Chamber and committees

In total 63 submissions have been closed – 36 were closed during the 2022-23 FY and 27 have been closed during the 2023-24 FY so far. Of those, 45 have been deemed “unsuccessful”; 27 in the 2022-23 FY and 18 in the 2023-24 FY so far.

For the purposes of Scotland Innovates the following defined closure reasons have been considered “unsuccessful”:

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter is now giving detailed consideration to all evidence before making recommendations to the Scottish Ministers for a decision.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.

Additionally, the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) will inform the Scottish Government’s transport investment programme in Scotland over the next 20 years and was published in December 2022. It recommends that the priorities for future investment on the A720 are focused on improving safety, reliability and resilience. The transport appraisal that supported the review did not recommend any further large scale intervention beyond that proposed at Sheriffhall.

The Scottish Government agreed to include targeted Land and Buildings Transaction Tax relief and Non-Domestic Rates relief, alongside UK Government reserved tax reliefs and seed capital funding, to ensure that the offer to Green Freeports in Scotland was competitive with Freeports elsewhere in the UK.

We have commissioned The Lines Between to conduct research on the unmet needs of those people affected by historic forced adoption practices. The research will be published later this year and we will provide an update to Parliament at that time. The research will set out the support that those affected need to assist them on their journey of recovery, including access to records.

The launch of our National Mission on Drugs in January 2021 has meant that some of the commitments set out in the Rights, Respect, Recovery Strategy and the action plan for it, refreshed in December 2020, are being delivered in a different way. Many of the milestones are being delivered through the National Mission and others are being picked up as part of more recent Government commitments.

The Scottish Government is working closely with key stakeholders, including Education Scotland, to review and revise resources available for substance use education to ensure they are in line with best practice. This is part of wider work to provide schools with the right resources and support, through implementation of the Personal and Social Education Review, to address the issues facing children and young people today.

Completion of this work will support delivery of the recommendation from, where relevant, the Rights, Respect and Recovery Action Plan 2019-2021 as well as the similar recommendation from Drugs Death Task Force.

Further to my response on 5 July 2023 I can confirm that a further two local authorities have now completed and submitted their road assessments.

Six local authorities are still assessing their networks and Transport Scotland officials remain in contact with each to ensure a completed assessment of their network is received.

Local authorities are responsible under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 for the management and maintenance of local roads within their areas. Where necessary, this includes restricting local roads for events such as Play Streets. In certain circumstances Scottish Ministers consent is required to make a temporary traffic regulation order that closes or restricts a road for a special event.

A number of Play Street events are already undertaken in Scotland with great success utilising the powers that local authorities already have. Glasgow City Council’s Street Play initiative for example allows communities to close local streets free of charge. Given that local authorities are best placed to know their streets, the Scottish Government has no current plans to issue further guidance on this matter.

The Scottish Government will not work with the alcohol industry on provision of education in schools. Our wider approach to joint work with the industry will be based on the principles of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, which recognises industry’s role as developers, producers, distributors, marketers and sellers of alcohol products.

Instead, the Scottish Government is committed to taking forward substance use education work in our schools through Curriculum for Excellence. Children and young people learn about a variety of substances including alcohol, medicines, drugs, tobacco and solvents. They will explore the impact risk taking behaviour has on life choices and health.

The Scottish Government is developing a national strategy for 20mph speed limits, which supports the 2021 Bute House Agreement and 2022 Programme for Government commitment.

We have supported local road authorities with £1.4 million in funding to undertake the necessary road assessments which will determine the number of roads affected and the financial implications of introducing the national strategy for 20mph speed limits. The findings from the road assessments will enable the multi-stakeholder 20mph task group to scope the next steps for implementation at their meeting in October, with full implementation on all appropriate roads by 2025.

SW1 was a draft plan option that was considered in the draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (SMP-OWE) and formed part of the consultation in 2019 and 2020. The option was removed before adoption of the final SMP-OWE.

The INTOG planning process, which considered the output of the adopted SMP-OWE, excluded the Solway Firth for the purpose of this plan. As the SMP-OWE review and INTOG planning processes have been combined to provide a full assessment of offshore wind across Scotland and consideration of cumulative and in-combination impact, that exclusion is still relevant.

The SMP-OWE sets out the work that would need to be carried out that would allow Scottish Ministers to reconsider the option.