Chamber and committees

Road closures on the local road network are the responsibility of the local authority in that area. They have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

The Scottish Government can, where appropriate, require a traffic management plan as a condition of consent. Assessment of any impacts from road closures would be made by the local authority when approving the finalised plan.

The views of stakeholders in Scotland – scientists, farmers, food producers and manufacturers, but especially, consumers and the public as a whole – will inform any future changes in relation to new genetic technologies such as gene editing. We are aware of the European Commission’s consideration of new genomic techniques (NGTs), and are looking carefully at the implications of their legislative proposals.

The Scottish Government and its partners have regular engagement with the UK Government to ensure a strategic approach and alignment of activity around Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

We welcome the recommendations from the Harrington Review to increase investment and expansion of the Office for Investment (OFI) and to improve collaboration and understanding of investment strengths between the UK Government and Devolved Administrations through the appointment of regional specialists. We have been engaging with the UK Government on the Review and Scottish Development International now has a dedicated resource in place at the OFI to support collaboration around attracting further investment opportunities to Scotland.

Scotland has a strong record in attracting FDI and our Inward Investment Plan is key to supporting Scotland’s growth clusters. EY’s independent Annual Attractiveness Survey 2023 shows that Scotland has been the most attractive investment location outside of London for the last eight years.

We are aware of the European Parliament’s adopted negotiating position with regard to the consideration of new genomic techniques following proposals by the European Commission in July 2023. We are looking carefully at the implications of these legislative proposals on Scotland, should they become EU law.

The administration of Circularity Scotland Ltd is a matter for its administrators, Interpath Advisory. Information on the administration of Circularity Scotland Ltd is available on Interpath Advisory’s website.

Since the Under 22s Scheme launched in January 2022, over 130 million free bus journeys have been made by over 700,000 cardholders across Scotland. This landmark policy is already helping young people and families with children cut costs for everyday and leisure travel, while at the same time helping to protect our climate. Scotland-wide free bus travel schemes for Young People and for Older and Disabled people provide access to free bus travel to a larger percentage of the population than schemes elsewhere in the UK.

In line with other travel/transport schemes, Transport Scotland are conducting process, impact and outcome evaluations of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme.

A baseline study to establish travel behaviour and seek to understand the attitudes and perceptions of young people towards travel was undertaken prior to implementation of the scheme. This report was published on the Transport Scotland website on 24 June 2022. Following this, a Year One Evaluation of the scheme was conducted between April and August 2023 and the report was published on the Transport Scotland website on 14 December 2023.

The next stage of the evaluation of the scheme is planned for 2025, three years after opening, and will focus on longer-term impacts of the scheme and whether any behaviour change has been sustained.

The Bus Partnership Fund has so far delivered a number of projects for which Partnerships are currently undertaking monitoring and evaluation, with reporting once schemes have been in operation for a sufficient period of time.

Once complete, these will be collated to determine the impact that the funding has had to date. Initial reports from the Aberdeen City Centre bus gates are very positive with reduced bus journey times benefitting a significant number of passengers.

Other bus priority installed at signals to help buses get through them more quickly are also reporting improvements in journey times and reliability, with these having been implemented in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Oban and North Ayrshire. A number of studies were also funded which have identified further measures which will feed into the longer term public transport vision.

The Bus Partnership is one way in which we are delivering the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommendation of the provision of strategic bus priority measures. This included an assessment of the impact of strategic bus priority, the reporting of which can be found on Transport Scotland’s website - https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/strategy/strategic-transport-projects-review-2/ .

Scottish Government conducted a survey of job vacancies advertised in myjobscotland in September 2023, as part of joint work with COSLA on social workers pay variation across Scotland. This survey indicated that at that time there was a difference of average pay of circa £7k between the lowest and highest paying employers. The lowest paying £33,500 per annum and the highest £40,673. The majority of Scotland’s employers in the public sector pay between £36,400 and £38,480.

Of the 95 staff currently employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner:

a) 41% are former police officers, from Police Scotland or the Scottish legacy police forces.

b) 4% were previously employed by the Royal Military Police.

c) 2% were previously employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Private rented homes have a poorer standard of energy efficiency and the tenants who live there are usually unable to make improvements. That’s why our consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill asked for views on private rented homes reaching a good standard of energy efficiency before the end of 2028.

Our Private Rented Sector (PRS) Landlord Loan Scheme – launched in April 2020 – offers landlords interest free or low interest loan funding to support the installation of energy efficiency, clean heating and renewable systems. The scheme offers funding of up to £38,500 per property, including £15,000 for energy efficiency measures, £17,500 for the installation of clean heating and renewable systems, and up to £6,000 for the installation of energy storage systems.

The main aim of our Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) when introduced ten years ago was to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty. The sector also has a role in achieving our climate change targets which require net zero heat in buildings by 2045. This is why we have recently consulted on proposals to establish a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard.

We are making £200 million available up to 2026 to support the installation of zero direct emissions heating systems and energy efficiency measures across the social housing stock.