Chamber and committees

While product safety policy remains reserved, the Scottish Government fully recognises the harm that the misuse of lithium-ion batteries can bring to those using electric micro-mobility vehicles.

I met recently with Electrical Safety First and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to discuss the danger that these batteries can cause.

Raising awareness of the risks associated with lithium-ion batteries is particularly important as e-bikes become more popular. The Scottish Government strongly urges consumers to only buy products from reputable retailers that they know and trust.

It is currently illegal in Scotland to use an e-scooter unless on private property.

The Verity House Agreement will better enable local and national government to work together to achieve better outcomes for people and communities across Scotland. The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with COSLA to agree a more detailed programme of work, a fiscal framework, and an accountabilities and monitoring framework, to underpin the Verity House Agreement in the coming months.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and will be announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with justice partners to ensure effective implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (‘the Act'); we are working together towards a 1 April 2024 commencement date. This is to provide enough time to allow justice partners to complete a number of key IT change programmes and for the delivery of a robust package of training and guidance for police officers prior to commencement.

Our recently published Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland makes a number of commitments including ensuring improved support for victims, improving data and evidence and developing effective approaches to prevention. It will also support the implementation of the Act. A delivery plan, setting out our immediate and longer term activity, will be published later this year.

Resource planning assumptions are only one element of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget. Expenditure within a financial year will not correlate directly with approvals, starts and completions as, for example, some projects can span more than one financial year.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes financial information at Autumn and Spring Budget revisions, Provisional Outturn, Final Outturn and Final Accounts. As previously advised in the answer to question S6W-21015 on 20 September 2023, when annual financial year expenditure is concluded and finalised we publish an Affordable Housing Supply Programme annual out-turn report. This reports actual spend compared to original resource planning assumptions alongside wider programme performance information.

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 Scotland, we have some instances where test results are available for patients already, including for those remote managing a condition through My Diabetes My Way and Patients Know Best (Renal). Learning from these digital tools will inform the development of the Digital Front Door for Scotland. The Digital Front Door is not currently a live service but will provide people with the ability to access, view and monitor their own information including medical records and test results over time. We expect the Digital Front Door to be available by the end of this parliamentary term.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

On 6 April 2022 we published an independent analysis of the responses to our consultation on developing an aviation strategy. Amongst other topics, the consultation invited views on the transition to low and zero emission aviation and the role that the Scottish Government could potentially play. Decarbonising aviation is also relevant to the ongoing development of the Scottish Government’s climate change plan and it is important to ensure policy coherence between the two documents. We are also considering the appropriate time to publish the aviation strategy given this context.

In the interim we continue to support the aviation sector in line with our commitment to making Scotland as well connected as its peer nations and regions, and to support and improve lifeline air services for our rural and island communities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21565 on 4 October 2023. 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

We are aware of the global issues affecting construction, which are impacting the pace of affordable housing approvals and starts. We are working closely with the construction industry and housing partners to mitigate these issues where possible.

We continue to collaborate with all our partners to achieve our shared goal of delivering more affordable homes for Scotland.

The 10,757 affordable homes delivered to the year to end June 2023 represents the highest annual figure since the statistical series started in 2000.

Local government revenue funding is 2.6 per cent higher in real terms than it was in 2013-14 - as confirmed by the Accounts Commission. Local authorities also have a range of revenue raising powers that are not available to other public services, including newly devolved powers over empty property rates relief.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.