Chamber and committees

The purpose of our proposals, as set out in our consultation for a Heat in Buildings Bill, is to regulate greenhouse gas emissions associated with heating buildings. We focus on direct emissions to ensure responsibility for eliminating emissions is allocated to those with the ability to act (at the point of use). This approach would place a duty on the building owner to meet the Heat in Buildings Standard.

However in the consultation, we recognise that as a renewable, and potentially net zero, energy source bioenergy may represent the best option to help decarbonise some homes for which clean heating systems are not suitable. We also want to ensure that owners who have taken the proactive step of installing renewable bioenergy systems are fairly treated. This is why, in addition to permitting extra time for those currently using bioenergy to meet the clean heat element of the Standard, we are seeking views on whether a more flexible approach to the use of bioenergy under future regulations is needed. We would need to balance this flexibility with the need to protect and ensure the supply of bioenergy in other sectors of the economy that also rely on bioenergy to remove emissions.

The Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies understand the strategic importance of Scotland’s tech conferences in attracting talents and showcasing Scottish companies to international investors and markets. That is why we have invested almost £600k in recent years to support their continued growth and internationalisation.

Conferences will remain an important focus in 2024-25 and we are particularly keen to form new partnerships with industry to grow the quality and scale of Scotland’s offer.

Scottish Government recognise the health benefits of maintaining adequate vitamin D levels across our population. Current advice is for everyone to consider taking a daily 10 microgram supplement of vitamin D to maintain bone and muscle health, particularly during the winter months. We recommend that population groups at higher risk of vitamin D deficiency take a daily 10 microgram supplement all year round.

Since 2017, all pregnant women in Scotland have been offered Healthy Start Vitamins which contain vitamin D, throughout their pregnancy. Free vitamin D supplements are also available to children under 3 and breastfeeding women.

Food Standards Scotland are currently running a social media Vitamin D campaign toolkit | Food Standards Scotland to raise awareness of the importance of vitamin D, and to encourage people to take vitamin D supplements. This builds on a number of previous FSS vitamin D campaigns during the winter.

Information on vitamin D is available for the general public on Vitamin D | NHS inform , including in different languages, easy read and audio formats. Our Parent Club website also contains information on the importance of Vitamin D. Vitamin D in care homes | Care Inspectorate Hub for adult care homes has also been published to support care home staff in discussing vitamin D supplements with residents and/ or their representatives.

The East Kilbride project is delivering an electrified railway to provide more reliable and emission free services, and also a number of significant station improvements.

ScotRail keeps services under continual review to ensure the service levels reflect the changing passenger requirements, which is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

A member of the Scottish Youth Parliament attended the relationships and behaviour summit held on 25 October, on relationships and behaviour approaches.

All three summits included representatives from a range of children’s and young people’s organisations.

We are unable to provide all the information in the form requested. This is because members of staff involved in the administration of the Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) undertake a variety of duties relating to the delivery of Scottish Government business including supporting Ministers. We do not routinely record the time spent or staff costs incurred related to the different elements of our work.

However we can advise that 5 members of staff, with an FTE of 4.6, spend the majority of their time supporting the delivery of the ECP, which includes the administration.

The vast majority of Link Workers in general practice in Scotland are funded from the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). We have not prescribed a specific employment model for Community Link Workers. It is the responsibility of each Health and Social Care Partnership to decide how it invests its allocation from the PCIF to deliver all of the services set out in the Memorandum of Understanding. Many factors will be taken into consideration such as local need.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation on privately owned land through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded against financial years and in 2022-23, that last year for which published data is available, all recorded new woodland creation in Scotland was supported by Forestry Grant Scheme funding. Many of the new woodland creation schemes in 2022-23 benefited from other sources of funding, although no significant new woodland creation took place without Forestry Grant Scheme funding.

Whilst other sources of funding improve the attractiveness of woodland creation to landowners and can reduce the level of public funding required, we would expect very little new woodland creation on private land to be delivered in 2024-25 without receiving some support from the Forestry Grant Scheme.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded in line with financial years. The Scottish Government expects to deliver 9,000 hectares of new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme in the 2024-25 financial year, and would expect a similar area to be delivered in the 2024-25 planting season.

As the Scottish Government budget has not been finalised for 2025-26 or future years, it is not possible to confirm how much planting will be supported by the Forestry Grant Scheme in future years or planting seasons.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-03094 on 21 February 2024. Answers to Oral parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, Meeting of the Parliament: 21/02/2024 | Scottish Parliament Website .