Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland officials have not met the leader of Glasgow City Council regarding the Low Emission Zone (LEZ), however officials continue to meet with councillors and officials on a regular basis. As part of the LEZ governance structure, Transport Scotland convenes several LEZ working groups, including the LEZ Leadership Group.

The LEZ Leadership Group is chaired by Scottish Ministers and held every six months. The group is made up of convenors/councillors and senior officials from the four local authorities implementing LEZs. Topics raised at the Leadership Group include (but are not limited to), LEZ support funding, city specific topics, operational matters and risk.

Throughout the LEZ consultation process both Transport Scotland and the four local authorities have listened to the views of businesses. The minimum and maximum grace periods reflect feedback from stakeholders, including the Federation for Small Businesses.

Whilst the Scottish Government has set the national framework for LEZs, it is for local authorities to design their LEZs as they see fit, which includes choosing an enforcement timeline (and associated grace period) which best fits their city.

This Government wants Scotland to be at the forefront in the development of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and the start of the CAVForth trial will really help the country establish its credentials on the world stage. We are excited to see how this technology can help to support our vision for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system.

Transport Scotland’s formal participation in the CAVForth project will cease at the end of July 2023, however the CAVForth service will continue to operate beyond that point, and is expected to include an extension of the service to Dunfermline.

We have no current plans for the introduction of further autonomous bus services, however Scotland is ‘open for business’ to test, demonstrate and pilot autonomous vehicle trials, and in line with our CAV Roadmap for Scotland my officials at Transport Scotland will continue to investigate and explore what future CAV opportunities there may be.

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy (December 2022) sets out our cross-government approach to carer support and recognition, including through collaboration with different partners spanning local government, the Third Sector, the NHS and the wider public sector. The Strategy specifically considers the importance of all employers being positive about carers in the workforce, and sets out our intentions regarding carers and employment at chapter 4. This includes our commitment to fund and promote the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme.

The Scottish Government funds Carers Scotland to run the scheme, raise awareness and engage with public services and other prospective employers, for example through direct engagement, speaking at networks and events and one-to-one support. The Scottish Government Ministers will continue to promote the scheme, working with Carers Scotland.

A full list of Carer Positive employers, including a significant proportion of public bodies is published on the Carer Positive website .

The next set of affordable housing investment benchmarks will be included in an update to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme process and procedures guidance, which is in the process of being finalised. We expect to publish this guidance shortly.

There is no reliable data held or published which we can refer to answer this question: Whilst Public Health Scotland publish the total number of patients waiting for specialist mental health services, detail of the individual types of assessment or diagnosis is not held.

The publications for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting times for the quarter ending December 2022 can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government’s National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs receive the support that they require. The Specification is purposefully inclusive and includes support for those who may be identified with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

There are 111.9 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) Gastroenterology consultants in post in Scotland, with 10.1 WTE vacancies. This data is accurate as of December 2022.

There are 47 training posts across all years of the Gastroenterology training programme, all of which are filled. There are no vacant training posts. This data is accurate as of December 2022.

The following table includes data on the number of Gastroenterology trainees who have completed training and attained a CCT (Certificate of Completion of Training) in each year since 2019. Trainees must obtain a CCT in order to practice as a consultant.

We continue to invest in our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, of which public education and empowerment is a key work-stream. We launched a new campaign – Be the Early Bird – in March 2023 to empower those with possible symptoms to act early. This included sharing stories of those that have been diagnosed and successfully treated with ovarian cancer via press and digital channels, to prompt others to take early action.

We will continue to work with the Scottish Cancer Coalition – which Target Ovarian is a member of - as well as the primary care community across NHS Scotland, to raise awareness of possible symptoms. Work is also underway to redesign DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) – this will reflect ovarian cancer content, including additional survivor stories and signposting to Target Ovarian for more information.

While the powers to take meaningful action in regard to energy pricing sit with the UK Government, we are doing everything we can to support households with high energy bills.

We recently tripled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30m for 2023-24, to support anyone at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use. That fund continues to provide a lifeline to households at risk of self-rationing or self-disconnecting their energy. We also made an additional £1.2 million available to help our advice services meet increasing demand last year.

Our new Winter Heating Payment replaces DWP’s Cold Weather Payment and provides a stable, reliable annual £55 which will help around 400,000 low-income individuals with their heating expenses each winter.

We have allocated £350m to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures in 2023/24, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households, while our £1.4m Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund is supporting those in our island communities who traditionally see higher costs for food and fuel.

We have called repeatedly on the UK Government to provide additional, targeted support for consumers in vulnerable circumstances. I am due to meet with the UK Government Minister for Energy Consumers later this month and will raise again the need for further action to support those who have been most affected by the ending of the Energy Bills Support Scheme ending as well as the need for a social tariff for energy consumers.

The Fund's focus in 2023-24 will be on deploying £25 million in capital grants, as part of the £50 million multi-year programme that was announced last year.

Additionally, £25 million has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24 to invest on a commercial basis, in line with the Bank's Investment Strategy.

Utilising the commercial investment expertise and experience of the Bank offers a key opportunity to unlock third party finance at the scale required to meet our ambitions for a just transition in North East and Moray.