Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to finding ways to make sustainable travel modes more attractive, and supporting people to take fewer journeys by car. We recognise that accessible and reliable public transport services, as well as active travel options, can alleviate stresses on household incomes, as well as support our climate ambitions.

We are providing over £2.1 billion investment in bus services and infrastructure over the rest of this parliament. This financial year, we are forecasting spend of up to £300m to enable over 2 million people to travel by bus for free with the Young Persons Free Bus scheme which, in addition to other concessionary schemes, means that we are providing up to 50% of the population with access to free bus travel across Scotland. Rail fares will also be frozen until at least March 2023 and there are a number of schemes on offer for discounted rail travel such as Kids for a Quid and railcards giving around 1/3 off many fares.

The route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car km by 2030, published in January, sets out how we will support people to reduce their car use. For those who have access to a car, but are struggling with the costs of fuel, the route map interventions aim to support them to reduce the number of trips or the distances they need to drive by car, thereby saving them money, as well as supporting their health and wellbeing.

In the 2022 Programme for Government the Scottish Government set out immediate steps this government will take to help families and businesses to get through the cost of living crisis, outlining our ambition to create a better future beyond the immediate crisis. This includes a transport initiative to test a new mobility and scrappage scheme to help low income households to replace a polluting vehicle with the means to travel sustainably. It will be targeted to car-owning low income households and provide up to £1,000 per household of mobility credits for more sustainable options including the purchase of assets such as bikes or e-bikes and sustainable travel vouchers for bus, car clubs, and taxis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10615 on 22 September 2022. 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

Our recent consultation proposed restrictions on vaping products that strike a balance between protecting all non-smokers from the potential harms of vaping, while still providing existing adult smokers with the information they need to make an informed choice on cessation. The responses from this consultation together with the analysis report and responses from the consultation as part of the 2016 Act are informing and shaping the final vaping restriction regulations. In addition findings from the consultation will be used to inform the refreshed Tobacco Action Plan, which is due to be published in 2023. In the meantime we will be working to ensure people better understand the risks around vaping. We will also continue to work with the UKG over joint approaches such as further regulation of flavourings.

Our Fuel Poverty Act is the most ambitious fuel poverty legislation in the UK, setting us challenging but achievable targets, that in 2040 no more than 5% of households are fuel poor, and no more than 1% are in extreme fuel poverty. As required by the 2019 Fuel Poverty Act, a new statutory Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel was established from January 2022. The panel is an advisory non-departmental public body (NDPB) which will oversee the implementation of the Fuel Poverty Strategy, providing an important means of external scrutiny of our progress towards meeting the statutory targets.

As the 2019 Act requires the Scottish Government to formally consult with the panel on the strategy, we are presently working with them to seek their views in relation to appropriate next steps. The panel are also working collaboratively with the Poverty and Inequality Commission to inform advice for Scottish Ministers.

We are committed to tackling fuel poverty – not least by delivering on our Fuel Poverty and Heat in Buildings Strategies, which will help make homes warmer, greener and cheaper to run. We will invest at least £1.8 billion over the course of this parliament to insulate and install modern climate-friendly heating in homes and other buildings. This year alone (2022-23) we have allocated £336 million to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures including £119m targeted at fuel poor households. Our Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty scheme has its highest ever annual budget of £55 million, with recently revised eligibility criteria making a further 110,000 households eligible for support across Scotland. In addition, the Programme for Government commits us to using our Emergency Budget Review to double the value of our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million, to ensure support continues to be available to people affected by rising energy costs who may be unable to afford their fuel bills this winter. Also subject to the emergency budget review, we will be investing an additional £5 million in Discretionary Housing Payments and allowing local authorities flexibility to use them to help with energy costs as well as rent payments.

The majority of Scottish domestic consumers have contracts with energy suppliers for their electricity consumption and are therefore automatically eligible to receive support through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Thousands of households across the country that are off the gas grid and rely on electric heating, heating oil, LPG and other alternative fuels would miss out on this support if it were delivered through gas accounts instead of electricity accounts. This would also be true for the equivalent support for alternative fuel users introduced through the Energy Price Guarantee.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government on ways to ensure that all consumers receive at least the equivalent to the £400 support delivered through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reaching its target of eliminating HIV Transmission in Scotland by 2030.

In 2019, The Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish Health Protection Network leads to deliver a proposal for how Scotland can become one of the first countries to eliminate HIV transmissions.

Work on the proposal has been led by Professor Rak Nandwani, Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University, with input from clinicians, academics, public health experts, the third sector and people living with HIV.

Their work has now concluded, and we anticipate the proposal, along with next steps, will be published on 1 December, to coincide with World Aids Day

Offshore emissions generated as a result of the exploration for oil and gas in the North Sea are not counted as part of Scotland’s emissions inventory and instead are attributed directly to the UK emissions inventory and are not allocated to any devolved administration.

The Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonisation (INTOG) offshore wind planning and leasing round will build on the success of ScotWind and enable new innovative and unique offshore wind projects to directly remove oil and gas production emissions from our environment and help Scotland maximise our offshore wind potential and build our offshore wind supply chain.

Lease lengths and conditions were set out by Crown Estate Scotland following engagement with the relevant sectors. INTOG projects that are successful in gaining a lease and consent will help decarbonise the oil and gas production sector, as we manage the structured transition away from the fossil fuel sector, and by supplying excess energy to the grid or converting it to other fuels will directly help meet Scotland’s own net zero commitments. A full Sustainability Appraisal for the INTOG plan will be carried out before any projects are offered Option Agreements by Crown Estate Scotland.

The Scottish Government has stated that our contribution to climate change will end, definitively, within one generation. In line with this commitment, our Programme for Government 2021/22 states that "unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is incompatible with our climate obligations and meeting the aims of the Paris Agreement"; in a post-COP26 world.

The Scottish Government previously informed Parliament that a statement setting out an Emergency Budget Review (EBR), in relation to the 2022-23 Scottish Budget, was planned for the week commencing 24 October.

However, following the unprecedented uncertainty and instability brought about by the current UK Government in recent weeks, including a series of announcements and changes to UK economic and fiscal measures leading to economic turmoil, mortgage products being pulled, the pound crashing and the Bank of England having to take emergency action to stabilise financial markets, culminating in another change in Prime Minister, the EBR will be deferred until after the planned fiscal statement from the new UK administration currently scheduled for 31 October. This will also allow the EBR to take account of updated independent forecasts of the UK economy from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Parliament will be kept informed regarding the updated timing of the EBR statement.

The Scottish Government has not made representations to the management at Liberty Steel Dalzell in Motherwell following the resignation of its parent company's auditors.

The appointment of auditors is an operational matter for the GFG parent company and the issue was raised in a recent Ministerial meeting at that level.

The Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020 was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 19 March 2020. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have provided an update from their live system and confirm that there have been no charges prosecuted under the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005 since that date.