Chamber and committees

In line with our commitment to bring forward a Circular Economy Bill in this parliamentary year, we will introduce a Bill ahead of summer recess. The Bill will be designed to advance a zero waste and circular economy by increasing reuse and recycling rates, and improving waste and recycling services.

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04293 by Graeme Dey on 25 November 2021, whether it will provide an update on these plans, and whether all planned secondary legislation is now in place.The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 prohibits pavement parking, double parking and parking at dropped kerbs, and gives local authorities the relevant powers to enforce these new provisions. To support these provisions, a suite of regulations is required to bring the new legislation into force. These give local authorities the tools they need to be able to tackle the issues of inconsiderate and obstructive parking.

The first of these regulations regarding the Exemption Order Procedures that local authorities must follow, was laid in Parliament in December 2022. A copy of the legislation can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2022/360/contents/made.

We have had a long-standing commitment to allow local authorities 12 months from when these regulations come into force to assess their streets and put in place any exemption orders and physical signs and lines before enforcement can go live in late 2023.

In addition we will shortly be launching a public consultation on the Enforcement Procedure Regulations which will define how a local authority can issue a Penalty Charge Notice to someone found to be in contravention of the new national prohibitions for Pavement, Dropped Kerb & Double Parking. The secondary regulations required to ensure local authorities have the powers they need to enforce this will be laid in Parliament later this year.

As previously explained, the business case for the Aberdeen to Central Belt project was delayed while Network Rail took more time than first expected to complete some of its activities. There is also a fundamental need for the business case to fully recognise the emerging plans for the decarbonisation of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route.

The business case has reached an advanced stage of development and will be published when complete.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering its target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. At least 70% will be available for social rent and 10% will be in our remote, rural and island communities.

The homes provided through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme take various forms including; new build homes, rehabilitation projects, conversions and off-the-shelf purchases of both new and second hand homes, as identified in Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) prepared annually by local authorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16945 on 2 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

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many people under 22 in South Ayrshire have registered for a free bus pass through the Young Persons' (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, and what this is as a percentage of eligible under-22s in that area.As at the end of the day 30 April 2023, there were 10,069 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme in South Ayrshire. This represents 56.4% of the estimated eligible population in the local authority area.

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

Of the 3,124 Ukrainian children enrolled in schools as of 31 March 2023, 1,718 were enrolled in primary schools and 1,406 were enrolled in secondary schools. This data is available by local authority area in the following table.

I note that the Heritage Railways and Tramways (Voluntary Work) Bill is going through the UK Parliamentary process. Railway Safety legislation is reserved to the UK Parliament, and would be expected to apply in Scotland.

The Scottish Government considers it sensible to permit young people to volunteer on heritage railways and tramways with appropriate safety and protection arrangements.

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.