Chamber and committees

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme, launched in December 2022, offers homeowners and self-builders in Scotland a grant, interest free loan or a combination of both to support the installation of clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures.

In 2023, the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme made 6,618 funding commitments to homeowners.

The figure provided represents all funding agreements, including both loan and grant offers.

I am answering the question as this topic now falls into my Ministerial portfolio.

As the Member is aware, the Scottish Government’s understanding of the station proposal is that it is and has always been a developer led station, as outlined in Winchburgh Developments Ltd.’s original Masterplan.

My understanding is that West Lothian Council is responsible for the organisation and invitations for the multi-stakeholder meeting, as set out in the Council Motion from its meeting on 30 May 2023 and I will consider my attendance once I have had an opportunity to fully familiarise myself with the matter.

I can confirm, the Scottish Government welcomes the collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach and I and my officials in Transport Scotland will continue to support the process of exploring options for the delivery of a new station at Winchburgh.

Following the completion of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review, an advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of the recommendations. The group held its second meeting on 4 March 2024 where the group considered the delivery plan.

The delivery plan takes an outcome based approach and the group recognises the complexity and interdependency of how the suite of recommendations contributes to achieving the overarching positive change required.

The group will consider the timescales required to meet the overarching aims at its future meetings, scheduled in June and October 2024.

The Scottish Government does not currently have plans to review The Microchipping of Dogs (Scotland) Regulations 2016

The Scottish Government is supportive of woodland creation on crofts and recognises the multiple environmental and economic benefits this brings. There are several initiatives and funding in place to encourage and support crofters to make applications. Due to spatial data limitations it is not possible to identify the total proportion of land with planting potential that is under crofting tenure.

We remain committed to eradicating long waits to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible.

We opened two new National Treatment Centres in Fife and Highland in Spring 2023, and NTC-Forth Valley and the second phase expansion of NTC-Golden Jubilee will open in 2024. These centres will deliver eight orthopaedic theatres and will provide additional and protected capacity for hip and knee replacements.

This year NTC Highland is providing 1,500 orthopaedic procedures and NTC-Fife plans to deliver more than 700 orthopaedic procedures by 2025/2026.

Significant progress is also being made in the delivery of same-day discharge arthroplasty, allowing patients to be safely discharged home on the same day as their procedure, increasing capacity within Orthopaedics.

We are aware that many third sector organisations issue three-month notices to staff that are funded through grants to inform them that they are at risk of redundancy should funding not continue.

In recognition of the impact that this can have, grant managers across the Scottish Government aim to inform organisations of funding arrangements as early as possible and, ideally, before the end of calendar year to avoid the need for redundancy notices.

Regrettably, the late timing of the UK Government Autumn Statement and the catastrophic cuts to Scotland’s block-grant have caused unavoidable delays in finalising budgets for 24-25. As a result we have been, as yet, unable to notify many third sector organisations of their future funding.

In line with our Fairer Funding commitments, we are working to do so as soon as soon as is practically possible and before the end of March 2024 for funding that starts on 1 April. Grant managers are engaging with organisations to provide as much support and assurance as possible.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government recognises that Transport plays an important role in supporting patients’ health journeys and the Scottish Government has recently prepared a draft Transport to Health delivery plan which has commitments against transport and healthcare across the work of Health Boards, Regional Transport Partnerships, Health and Social Care and Transport Scotland.

All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

The Scottish Government greatly values the Community Transport sector’s work helping older and disabled people to access GP or hospital appointments and live happier, healthier and more independent lives for longer in their own homes and communities.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.