Ethical commissioning was defined in the Bill, as introduced, as making arrangements for services in ways which were consistent with the NCS Principles. As a consequence of the agreement reached on shared accountability for the NCS these specific provisions were removed. There will be other requirements placed on relevant bodies to comply with the NCS Principles more widely which will achieve the same intent for ethical considerations to be embedded in commissioning and procurement of NCS services. Therefore the intent within the Bill remains unchanged.

We will carefully consider the responses to the Scottish Parliament’s call for views.

The Scottish Government committed to investing £10 million in Changing Places Toilets over the lifetime of the Parliament. Ultimately, the number of Changing Places Toilets that will be introduced as a result of investment will be determined by the number and quality of funding bids received. The Changing Places Toilets Planning Guide published by the Scottish Government provides information on Changing Places Toilets and guidance to those considering installing one.

Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is for both alcohol and drug treatment services. In 2024-25, £112.9 million has been made available to ADPs. ADPs decide how this money is spent in their local areas to meet the needs of those who live there and experience drug and/or alcohol harms.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing the significant impact of alcohol harm on the nation’s health through a range of measures including the forthcoming increase to Minimum Unit Pricing. However, we also recognise the calls for football fans to have the same opportunities as fans at other sports and events and we will continue to engage with the football authorities, supporters groups and clubs on ways to enhance the fan experience.

As set out in response to S6W-29551, the Scottish Government continues to engage with the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and other international climate initiatives as part of wider ongoing engagement with a range of organisations and stakeholders. Ministerial engagements at COP29 will be published in the usual manner in due course.

As laid out in the Programme for Government, the Planning Hub’s initial priority is to help planning authorities make quicker decisions on hydrogen planning applications.

This first phase of the Hub will be a pilot that looks to provide proof of concept for it to be in place for the longer term, with a plan to extend the services offered by the Hub in 2025-26 to support wider developments including the delivery of good quality homes and onshore wind. We will set out further details relating to extending the Hub’s services as this initial work progresses.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29551 on 17 September 2024. 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.

In the last three complete financial years (2021-22 to 2023-24), we have invested almost £250 million mitigating the impacts of UK Government policy such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, and shortfalls in Local Housing Allowance rates through Discretionary Housing Payments. These policies have a direct impact on households in Scotland by reducing the level of social security support they receive.

This year alone, almost £134m will be spent through activities such as our Discretionary Housing Payments and the Scottish Welfare Fund. The Scottish Welfare Fund provides crisis support and helps eligible people to establish independent living, and shortfalls in the UK social security system have contributed to an increased demand on the fund.

In 2024-25, we are also investing £457 million in the Scottish Child Payment, giving support to the families of over 325,000 under 16s who currently receive it. However, its impacts are reduced by UK Government welfare policies, such as the two-child limit and benefit cap, and by the inadequacy of Universal Credit.

Table 1 below provides a breakdown of Discretionary Housing Payment funding for each activity in the last three years, including this financial year.

Table 1: Discretionary Housing Payments budget (2021/22 – present)

To date, the R100 contracts have delivered connections to more than 45,200 premises across Scotland, along with an additional 13,558 non-contracted premises connected while Openreach is delivering R100 contract build.

The Reaching 100% (R100) programme aimed to ensure that every home and business could access a superfast broadband connection by the end of 2021 and this was achieved through a combination of the three strands that comprise the R100 programme - the over £600 million R100 contracts, our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and the ongoing expansion of commercial coverage.