Chamber and committees

The change in budget allocation to the Just Transition Fund is due to a reduction in capital and financial transactions funding allocations from the UK Government which the Fund relies on.

The UK Autumn Statement was the worst-case scenario for Scotland. The Chancellor had £27bn of fiscal headroom for the Autumn Statement, but rather than provide the funding needed in services and infrastructure, he cut taxes. These decisions have meant that the Scottish Government’s block grant has fallen in real terms by 1.2% since 2022-23 across resource and capital combined. Capital is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over five years.

These decisions are not just an issue for the Scottish Budget. The UK Government’s ‘mini-budget’ in Autumn 2022 turbocharged the cost of living crisis, inflicting misery on individuals, communities and businesses. People have seen their living standards fall as a direct consequence of UK Government mismanagement of the economy over the past 13 years.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the 10-year Just Transition Fund programme and existing projects will continue to be funded in 2024-25. We will undertake an evaluation of phase one in this financial year aiming to commence the next phase in the following financial year.

High-quality, nutritious food which is sustainably produced is key to our wellbeing – in economic, environmental, social and health terms. The national Good Food Nation Plan sets out six over-arching Outcomes which indicate key areas to further develop our status as a Good Food Nation. These Outcomes have been developed with regard to a range of issues and principles set out in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, including the fact that each part of the food system plays an important role in the provision of food. The importance of supporting food production is particularly reflected in Outcome 4: “Our food and drink sector is prosperous, diverse, innovative, and vital to national and local economic and social wellbeing. It is key to making Scotland food secure and food resilient, and creates and sustains jobs and businesses underpinned by fair work standards.”

As well as the national Plan itself, we are also currently consulting on the list of specified functions that will, once set out in secondary legislation, give practical effect to the Good Food Nation Plan. The consultation can be found at https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/national-good-food-nation-plan/ .

Of the 36,100 premises connected so far through the R100 contracts, 1,600 have been connected through Fibre To The Cabinet broadband which can provide a minimum of a superfast service. The remaining 34,500 connections have been delivered utilising Fibre To The Premises which is capable of delivering a gigabit broadband service.

Of the 114,869 premises currently expected to be connected through the R100 contracts, only 1,600 will be connected through Fibre To The Cabinet broadband. The remaining 113,269 will be connected with Fibre To The Premises which is a gigabit-capable technology.

Ministers have decided that the £5.8m allocated to the Scottish Government, as consequentials arising from spending on the Regional Innovation in England, will be used to support university research and innovation in Scotland within the current financial year.

The Scottish Government has sought views regarding the implementation update on Short Term Let Licensing from the Short Term Let Industry Advisory Group (IAG). The group most recently met with all members in attendance on 19 January 2024 and subsequently shared further feedback, in addition to that already gathered throughout the development of the scheme. We will continue to work with stakeholders to monitor the operation of the scheme and that is why we have committed to providing an update to Parliament on licensing implementation early this year. I wrote to the Local Government Housing and Planning Committee on 30 Jan 2024 to set out progress we have made to date.

The SPCB provides a free school engagement programme. Our Education Services staff deliver sessions and tours at the Parliament, online, and visit schools across Scotland. Digital and outreach education sessions are popular and especially appreciated by those who don’t want to travel to Edinburgh or who find coming to Edinburgh to be too challenging. Last school year, we reached schools in 69 out of 73 constituencies, and expect to reach all constituencies by the end of June 2024.

The SPCB commissioned a review into how best to deliver our education services in the most effective and inclusive way post Covid. As part of this review, our education team has engaged with schools from across Scotland to fully understand their barriers to accessing our services.

We know from this that the cost of travel can be a significant barrier, and similarly so can time out of the classroom, support availability, and transport options.  There is no single solution that addresses all barriers and we have asked officials to undertake some further work. The SPCB will consider the matter again later in 2024.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring safe and equitable access to screening for the eligible population. In collaboration with NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Scotland, and representatives from the third sector and academia, the Equity in Screening Strategy 2023-2026 was published in July 2023. The strategy commits to exploring opportunities to offer a greater variety of service provision, including appointments outwith core hours and in a variety of locations. An action plan is currently in progress, and a group has been established to take the recommendations within the Strategy forward.

In addition, the Breast Screening Modernisation Board is taking forward recommendations from the Major Review of the Breast Screening Programme , published in 2021. This includes increasing the convenience of appointments, such as providing more regular evening and weekend appointments for those who find it hard to adjust weekday commitments or rely on support from others.

Most cervical screening is performed within GP practices, and therefore the appointment times are dependent on their opening hours. However, the Scottish Government is committed to exploring the potential for implementing self-sampling in the home for cervical screening and acknowledges that it has the potential to increase uptake levels and reduce barriers to cervical screening.

The introduction of self-sampling within cervical screening is dependent on a recommendation by the expert UK National Screening Committee (NSC), based on an assessment of the available evidence. We are aware that the UK NSC is currently considering this actively.

As outlined in response to question S6W-24754 on 6 February 2024, Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report from December 2023 report states that “Starlink [an LEO satellite service] currently delivers nationwide broadband coverage, including in harder-to-reach areas” and that “Ofcom home broadband performance measurements suggest measured speeds on its [Starlink] network average around 100 Mbit/s download and 14 Mbit/s upload.”

The R100 contracts will continue to deliver gigabit-capable connections across Scotland and are expected to conclude in 2028. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme also remains available to those beyond the reach of commercial and R100 contract build, offering up to £5,000 with which to secure, as a minimum, a superfast broadband connection.

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 .

Section 52 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 gives Scottish Ministers the power to ask for documents and information they reasonably need to carry out an inspection on a letting agency company. To date this power has not been used.

Section 53 provides Scottish Ministers powers to carry out an inspection of premises which appear to being used for the purpose of carrying out letting agency work. This power was used on four occasions during 2019. The visits were used to confirm compliance with legislative requirements and no further action was required.