Chamber and committees

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) classifies the overall condition of Scotland’s surface water environment (rivers, lochs, transitional waters, and coastal areas) at 64% in good or better condition. This is compared to England where its Environment Agency classifies only 16% of its surface water environment in good condition. For river and lochs, only, SEPA classifies that 84% are in good or better condition for water quality, 89% for flows and levels (hydrology), 89% for physical condition (morphology) and 88% for access for fish migration.

The HIV Transmission Elimination Implementation Group will be responsible for assessing and prioritising the recommendations contained within the HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal.

The group is currently being formed and will be co-chaired by Professor Nicola Steedman, the Scottish Government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Dr Dan Clutterbuck, Lead Clinician for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Lothian Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh.

The formal governance and reporting structures are still to be agreed upon and will form part of the discussion at the first meeting, which is scheduled for the end of March.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and deployment of all staff in local authority schools is a matter for individual Councils.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and deployment of all staff in local authority schools is a matter for individual Councils.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and deployment of all staff in local authority schools is a matter for individual Councils.

Since being established in the winter of 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, a total of £33.595 million in support has been distributed from the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) through our third sector delivery partners, namely Advice Direct Scotland, the Fuel Bank Foundation and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. This includes the full £20 million budgeted for in 2022-23, all of which has been drawn down by delivery partners.

We have agreed an approach to monitoring and evaluation of support provided by delivery partners which seeks to avoid excessive demands for data gathering and reporting, in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed to those most in need. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold this information, although we are aware of the unprecedented demand for support from the Fuel Insecurity Fund, which our partners are providing to households. Based on evaluation reports received to date and ongoing monitoring, we estimate over 100,000 households will have received some form of support.

Further information, including FIF partner publications and evaluations, can be accessed directly on their respective websites linked to below.

The Fuel Bank Foundation - Fuel-Bank-Fuel-Crisis-Report-2023.pdf (fuelbankfoundation.org)

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations – 92717.pdf (sfha.co.uk)

Advice Direct Scotland - Publications – Advice Direct Scotland

Over the last 12 months Marine Scotland Directorate has recruited a significant number of new staff across Marine Scotland Licensing Operations Team, Marine Scotland Planning and Policy Division and the science function within Marine Scotland to address increased demands expected from processing ScotWind applications. Resources will be kept under review in light of the number of lease options awarded for ScotWind and applicants’ proposed timelines. In addition, the Marine Scotland Directorate has established a streamlining team to identify and implement efficiencies in consenting processes.

The Scottish Government has provided local government with an additional £147.1 million capital funding in 2023-24. The maintenance of buildings and assets is the responsibility of individual local authorities and it is up to councils to manage their own budgets and allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Local authorities also have a range of powers enabling them to take action on buildings that fall into disrepair, such as the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 and Building (Scotland) Act 2003 (the Act). Section 28 of the Act gives local authorities powers to take action on defective buildings, this includes serving a notice to bring the building back into a reasonable state of repair having regard to its age, type and location.

Further support is made through the Place Based Investment Programme which aims to align place based investment, working collaboratively with local communities to deliver shared aspirations for their place. The programme includes investment of £140 million over the course of the parliament to local authorities. This investment is expected to support delivery of our policy ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration, community wealth building and contribute to net zero. The funding can be used for example for the repurposing of buildings, maintenance and repairs, reallocating external space and community led land acquisition.

The Learning Estate Investment Programme’s (LEIP) outcomes Governance Board, which is co-chaired by Scottish Government and COSLA, scrutinises all aspects of the LEIP on an ongoing basis.

The LEIP has undergone a Gateway Review Strategic Assessment, the recommendations of which have been implemented across the LEIP. A further Gateway Review will commence this month.

Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) provides expertise, for example, in programme and data management, schools design, as well as commercial and financial modelling, and the Scottish Government engages regularly with SFT on ongoing management of the LEIP. SFT also managed the previous Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme which saw the construction of 117 new or refurbished schools and benefited over 60,000 pupils across the country.

We have significantly increased access to digital mental health treatments, products and services since the first cCBT treatment was rolled out in 2017. We now have 27 different computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) treatments available across all NHS Boards. This includes the tool ‘Space in Coronary Heart Disease’.

Through delivery of the Heart Disease Action Plan, we have worked with five health boards to encourage their utilisation of this tool within cardiac rehab services. We are in the process of evaluating this to support further adoption within cardiac services.