Chamber and committees

It is not possible for the Scottish Government to mandate the provision of community benefits through energy regulation because the relevant powers are reserved to the UK Government. However, we continue to encourage renewable energy businesses to offer community benefit packages in line with our Good Practice Principles; promoting a national level equivalent to £5,000 per installed megawatt per annum for onshore renewable developments, index linked for the operational lifetime of the project.

Local Energy Scotland, who deliver our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), administer a voluntary register of community benefits payments and a community benefits map. This indicates a community benefit commitment of around £24 million will have been paid out from renewable energy projects in Scotland over the past year (from November 2021 to November 2022).

All developers of renewable energy developments and local communities in receipt of community benefit payments are encouraged to use and input to the register. The register and map can be viewed here: https://localenergy.scot/community-benefits-map/

Work is underway to review the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Offshore Renewable Energy Developments.

The Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan was published in July 2022 and sets out the actions the Scottish Government are taking to improve care and services for people with chronic pain.

The Implementation Plan acknowledges the importance of specialist pain management services and includes a number of specific actions to improve access and quality of care provided by these services. This includes convening an expert working group to review pathways into specialist care and identify opportunities to share and promote best practice as well as piloting new digital pathways to improve how people access specialist services.

As part of this work it is expected that challenges around staffing of specialist services will also be explored. This activity will also be informed by a new national pain service managers network which will help to identify and prioritise key issues affecting the resilience and quality of specialist pain services, including workforce. In addition, the Scottish Government will publish, for the first time, projections of required workforce growth across health and social care as part of the National Workforce Strategy. Once generated these will be reviewed annually.

There were 2,467 cases of exclusion (temporary or permanent) from publicly funded schools in Scotland during 2020-21 where the reason recorded was either physical assault using improvised weapon, physical assault using weapon or physical assault with no weapon (against either a pupil or staff member). This is down from 4,458 in 2018-19 and 5,374 in 2016-17.

This information is not held centrally; it is a matter for the individual territorial and national Health Boards that make up NHS Scotland.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are currently achieving their 14 day wait to scan, with their current wait to scan being 11 days.

The NHS Recovery Plan published in August 2021, sets out the plans for health and social care over the next 5 years. Backed by over £1 billion of funding, the plan will support an increase in planned care and diagnostic capacity, including through seven mobile MRI scanners and five CT scanners across NHS Scotland. This additional capacity will support PET-CT waiting times across NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government have also significantly increased the number of available Clinical Radiology training places, following the recommendations of the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). Since 2014, Scottish Ministers have created 573 additional training places for trainee doctors. Of these, 78 have been in Radiology (68 in Clinical Radiology and 10 in Interventional Radiology). This followed a Ministerial commitment in 2018 to create 10 additional Clinical Radiology places per year over a 5-year period. The final 10 places are being recruited to by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in 2022.

The most recent NES statistics from end-November 2021 show that the 182 established training places in Clinical Radiology were 100% full with no vacant posts.

We are taking the capacity issues at Dargavel Primary School very seriously.

We are aware that Renfrewshire Council is currently working on a long-term solution for the school, and has committed to engaging with parents and carers on proposals. My officials will continue to engage with the Council throughout that process. To date, the Council has not requested any assistance from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government supports the installation of solar panels on new buildings.

The Scottish Government provides funding to homeowners, including new-builds and self-builders, through the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme.

Building regulations are not prescriptive in the technologies they require a new buildings to install. However, they do set overall emissions targets which new buildings must meet. These targets are set, in most cases, by a ‘notional building’ specification for domestic and non-domestic properties which includes PV, recognising the benefit this provides in offsetting energy demand. Following a recent review, these standards will be improved from 1 February 2023. They maintain the previous approach but include a large element of solar PV in target setting. Additionally, the new standards also identify the portion of generation which can be used at the building and exclude the benefit from power exported to the electricity grid.

In line with the principle of industry responsibility for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), it is for retailers (in consultation with the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd) to decide how to comply with the obligation to provide a takeback service for scheme articles sold online. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published guidance to support retailers in complying with their obligations:

https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/deposit-return-scheme/retailers/online-retailers/

However, as set out in the answer to S6W-12236 on 1 December 2022, we are considering measures to reduce the burden this obligation places on industry, and are working closely with SEPA to ensure that the guidance is updated if necessary as a result of this work.

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 .

The Heat in Building Strategy shows that including fabric upgrades the estimated average building-level cost of installing a zero emission system, such as an air source heat pump, is just over £12,000. The cost for an individual dwelling can vary depending on the building type, materials, existing levels of energy efficiency and type of heating systems being replaced; and we recognise that retrofit costs for hard-to-treat properties are likely to be higher than the average.

Further analysis of the estimated capital and running costs of zero emissions heating systems has been undertaken as part of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Heat in Buildings Strategy, which can be accessed at: Heat in buildings strategy: business and regulatory impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We continue to develop the evidence base on the costs of different low and zero emissions heat options suitable to different properties across the Scottish building stock. For example, we are undertaking research to better inform our understanding of the cost of installing energy efficiency measures and replacing direct emissions heating systems in homes. While there is no fixed definition of a HTT home, this research includes traditional tenements and homes off the gas grid. This research is due to complete early next year.

As set out in the answer to S6W-12343 on 5 December there is a range of support available to all properties including for older and hard-to-treat off-gas-grid properties.

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

The Island Communities Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, published on 16 March 2020 and available here: Islands Communities Impact Assessment - Deposit return scheme for Scotland: islands communities impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , considered the impact of online takeback on island communities and concluded that this aspect of the scheme would be vital to ensure access to the scheme for consumers in island areas who were unable to access a physical return point. These considerations also apply to rural areas in terms of ensuring equality of access to DRS.