Chamber and committees

HSE, as the UK regulator for pesticides, is responsible for assessing emergency authorisation applications on behalf of governments across the UK, including for the Scottish Government. Recognising the importance of a timely response, the Scottish Government considered and promptly responded to HSE's recommendation on the application for the use of Asulox during the 2023 season. HSE will issue their decision to the applicant once all other UK governments have responded.

The Scottish Government recognises the role that Asulox has played in recent years in the control of bracken in Scotland. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders and NatureScot to consider options for sustainable bracken management.

There has been no decision to privatise charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network.

Our draft Vision is clear that the public charging network will need to grow at scale and pace and that it will be impractical for the public sector to deliver this alone. As part of the transition to a public charging network that is largely financed and operated by the private sector, we will continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholder including owners of charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network.

The majority of ChargePlace Scotland charging assets are owned by Local Authorities. Transport Scotland is supporting Local Authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans. These plans will help to identify future public charging needs, investment requirements and operating models for existing and new local authority owned public charging points.

As Circularity Scotland (CSL) is a private company, the Scottish government does not have a record of all their meetings and engagements. However, as an industry led company, CSL has regular engagement with its members and businesses involved with DRS. CSL has also attended many stakeholder meetings with the Scottish Government, including the system wide assurance group, sector engagement with retail, hospitality and producer bodies, and most recently on 7 June with the Minister, First Minister and more than 80 business representatives.

Officials met with representatives from British Glass on 2 May to discuss the Deposit Return Scheme. Officials were clear in that meeting that Ministers strongly believe in the inclusion of glass in the DRS, due to the environmental and economic benefits this would bring and in line with the shared understanding across the UK at the time the Scottish regulations were approved. Officials will continue to engage with British Glass at appropriate times in the future, in line with wider stakeholder engagement.

From the cohort of ScotGEM students who graduated in academic year 2021-22, 10 accepted a Foundation Priority Place post within NHS Dumfries and Galloway. Of those expected to graduate later this summer one ScotGEM student, subject to qualification, has so far accepted a Foundation Priority Place post in NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

As part of the transition to a public ownership of ScotRail, there was a continuation of four existing Abellio contracts. This was necessary to ensure consistency of service for passengers and facilitate a smooth transition. These four Abellio contracts are for 1) Shared Services Centre, 2) Bus Service link between Central, Queen Street and Buchanan Street, 3) Rail Replacement and 4) the Management of Station Tenancy and Advertising Management.

One of these contracts is now operating in-house within ScotRail with the remaining three being at various stages of procurement for replacement contracts.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that that this information is not held by the Registers of Scotland.

In order to establish the position for titles held in the Register of Sasines, an inspection of individual search sheets and deeds would be required, along with company searches to establish that the company was not registered in the United Kingdom.

These titles will move to the Land Register on the occurrence of a trigger event (such as transfer or long lease) or via a voluntary registration application made by the owner.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to improving the A96 and the current plan is to fully dual the route. We continue to push forward the transparent evidence-based review of the corridor that is currently being undertaken with outcomes from this expected to be ready for consultation this summer.

By the end of May 2023, there were 67,615 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme in Glasgow. This represents 67% of the estimated eligible population in the local authority area.

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO) and is provided by local authority. As such, data is not available by constituency area. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

In March 2022, the Child Poverty Action Group reported that free bus travel can save a total of £3,000 in the lifetime cost of a child in Scotland, compared to those living in England.

The Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Policy Statement sets out Scotland’s ambition to become a leading hydrogen nation, with an expectation that both battery electric and hydrogen systems assist in decarbonising transport in Scotland.

£3.5m Scottish Government funding was provided to convert a Class 314 train to a hydrogen fuel cell train in collaboration with St Andrews University and Scottish Enterprise which was displayed during COP26 in 2021, with trials on the track taking place during 2022. This also developed a local supply chain knowledge to support longer term zero emission fleets introduction.

Transport Scotland has also commissioned a study which is in the early stages of delivery, on multimodal refuelling stations.