Chamber and committees

A letter was issued by the Chief Planner regarding consents and variations to planning permission for energy generating ancillary uses on 27 August 2020. This letter confirmed that the Scottish Government considers a battery installation to generate electricity and should therefore be treated as a generating station.

No specific assessment on potential impacts to land value in rural areas has been undertaken.

The Energy Consents Unit consented 14 applications for Battery Energy Storage Systems between 2013 and 2023.

We remain committed to improving mental health service provision in primary care settings, including early detection and care for those presenting with an eating disorder.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan (2023) sets out our ambition to drive a shift in the balance of care across mental health to ensure a focus on prevention and early intervention in the community, including a focus on providing high quality mental health care in General Practice.

We are committed to supporting people to access the right care at the right time. That is why we have allocated £55.5 million to Health Boards this year to improve the quality and delivery of mental health services for all, including eating disorder services.

We have also provided Beat, the UK’s largest Eating Disorder charity, with over £600,000 to provide a range of support services for those impacted by an eating disorder. This includes the introduction of Beyond the Symptoms Training for GPs and Healthcare professionals to support them to identify when a patient has an eating disorder, and to confidently intervene early.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has recently developed a National Specification for the Care and Treatment of Eating Disorders in Scotland which will be published later this year. The National Specification outlines a national minimum level of service which will support local services to deliver person-centred, safe and effective care and covers all levels of treatment for eating disorders, from primary care all the way through to specialist inpatient care.

We are also establishing a National Eating Disorder Network which will look at improving specialist eating disorder services and links between primary and secondary services.

Progress has been made in establishing the National Eating Disorder Network which will meet formally for the first time later this Spring. In October 2023, Professor Cathy Richards was appointed to establish and chair the Network and work is underway to appoint clinical advisors with experience in eating disorders treatment for children and adults. The Network membership is being finalised and a Terms of Reference is being developed.

The Network will support delivery of the remaining long-term recommendations from the National Review of Eating Disorder Services in Scotland (2021). A key aim of the Network is to support the implementation of the National Specification for the Care and Treatment of Eating Disorder Services in Scotland, which will be published later this year.

Additionally, we will work with NHS 24 to publish online information and self-help resources on NHS inform which will allow people to access free, evidence-based information and support.

Beat has reported that 29 GPs have completed “Beyond the Symptoms” training since 2022. Beat continues to promote this training with stakeholders, along with other training resources that are available on their website. Beat has engaged with GP practices across Scotland regarding this training and other resources, and have used the SPOT platform for schools professionals to offer the training to school nurses.

In addition, through Scottish Government funding, Beat continues to expand and maintain an extensive list of eating disorder and weight management services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Community Mental Health Teams across all 14 Health Boards. These stakeholders receive regular updates on available Beat services.

The Home Report single survey is based on a visual inspection of the home by a chartered surveyor. It provides information about the home, its condition, its accessibility and any repairs needed. Any defects identified during the property inspection would be noted in the survey report as well as any limitations to the inspection carried out. The Home Report is not a guarantee of the condition of the property, but it does provide buyers with important information about the property before they make an offer. Buyers are free to instruct their own surveyor to review the report or commission a more detailed survey before making an offer on a property.

The identification of RAAC usually involves a specialist survey, which often involves invasive investigation techniques and which is completed by a suitably qualified surveyor who is experienced with this type of construction.

The Scottish Government remains committed to addressing labour market inequalities for racialised minorities. Our Anti-Racist Employment Strategy published in December 2022 supports and encourages employers to address these inequalities. It provides guidance on improving data as well as recruitment, retention and progression practices to improve the representation and experience of racialised minority staff.

The strategy further sets out a series of actions for the Scottish Government, including developing an anti-racism workplace training framework; supporting employers in their use of positive action measures; and continuing to engage with public sector leadership on recruitment and representation, data and on understanding institutional racism.

The Scottish Government is also currently reviewing the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland with a view to improving the Scottish Specific Duties, including data reporting on ethnicity. We have consulted on proposals which include extending the existing gender pay gap reporting duty to ethnicity and disability, with listed public authorities required to make more evidence-based decisions on the information they publish.

It is proposed that the carbon capture project at Peterhead Power Station would connect into the CCS infrastructure being developed by the Acorn Project and the wider Scottish Cluster. This would see its emissions transported through shared pipelines and safely stored under the North Sea.

Details of the external costs associated with the production and publication of all the Building a New Scotland papers published to date can be found on the Scottish Government’s website:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-a-new-scotland-papers-costs/

Our consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill, which closed on 8 March, asked how we can help our public sector buildings to lead the way on heat decarbonisation, by requiring all public sector buildings to be using clean heating systems by 2038. We will now analyse the responses to determine the best course of action.

Any energy efficiency standard for non-domestic buildings, including public buildings, would need to carefully consider how to take account of the wide variety in size, construction and functionality.