asbestos is only dangerous when it is disturbed or in poor condition. The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance states that it is safe for asbestos to remain in place if it is in good condition, well-protected and unlikely to be disturbed. Health boards carry out annual asbestos monitoring surveys and asbestos management plans are in place across the NHS estate.