Chamber and committees

Fully committing to charging relevant agencies to develop a national plan would contravene the Scottish Government position that Local Authorities and schools have autonomy to take these decisions at a local level.

As set out in our response to the National Partnership for Culture recommendations, we will explore other opportunities to scope whether any of the established initiatives around the Creative Learning Plan could be scaled up.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted on 13 February 2023, signals a turning point for planning, placing climate and nature at the centre of planning and supporting all forms of renewable, low-carbon and zero emission technologies, including transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The first iteration of the NPF4 Delivery Programme outlines the steps that are being taken to monitor and evaluate the impact of NPF4 and its policies to ensure its intentions are realised, supported and integrated with the Scottish Government’s wider programme of planning reform.

The Delivery Programme sets out actions that are relevant to addressing the planning process of major renewable proposals and other net-zero projects. This includes the work of the High Level Group on Planning Performance, co-chaired by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), which has a remit to improve the performance of the planning system and has recently been reflecting on the impact of planning fee increases in 2022 on authorities’ resources. In December 2022 an increase in fees for applications made under the Electricity Act was also implemented, and the Scottish Government is continuing to work with stakeholders to improve timescales for determination.

The Scottish Government is also working with Partners in Planning ( https://www.partnersinplanning.scot/ ) to develop a skills strategy which will identify the specialist skills required to address the requirements of NPF4, and the wider skills required to ensure we have planners with the expertise to deliver the developments we will need in the future. Additionally, recruitment of a National Planning Improvement Champion, whose focus will be on supporting improvement in the Scottish planning system, is underway.

In February, an Applicant Stakeholder Group was established to provide stakeholders with a forum to highlight key issues affecting the performance of the planning system and to help identify priority areas for action. The work of this group will in turn assist in shaping the work of the High Level Group on Planning Performance.

Beyond NPF4 delivery, the Scottish Government is undertaking a phased review of permitted development rights (PDR). We have committed to use the third phase of the review to consider new and extended PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewables equipment, as well as electricity network infrastructure. Our intention is to publish the Phase 3 consultation this Spring. This will support capacity in the system by removing the need for planning permission for some types of development.

We meet regularly with the Welsh Government to discuss Building and Fire Safety issues and the delivery of the Cladding Remediation Programme. The safety of residents and homeowners in buildings with potentially unsafe cladding is our absolute priority. On that basis Scottish Government is identifying and assessing buildings through our Single Building Assessment Programme; focusing public funding on remediating so called ‘orphan’ buildings and pressing developers to do the right thing and take responsibility for funding the remediation of their buildings. We will assess the effectiveness and impact of the Building Safety Developer Loan Scheme to consider its applicability in Scotland.

Vice-President of the European Parliament Katarina Barley MEP and I held a positive meeting in August last year, in which we spoke about Scottish Government's draft hydrogen action plan.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions, however Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15283 on 8 March 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 .

The then Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Convener of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 27 March 2023 stating that we had not, as yet, reached an agreement with Homes for Scotland and developers on the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord.

Discussions have been positive, and significantly, developers have accepted the principle of developer responsibility. However, developers want to apply a single approach to Building Standards across the UK even when remediating buildings in Scotland. We remain committed to seeking to secure an agreement and thereafter agreeing the legally binding contract to help safeguard residents and I would urge developers to reconsider their position. Developers must adhere to Scots law when operating in Scotland. This is not an issue on which we can compromise.

In addition to the health and care information services that are already available to the public, we are currently in the process of developing a Digital Front Door. Digital Front Door acts as a direct response to Scottish National Party’s commitment to develop a ‘’MyNHS’’ App.

A key deliverable within the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy, the Digital Front Door will provide a way for people to access health and care information and control their data. It will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online, including communicating with their health and care providers and managing their appointments.

Key workstreams are in place to develop changes to services, communications and engagement approach, undertake impact assessments and scope requirements for key areas such as identity verification. We have also considered the approaches taken internationally and within other parts of the UK.

Scottish Government has commissioned NHS Education Scotland (NES) as main delivery partner and initial planning, design and development is underway. The current commitment is to have the first version of the Digital Front Door in place by the end of this Parliament.

More information will be made available on this development here - https://www.digihealthcare.scot/our-work/digital-front-door/.

Data from Scottish Colleges covering Successful Completions and Destinations are collected and published as National and Official Statistics by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

• College Performance Indicators (CPI) – – College Performance Indicators 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)
• College Leaver Destinations – College Leaver Destinations 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)

Under the Code of Practice for Statistics, publications undergo systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations of the data.

As an example of the continuing work in this area, SFC has initiated collection of students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. The first year of collection of the data in 2021-22 was during the Covid-19 pandemic and is therefore considered experimental data. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

Over the coming months SFC will also be undertaking a review of the definitions of college student outcomes metrics, to ensure that they provide the most appropriate measures of success for students.

No decision has yet been taken regarding funding for counsellors in colleges and universities beyond the end of the current Academic Year.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are the official producer of statistics relating to deaths, including where the cause was related to COVID-19. The information they hold is restricted to that recorded at death registration and therefore they do not hold sufficient detail to identify where a person had in place a do not resuscitate order.

A one off analysis of COVID-19 deaths by disability was made possible by linking information on death registrations to data on long-term health problems and disabilities from Scotland’s Census 2011. This is publicly available on the NRS website: Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Week 11: Report (nrscotland.gov.uk)

There is no ongoing or planned work to look further at the level of detail outlined in the question.