Chamber and committees

Work is ongoing across government to develop a Scottish Government aviation strategy.

An online public consultation on developing the strategy concluded last year and we published an independent analysis of the responses.

The consultation covered growing international connectivity and airfreight; the transition to low and zero-emission aviation; domestic connectivity; and governance arrangements in the Highlands and Islands.

The transition to low and zero-emission aviation is also relevant to preparation of the Government’s 2023 Climate Change Plan and Just Transition Plan, and it is essential that this work be fully joined up. The aviation strategy is also being developed at the same time as the Islands Connectivity Plan, and coherence here will also be vital.

Full dualling of the A77 was not recommended by the South West Scotland Transport Study (SWSTS), because of the significant cost and environmental impacts when compared with the other transport options for improving travel on this route. In addition, full dualling does not align well with the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy as defined in the second National Transport Strategy.

Only once an intervention is recommended at the Case for Change stage, as the SWSTS represents, would the costs and benefits or disbenefits of not building an option be considered as part of the later stages of the business case process.

Research was commissioned through ClimateXChange on the subject of “Electricity system stability & security of supply in Scotland”, with a contract awarded on 13 October 2022. Analysis and drafting of the report are in progress, with completion expected in the coming months. Once complete, the exact timing for publication will then be confirmed.

The dualling of the A77 was not recommended as an outcome of the South West Transport Scotland Study published in January 2020. Instead, options for targeted improvements and road safety measures were recommended and these were subsequently appraised and formed the basis of Recommendation #40 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published in December 2022.

The independent review of the VNS was commissioned by the then Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans in March 2022, in line with a Victims Taskforce recommendation. The Scottish Government’s commissioning of the review reflects its commitment to ensuring that the justice system is person-centred and trauma-informed.

The review’s report was published on 12 May this year. It made 22 recommendations, including a recommendation on key data. This recommendation involves identification of key data for the VNS in order to determine how efficient and effective the scheme is, and for related purposes.

The Scottish Government intends to consider the report’s recommendations (including the recommendation on key data) in collaboration with stakeholders in the current months to fully explore their implications. We intend to take forward these discussions in the coming months as a matter of priority, and to publish a formal response to the report in due course.

The Scottish Government itself has a role to play in delivering the VNS for victims of people in the forensic mental health system who are subject to a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order (“the CORO VNS”). This means that it holds information on this aspect of this scheme. However, taking into account the small number of COROs imposed each year, the numbers of registered victims on this scheme are very small. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not publish data on the CORO VNS because this could risk identifying a victim.

Design and assessment work on both the medium and long-term solutions are progressing at pace. We also continue to explore methods to reduce the timescales to bring forward these improvements as soon as possible, whilst continuing to maximise the availability of the existing A83.

Clearly market conditions have changed in the past few years - the pandemic, Brexit and inflationary pressures have all played their respective parts in changing the procurement and delivery landscape across Government. However, we will continuously review the impact of current inflationary pressures and market conditions for both the medium and long-term measures.

Public Health Scotland publish Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information which shows the number of available staffed beds and percentage occupancy (Table 4) by financial year (2012-13 to 2021-22) and by quarter (2020 Q2 to 2022 Q1), by NHS Board and hospital location. In addition, PHS produce a quarterly publication which provides similar beds information up to and including the quarter ending 30 September 2022. Data for the quarter ending 31 December 2022 was published on 30 May 2023. The PHS statistics do not provide specific information on COVID beds. NHS Boards reconfigured parts of hospitals during the pandemic, with, in particular, significant increases in critical care capacity, and this should be taken in to account when interpreting the annual bed statistics.

Public Health Scotland also publish statistics on the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 which is available in the Weekly national respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistical report with Health Board level data available through the Open Data Platform: COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland - Daily Case Trends by Health Board - Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data (nhs.scot) . Until 7 May 2023, this also included the number of patients with COVID-19 in ICU.

The Scottish Civil Justice Council is a body independent of the Scottish Government, which has responsibility for drafting rules of procedure for the civil courts. We will await the outcome of the current review before taking a view on whether the requirements of Article 9(4) of the Aarhus Convention and findings of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee in Decision VII/8s of October 2021 are addressed.

No date has been set for the electrification of the full extent of the East Coast Main Line between Aberdeen and Edinburgh. However, in line with the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, this route is under consideration for future electrification by Transport Scotland, with plans at an early stage of development.

The Decarbonisation Action Plan commits to all passenger diesel trains being replaced; the order and programme in which that is done will depend on business cases and available budgets. The Plan itself is intended to be dynamic, with regular updates.

The Scottish Government wants children to grow up loved, safe and respected and to fulfil their potential, and our third sector partners play a critical role in achieving this.

We are providing over £34 million to a wide range of third sector organisations who are delivering support to families through a number of programmes – the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund, the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme, the Drug and Alcohol Services – Improving Holistic Family Support Framework - as well as through direct grant funding to organisations who are providing relationship support and support to families affected by imprisonment.