Chamber and committees

The Cleaner Air for Scotland review is progressing well. The review Steering Group is currently drafting its report for submission to Ministers.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) last published its annual carbon metric technical report in September 2018. The report is available on ZWS’s website and covers carbon metric figures for 2016. The next report is due to be published in summer 2019, covering carbon figures for 2017.

Natural Capital is the stock of Scotland’s natural assets including geology, air, water and all living things. The Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Strategy, “The 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity” , stresses the desirability of including natural capital assets in national and business accounting; and, as a major step in realising this goal, the ‘Scottish Natural Capital Ecosystem Service Accounts’ were launched on 22 March 2019, making Scotland the first of the UK nations to publish country level estimates.

The Scottish Natural Capital Ecosystem Service Accounts are built using the guidance and principles set out by the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, and present estimates of the quantity and value of ten services being supplied by Scottish natural assets. In 2015, the total value of Scottish natural capital was £273 billion, 34% of the overall UK asset valuation.

The Scottish Government continues to provide practical and financial assistance to Aberdeen City Council to assist them with monitoring and implementing their action plan to improve air quality and reduce air pollution in Aberdeen.

Aberdeen City Council will set out the impacts of the range of measures they are taking to reduce air pollution through their Annual Progress Reports (APRs).

The opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral route has removed 50% of traffic from the city centre.

According to latest local air quality data, pollution levels for the King Street area are low and have been for most of 2019.

The Scottish Government continues to provide practical and financial assistance to Aberdeen City Council to assist them with monitoring and implementing their action plan to improve air quality and reduce air pollution in Aberdeen.

Zero Waste Scotland delivers Scottish Government priorities in respect of waste and resources management. Information on Zero Waste Scotland’s delivery programme for 2018-19 and 2019-20 is detailed below. The way work was grouped into outcomes and objectives changed between the two years in question.

ZERO WASTE SCOTLAND (ZWS)

In the last year a number of north east practises have merged, resulting in a slight reduction in overall practice numbers. In addition a practice has closed due to the retirement of GPs with the patient list being absorbed by other practices. Together this has led to the number of practices reducing from 74 to 71 over the last 12 months, however patients will always have access to a GP when they need one. We have a record number of GPs working in Scotland.

The Attend Anywhere video consultation initiative is being made available to GP surgeries in the north east of Scotland, with investment committed to enable and support surgeries to adopt and embed the option of video consultation for patients.

NHS Grampian have been working on a range of local initiatives to improve GP recruitment in the North East of Scotland. These include:

• Employing seven Career Starts Doctors this year.
• Working closely with the undergraduate team to promote general practice to medical students.
• GP mentoring for medical students to encourage them to consider the career.
• A targeted Grampian recruitment campaign through the GPjobsGrampian Facebook page, blogs, the GP trainee moodle page, and through the Scottish Rural Medical Collaborative.

We have also launched our GP marketing campaign and are actively promoting Scotland as excellent place to live and work, and encouraging GPs to come and discover the joy of General Practice.

The Scottish Government manages Scotland’s public finances in a competent, responsible and balanced way. This Government has a strong track record in this respect as we continue to invest in Scotland’s economy and public services in the face of Westminster austerity.

In our second Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) published on 30 May, we set out the key financial challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The MTFS is accompanied this year by a framework for our forthcoming Spending Review, which will assist us to allocate budgets to meet the changing needs of Scotland’s people. Both the MTFS and spending review framework are key parts of our Written Agreement with the Finance and Constitution Committee, which followed the recommendations of the Budget Process Review Group.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s’ report [May 2019] shows the latest estimates of losses in income tax revenue due to behavioural change from the 2019-20 policy decision to be £45 million over the period 2019-20 to 2024-25. The same report forecasts the overall revenue gain from the 2019-20 policy change to be £476 million over the same period. Losses from behavioural change are therefore small relative to these gains.

Behavioural change is a consideration for all taxes in all jurisdictions. The Scottish Government takes the matter of behavioural change very seriously. However, the latest forecasts suggest that the tax policy change is not having detrimental effect through lost revenues.