Chamber and committees

The management of the court estate is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. The car park to the south of Glasgow Sheriff Court is considered an essential part of the SCTS estate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-02113 on 19 April 2023 and can be found: Meeting of the Parliament: 19/04/2023 | Scottish Parliament Website .

The Scottish Government does not hold this data, however it is collected by the Scottish Social Services Council and can be found in their annual data report here .

The Health Board's interim plan to transfer the three ICU beds to University Hospital Crosshouse is to ensure adequate consultant medical cover. Patient safety remains of paramount concern.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has provided assurances that all feasible options will continue to be explored to maintain the ICU beds at University Hospital Ayr; and that local communities and their representatives will be kept fully updated as this work progresses.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for protecting aquatic wildlife, including shellfish, from sewage discharges to the water environment. SEPA currently classifies all Scotland’s coastal waterbodies at good or better condition for water quality.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is responsible for monitoring and assessing levels of biotoxins, faecal contamination (ie E.coli) and chemical contaminants in shellfish for human consumption and the data is available on its website ( https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/business-and-industry/industry-specific-advice/shellfish ). FSS works with the SEPA to identify any areas showing signs of deteriorating water quality.

In designated Shellfish Waters Protected Areas (SWPAs) SEPA aims to protect and improve water quality to ensure that shellfish grown for human consumption is safe. The most recent classification undertaken by SEPA indicates that 99% of SWPAs are in good or better condition.

In 2023-24 local authorities will receive funding through the local government finance settlement of nearly £13.5 billion. Local authorities also have a range of revenue raising powers that are not available to other public services.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of the block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, including with regards to climate adaptation, to having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

While local authorities are responsible for setting their own budgets, the total funding provided by the Scottish Government will increase by over £793 million in 2023-24 compared with the 2022-23 budget. Decisions on budget allocations for future years are subject to negotiation with COSLA and the results will be confirmed as part of future Scottish Budgets.

By way of example £42 million is provided to local authorities annually for flood risk management, with an additional £150 million announced for investment over this Parliament. Additionally, £11.7 million for coastal change adaptation is available to support coastal local authorities over the course of this Parliament.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on businesses that have closed, or are considering closing as a result of the short-term let licensing scheme. Existing hosts, those operating before 1 October 2022, have until 1 October 2023 to apply for a licence and can continue operating whilst their application is being determined.

Separate to establishing the legislative framework for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 also sets statutory requirements to produce a Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP) every five years. These programmes are required to address current and projected risks from climate change, as identified in the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. The current SCCAP covers the period 2019 – 2024 and sets out over 170 policies and proposals to build climate resilience in Scotland. We intend to lay the next annual progress report on SCCAP implementation in the Scottish Parliament in May 2023. The next five-year adaptation programme is already in development, with public consultation anticipated for the start of 2024.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17264 on 4 May 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/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16363 on 25 April 2023. This set out which justice organisations received resources through the ‘Recover, Renew, Transform’ (RRT) Fund in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and how much each organisation received. A central aim of the Fund was to support the justice sector to address backlogs, by increasing capacity across the system.

Before the establishment of the RRT Fund, the Scottish Government had provided £12.077 million to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in 2020-21 for the establishment of remote jury centres. By enabling jury trials to proceed at a time of strict public health restrictions, these centres helped to prevent the court backlog increasing further.

The 2023-2024 Budget allocates £42.2 million of RRT funding. This includes £26.5 million to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to support them in continuing to address the court backlog by maintaining enhanced court capacity.

We also allocated an additional £10.75 million to frontline support services during the pandemic, to ensure that they could continue to respond to the needs of survivors of gender-based violence at a time when services were under increased pressure.

I am delighted that the Tall Ship Races will be coming to Lerwick at the end of July this year. They represent a fantastic opportunity for Scotland, in particular Shetland and our island communities. This event, supported by £130,000 of EventScotland funding, is expected to attract up to 30,000 spectators and around 1,300 participants from 8 countries to Shetland. Ministers with a portfolio interest will be delighted to consider any invitation in line with current commitments.