Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers have agreed to HSE refusing the 2023 emergency authorisation application for the use of Asulox, to control bracken, because of the risks it poses to the environment and human health.

This follows existing precedent for decisions over pesticide approvals being exercised on behalf of Scottish Ministers by HSE. Independent advice from the Chief Scientific Adviser for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture and the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides supported the Health and Safety Executive’s recommendation to not give Asulox an emergency authorisation.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the risks associated with uncontrolled bracken and did not take this decision lightly. The Scottish Government is committed to science based decision making, and follows well established and evidence based process in relation to the authorisation of chemicals.

As highlighted by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, Asulox has been used on 2,000-3,000 ha of land in Scotland each year, around 2% of the total bracken area. Thus Asulox is not currently, nor can likely ever be, a tool for a national bracken control programme.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with stakeholders and NatureScot to consider options for sustainable bracken management.

Hydrogen will be a key part of the net zero journey. Complementary alongside electricity, hydrogen will potentially play a role in heating some homes and buildings, this role depends upon strategic decisions by the UK Government and we continue to urge the UK Government to accelerate decisions on the role of 100% hydrogen in the gas grid. These decisions will be supported by testing and demonstration.

The Scottish Government has helped fund a number of key hydrogen demonstration projects over the past few years. These investments have been critical in gaining an understanding of hydrogen production and hydrogen system integration into wider energy systems. Projects such as SGN’s H100 Fife project, with aims to fit 100% hydrogen boilers into 300 homes in Leven, will help to understand the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network and the Kirkwall Airport project, which demonstrates the potential for a renewable hydrogen combustion engine to support the decarbonisation of the Highlands and Islands Airport Limited (HIAL) locations.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many Maritime and Coastguard Agency approved medical assessors there are in Scotland, who are able to assess seafarers for an ML5 certificate, broken down by NHS board. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is a UK Government agency.

The Scottish Government does not prescribe approaches to items of practice on matters such as providing homework to children and young people.

In April 2023, Education Scotland published an update on ‘Engaging Parents and Families: A toolkit for practitioners’, which is available on the National Improvement Hub along with case study examples of learning at home. This resource, which includes a short review of the evidence surrounding homework, also provides schools and practitioners with good practice examples of effective approaches to learning at home.

Accordingly, decisions on providing homework are a matter of broader policy and approach that schools and headteachers are empowered to make decisions on. This is in line with other such decisions that headteachers make at a local level on learning and teaching practice, including the curriculum design, the vision, aims and rationale of the school or setting.

The following table provides a breakdown of CSO funding in dementia research through project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the NRS Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. Project and fellowship funding is allocated to the year in which the funding commitment was made. Data was extracted from the CSO database and covers research on Alzheimer’s Disease, other cause dementia and studies on cognitive ageing / decline. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.

Breakdown :

Following publication of the Capital Spending Review and a subsequent review of the health portfolio’s capital programme, all projects that were in construction at the time of the review have continued to be progressed, including:

• National Treatment Centres at Forth Valley, Golden Jubilee (Phase Two), Fife and Highland Health Boards
• The Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre project
• The upgrade of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre and the new national secure adolescent inpatient service in Irvine
• The Glasgow Primary Care Hub project

The review also included a commitment to a doubling of expenditure on maintenance for the health capital programme, in line with the recommendations of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Medium Term Financial Strategy will be reviewed in Summer 2023 to deliver an overall, affordable prioritisation of the capital programme to 2026-27. The outcome of this review will inform any reprofiling of capital projects for health and social care infrastructure.

ChargePlace Scotland’s charging assets are owned by over 400 separate organisations across the public, private and third sectors and therefore are not all in public ownership. These organisations are responsible for procurement, maintenance and commercial decisions relating to their own charge point assets.

ChargePlace Scotland is a charge point management service paid for by the Scottish Government under a Framework Agreement to provide back-office, frontline call-handling and fault management functions on behalf of the charge point owners. The current contract to operate the back-office service runs until at least 2025.

On 20 June 2023 the Scottish Government’s vision for the future of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network was published. This new vision places people and businesses first and outlines the accessible, affordable and reliable public network required for the future.

Our vision emphasises the need to attract greater private investment to deliver infrastructure at scale and pace across the whole of Scotland, as the public sector cannot deliver this alone. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment may be less viable, such as in our rural and island areas.

Through our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund we are supporting Local Authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans, encompassing their urban, rural and island areas.

The Scottish Government is fully aware of the impact that high energy prices are having upon many Scottish consumers. We estimate that from July to September 2023 there will be around 850,000 fuel poor households in Scotland which equates to 34% of all households.

While energy markets policy remain reserved to the UK Government, there are severe limits on the actions that we can take to help those facing the most serious impacts. However, we are taking measures where we can.

For example, we have tripled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30 million for this year and replaced DWP’s Cold Weather Payment with our new Winter Heating Payment, which will help around 400,000 low-income individuals.

I will also be chairing three working groups over the summer to discuss the impact of high energy prices on Scottish energy consumers. These will focus on the challenges facing those living in vulnerable circumstances, in the more rural areas of Scotland, and non-domestic consumers. The groups will identify collaborative action that we and our partners can continue to take, as well as maintaining a consensus on those areas where the UK Government must bring its reserved powers to bear.

I recently met the UK Government Minister for Energy Consumers and Affordability and repeated our call for further action to support and protect those who have been most affected by the ending of the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

The fact that the energy price cap from July to September is lower than the Energy Price Guarantee means that the UK Government now has greater scope to support those most in need. This includes introducing a much needed social tariff for vulnerable consumers, which should be funded through taxing significant windfall gains rather than passing the cost on to taxpayers.

Yes, the Scottish Government has received complaints and concerns regarding private first aid companies operating at events. Where appropriate, officials have followed this up with relevant organisations.

Scottish Government officials are currently undertaking further work and engagement with stakeholders to scope the potential extent of issues raised by unregulated private first aid companies and consider the most appropriate and proportionate next steps.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-19074 on 23 June 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 .