Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a just transition to net zero, putting people and communities at the heart of our approach. The Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, set out these aims and the accompanying equality impact assessment reviews how our energy efficiency delivery schemes support people through this transition. https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-buildings-strategy-equality-impact-assessment/pages/

The Scottish Government funds Home Energy Scotland (HES), a free and impartial advice service available for anyone wanting to improve the energy efficiency of their home. HES can be contacted across a range of channels and formats to ensure our advice and funding support services are widely accessible. This include web based enquiries, over the telephone, by bespoke email or private messaging on social media platforms, face to face at events or in people’s own homes. Help is available through the British Sign Language app, and HES has partnered with the translation organisation “Happy to Translate”. Similar support is available for business owners through our free and impartial Business Energy Scotland service.

We will also publish a new Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy this year to set out how we will work with wider trusted messengers, from a national-to-local level, to raise awareness and understanding of the heat transition with different communities across Scotland. This will include increasing promotion of our existing advice and support services to ensure people can access the right support, at the right time to meet their needs as they undertake energy efficiency improvements to their properties and a move to renewable heating. Delivery of public engagement in line with the upcoming strategy will be led and coordinated by our new national public energy agency, Heat & Energy Efficiency, which was established in a virtual form in September 2022 and currently operates in-house to the Scottish Government ahead of becoming a dedicated body by 2025.

It is the Scottish Government’s position that an independent Scotland will remain a constitutional monarchy with the King as Head of State, just as in many other independent Commonwealth countries, and will remain as such for as long as the people of Scotland wish that to be the case.

To deliver this commitment, the Scottish Government established the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) in 2021 to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. This includes the continued delivery of the £25 million per annum Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), support for Clyde Gateway urban regeneration company to help deliver their 20-year operating plan, and £140 million delivered directly to all local authorities over 5 years.

PBIP funding allocated to each local authority for the first 3 years of the programme 2021- 2023 is provided in the following table: It is up to each local authority how they allocate funding to specific projects, within the terms of the PBIP grant award and related criteria.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for managing all training provided to doctors in Scotland. NES ensure that all doctors receive high quality training in line with curricula that is set by the relevant Medical Royal College so that they are able to demonstrate that they have met all GMC curricular requirements, in order to practise independently as a GP in the UK.

All GP practices receive funding for protected time consisting of one session a month (usually within practice time) to allow GPs to maintain and develop their training and skills, and those of their practice teams. For GPs after their 3-year training, NES provide educational content related to gastroenterological conditions. There are also Practice-Based Small Group Learning modules (PBSGL) covering cancer and gastroenterology cases.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17397 on 9 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

A) I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17389 on 10 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

B) One of the factors taken into account when considering the timing of launch of the Deposit Return Scheme was feedback from stakeholders. Many large retailers, who are the main return point operators, had publicly stated that they wanted a delay to allow time for preparations for launch and have been supportive of the new launch date since it was announced.

Once the Deposit Return Scheme is launched on 1 March 2024 retailers acting as a manual return point will benefit from retail handling fees in Scotland which are significantly higher than those anywhere else in Europe. While the delay means that there will now be an additional six months until those fees can be charged, this will be offset by many costs not being incurred. In addition, to simplify the scheme for hospitality retailers, provision will be made to remove the duty to act as a return point for retailers where they sell the vast majority of their scheme articles for consumption on their premises.

The Scottish Government has provided significant investment to accelerate the shift to zero emission transport and continues to provide a range of support to help businesses and individuals make the switch to electric vehicles. However, Biffa is a private company, and investment decisions in vehicles is a matter for them. It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to intervene in such commercial arrangements or provide them with financial advice on its procurement of operating vehicles.

The headcount of the Cladding Remediation Unit each month since January 2022 is set out in the following table:

We acknowledge the findings of the report and recognise the importance of providing the right support to families during the early years. Investment in prevention and whole family wellbeing is a key element of our commitment to keep The Promise. This includes training and support in trauma-informed and skilled practice for professionals and annual funding of £3m for embedding infant mental health work across Health Boards.

Young families are entitled to access co-ordinated support across services where need is identified. We are committed to delivering transformational change to improve holistic family support, so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time.

We have no intention to introduce further changes ahead of the launch of the scheme. The Regulations contain provisions that require future review of the scope and operation of the scheme. It should be noted that for the Deposit Return Scheme to proceed the UK Government will need to agree to an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.