Chamber and committees

An update was provided to Parliament and the Finance and the Public Administration Committee on 7 September in relation to the Emergency Budget Review. This set out over £500 million of savings in order mitigate the impact of the cost crisis, to meet increased costs arising from public sector pay and unprecedented levels of inflation, and to support our Ukraine response.

As the majority of our spend cannot be changed at this stage of the financial year due to contractual and legal commitments, there are limited options to make savings. With a largely fixed budget, intervention to support those who need most help and manage the nation’s budget will be difficult without impacting further on planned spend and on programmes.

The Scottish Government had previously informed Parliament that a statement setting out an Emergency Budget Review, in relation to the 2022-23 Scottish Budget, was planned for the week commencing 24 October. However, following the unprecedented uncertainty and instability brought about by the UK Government in recent weeks, on 25 October I announced that the outcome of the Emergency Budget Review would be deferred until after the UK Government fiscal statement which was, at that time, scheduled for 31 October. On 26 October, the UK Government delayed its fiscal statement and independent forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility until 17 November. As such, it is prudent to review the timing for the Emergency Budget Review. The Scottish Parliament will be kept informed regarding the timing of the statement.

We laid a brief update before parliament last week on progress against our Heat in Buildings Strategy since its publication in 2021: https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-in-buildings-strategy-2022-update/ .

Delivering the Strategy will be an essential part of meeting our net zero ambitions. The update confirms our intention to consult next year on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill, and publish our Public Engagement Strategy.

There is a range of activity being delivered by Creative Scotland to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Youth Music Initiative, which is delivered by Creative Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. This includes activity to spotlight the successes of the YMI to date and projects to further strengthen the programme as part of this year's celebrations.

The projects include a targeted fund supporting five projects to encourage children and young people to engage with a wide range experimental music practice. Additionally there has been a Strengthening Community Music project which focuses strengthening the connections between the youth music sector across Scotland as they rebuild after the pandemic. There is also the Formal Sector Development Fund which supports the development of Music Service Managers and the formal music workforce by providing opportunities for reflection, collaboration, peer-to-peer networking, and project activity which supports a period of renewal and recovery.

More activity is expected and I will write to the member with an update in due course.

As set out by the Deputy First Minister on 7 September 2022, there is a finite budget and, as a result of inflation eroding the purchasing power of available funding, the Scottish Government budget is now worth £1.7 billion less than it was in December 2021. As a result, health funding is worth £650 million less and the Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards to mitigate the impact of financial pressures across services, including those supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

£3 million of the £10 million long COVID Support Fund has been made available to NHS Boards and key partners over 2022-23. We engage with NHS Boards on a regular basis regarding their capacity needs, and will continue to do so in order to inform the allocation of the fund.

Private, third sector and childminding providers are a valued part of the successful delivery of our transformational expansion of funded early learning and childcare.

The Scottish Government recognises that the payment of sustainable rates by local authorities to services in the private, third and childminding sectors is vital to supporting financial sustainability and to enabling the delivery of high quality ELC. Our funding agreement with CoSLA enables local authorities to pay sustainable rates to ELC providers. We have worked with local government and providers to strengthen rate-setting in 2022-23, and we recently committed to a thorough review of the overall process ahead of 2023-24.

The Scottish Government has made more than £35 million of dedicated support available to day care of children services since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have also committed to continuing the Nursery Rates Relief Scheme beyond the current end date of 30 June 2023.

With regard to pay, we have seen real progress since the ELC expansion began, with our 2021 Health Check indicating that 88% of private providers intended to pay the Real Living Wage to all their staff from August 2021, compared to a position in 2016 when around 80% practitioners were paid less than the Real Living Wage at the time. We want the ELC sector to be a Fair Work sector and we are working with partners to encourage further improvements in terms and conditions, including through the development of a new Childcare Workforce Strategy.

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has invested approximately £64 million on five separate road schemes on the A77 including the recent completion of the £29m Maybole bypass which opened in January 2022.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the A77 and its safe and efficient operation with the following minor improvement schemes planned for construction in 2023:

• Layby improvements;
• Glengall (slope stability works);
• A77 Whitletts (studs, lighting and signals);
• A77 Dutch House Roundabout and general road Improvements; and
• A77 Cairnryan drainage improvements.

The Scottish Government last provided funding to support a FAST campaign in 2018.

We receive many requests to run awareness campaigns, and we assess these carefully.

Where there is not an active public campaign relating to a specific condition, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland refer the public to the NHS Inform website for further information in the first instance. The NHS inform stroke page provides the public with information relating to the FAST test and the importance of seeking medical attention.

The 2022-23 local government finance settlement of almost £12.7 billion represents an increase of over £1 billion or 9.2 per cent in cash terms compared with 2021-22.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on reducing vehicle emissions, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government provides support for lower income households and small businesses to get prepared for Low Emission Zones. The LEZ Support Fund offers financial support towards the disposal of non-LEZ compliant vehicles and offers ‘Travel Better’ grants to help households to switch to more sustainable modes of transport. Administered by Energy Saving Trust, the LEZ Support Fund provides people and micro-businesses with financial support to travel more sustainably and comply with forthcoming measures to improve air quality and protect public health. The LEZ Support Fund awarded £1.7 million in grants In 2020/21, and £3.85 million in 2021/22; with a further £5 million made available in 2022-23.

The Scottish Government has also made LEZ retrofit grants available to micro business owners (including taxi operators) which cover up to 80% of the capital costs for the retrofitting of non-compliant vehicles to the latest Euro 6 emissions standard. The fund also provides an incentive of a cash grant (up to £2,000) for the safe disposal of a non-compliant vehicle. To date, LEZ Support funding has resulted in over 2,000 non-LEZ compliant vehicles being disposed of or retrofitted with cleaner technology. Since 2019, over £4 million has been received by business operators through the fund, comprised of approximately £2 million in disposal grants for micro-businesses, and approximately £2 million for taxi retrofitting.

On rail, the Scottish Government has made a commitment to decarbonise rail passenger services by 2035, removing diesel trains that will improve the air quality across Scotland’s cities and communities.

To support bus and coach operators with the financial costs associated with engine and exhaust retrofitting to meet LEZ standards, the Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) grant funding has been offered by Scottish Government since 2018. BEAR Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 provided £18.4 million funding to support the costs of retrofitting of 1143 buses and coaches to Euro VI standard in Scottish Air Quality Management Areas from 2018 to 2022. An additional £2.65 million has been made available for BEAR 5 in 2022/23, with further funding also currently under consideration.

On 10 August 2022, the Scottish Government opened the Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme, which makes funding available to transport providers and local authorities to develop new business models for a rapid decarbonisation of bus transport. This fund – worth £500,000 – is open for applications until 09 December, or until all funding has been awarded, whichever occurs first.

Further details of these, and other recent schemes designed to enable local authorities and transport operators to reduce emissions is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63670)