The 2023-2024 Delivery Plan which was recently published confirms that we expect the Digital Front Door to be delivered by the end of the current Parliamentary term in 2026.

You can read more about the Digital Front Door in our delivery plan here - Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2023-24 (www.gov.scot)

In response to the recommendations of the Storm Arwen review report, the Scottish Government undertook a programme of enhanced engagement with key resilience organisations which included a series of Winter Preparedness Meetings. Following the conclusion of the programme of engagement, a review was conducted which found the Winter Preparedness Meetings to have been useful, met the Terms of Reference, and recommended that The Scottish Government considers continuing to undertake season based resilience meetings. This summer, Summer Resilience Meetings have been hosted in relation to summer resilience issues.

In addition to this, the established multi-agency Resilience structures in Scotland,attended by SG officials, all considered the Storm Arwen report and recommendations for their collective and organisational preparedness.

The infrastructure levy powers in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 would, once in force, provide local authorities with an additional mechanism for seeking financial contributions towards the cost of infrastructure. The definition of infrastructure in the Act is intentionally broad, enabling local authorities to spend levy income on a potentially wide range of projects in accordance with local priorities. This includes green and blue infrastructure but also educational and medical facilities, recreation facilities, flood defences and transport infrastructure – among other things.

Policy development to inform implementation of the infrastructure levy powers is at an early stage and in that context, it would be premature to comment on matters of detailed policy design. Furthermore, seeking to influence how local authorities might use future income from the infrastructure levy would seem to be contrary to the recently signed Verity House Agreement.

The Scottish Government has a duty to ensure that Government policies protect the rights of disabled people and reduce inequalities. Strategies, Plans and policies related to net zero, energy and transport are thoroughly assessed to ensure they do not discriminate against disabled people through our Equalities Impact Assessment requirement.

We also engage with protected groups to develop fair policy. Examples include engagement on Scotland’s Accessible Travel Framework and co-designing Just Transition Plans for the energy and transport sectors.

We are currently working with several disability organisations to enable them to engage with their members on the development of our Just Transition Plans, to ensure the needs of disabled people are reflected both in the Plans and in wider Scottish Government policy.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-20201 on 14 August 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/questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government continues to recognise the valuable contribution that organisations like Glasgow Life provide to communities across Scotland. Whilst Glasgow Life is a registered charity, the Scottish Government acknowledges that it operates as an arms-length external organisation to Glasgow City Council.

Councils are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities separate from the Scottish Government. It is for Glasgow City Council to decide how to use their resources as efficiently as possible. This is both to best meet the needs of their local communities and deliver local and national government’s three shared priorities as set out in the Verity House Agreement: tackling poverty; transforming the economy through a just transition to net zero; and, delivering sustainable person-centred public services).

The impact of climate change policies on disabled people is a key consideration in just transition planning. We are currently engaging widely on priorities for our Just Transition Plans to ensure the transition to net zero and climate resilience reflects the needs of everyone across Scotland before developing the specific policies and engaging in bilateral meetings at Cabinet Secretary level. We are currently working with several disabled people’s organisations to enable them to engage with their members on our behalf and ensure that the needs of disabled people are reflected both in the Plans, and in wider Scottish Government policy.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their answer is:

Scottish Water does not report or evaluate leakage based on parliamentary constituency area and it normally reports leakage on an annual basis to account for the effect of seasonal variations. However, it has estimated that the total leakage in the Glasgow region was recorded at 77.3 Ml/d in December 2022, a 19% increase over the previous month as a result of the extreme weather conditions.

Leakage management and reduction is a priority for teams across Scottish Water - finding and fixing the wide variety and complexity of leaks; these can range from low level "weeps and seeps" to large-scale bursts on the pipe network. Nationally they are responsible for 30,516 miles of water pipes across both urban and rural communities on the mainland and islands.

Despite the challenges, at the end of 2022-23 Scottish Water achieved its lowest ever level of leakage across Scotland, continuing the trend of year on year reductions in leakage since 2007.

Academic year 2021-22 saw increases in enrolments, student headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) places on the previous year; as well as increased numbers upskilling and reskilling on short courses, and increased opportunities for those furthest from the workplace.

Colleges continue to evolve their offer, whether full-time, part-time or a tailored mix, taking account of the diverse needs of learners; while continuing to respond flexibly to the social and economic needs of the regions they serve through the delivery of short courses aimed at upskilling and reskilling.

In establishing the Drug Research Network Scotland (DRNS) in 2017 the intention was to provide seed funding through the Scottish Funding Council to allow the network to develop and become self-sufficient through developing other income streams with associated research co-ordination fees. Initially this was agreed for a period of 3 years and was then extended for a further 3 years.

Whilst Scottish Government recognise that a model of full self-sufficiency is not a viable option for the network, officials worked with DRNS to explore a number of funding options. Within the context of a challenging economic situation, it was considered that the DRNS was now an established network and could therefore focus on knowledge exchange and capacity building within the drug research community whilst continuing to develop and maintain connections across the research community.