Chamber and committees

The analysis was published on 3 March and can be found here - https://www.gov.scot/publications/energy-system-transition-independent-analysis/ .

This publication is an independent report, reviewed by an independent panel, which provides a significant volume of evidence and analysis and will contribute to our understanding of the opportunities and challenges in energy transition. To allow stakeholders to fully consider this material before responding, the consultation period for the draft ESJTP has been extended by 5 weeks, and will now close on 9 May.

To date, we have been laying the foundations to deliver on Scotland’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy to support disabled young people as they make the transition to young adult life, through research and engagement.

The scope, vision, aims and national priorities for the strategy will now be developed through external stakeholder engagement and wider consultation. Staffing costs for this work will be met from our operating costs budget for 2023-24.

The costs associated with the implementation of the Strategy will be determined by the actions that are developed and ultimately included, once agreed.

The number of full time equivalent staff employed by the Scottish Government varies throughout the financial year, so figures provided represent a snapshot. On 16 February 2023 the Scottish Government employed 53.7 full time equivalent frontline communications (press office) staff whose role includes media relations.

The recruitment of media relations staff by public bodies and agencies is a matter for those organisations and the information requested in regard to this is not held centrally.

In December 2021 the Animal Disease Policy Group (ADPG), which includes a range of avian influenza experts and representatives from UK administrations, agreed to collect and store samples from non-avian wildlife through the existing Diseases of Wildlife Surveillance (DoWS) scheme for retrospective testing. This would allow a better understanding of the epidemiological situation regarding influenza viruses in non-avian wildlife species while limiting the pressure on veterinary resource or the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) Weybridge allowing the prioritisation of testing of wild birds and poultry. ADPG took the decision in July 2022 to commence the retrospective testing of stored samples of mammal carcasses at the NRL. The samples had been collected as part of routine wildlife surveillance in 2021 and 2022. In February 2023 it was reported to Scottish Government that four seals from Scotland have returned positive findings of HPAI H5N1 from this retrospective testing programme.

Despite these findings, the risk of the H5N1 strain to non-avian species, including humans, remains low. The positive identification of HPAI in mammals remains an unusual event and available genomic surveillance data, reported by APHA in the UK, indicates that there is no widespread mammalian adaption of the virus.

Scottish Government continues to monitor the UK and international situation regarding HPAI in avian and non-avian wildlife. Since the beginning of 2023, APHA have moved to a system of real-time testing through the GB wildlife surveillance scheme of mammalian samples collected including seals.

The average repairs and maintenance expenditure per council house by local authority from 1998-99 to 2021-22 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64022.

It should be noted that the vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on maintenance of council housing, 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 does not hold the full level of information requested for reasons outlined in the answer to S6W-15113 on 8 March 2023. Each Fuel lnsecurity Fund partner is distinct in terms of their delivery with the use of funding and targeted support measures and approach, which will determine their level and volume of applications, proportionate on a case-by-case basis.

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 support public authorities compliance with the duty created under Section 2 Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018, the Scottish Government and its forestry agencies have consulted on and published Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-2029, which provides an overarching framework for sustainable forest management.

We have maintained and promoted the UK Forestry Standard, the technical standard supporting the delivery of sustainable forestry in Scotland. To ensure this framework remains relevant we are working with the other UK Governments to update the Standard including inputs from public bodies in Scotland such as NatureScot and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The Scottish Government has put in place planning policy and legislation that supports the delivery of this duty through the National Planning Framework 4, the implementation of the Control of Woodland Removal Policy and the requirement under the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 for planning authorities to prepare Forestry and Woodland Strategies. These strategies should include setting out how planning authorities will protect, develop and expand forestry and woodlands in their area. Scottish Forestry will shortly be working with partners to review the guidance to support the preparation of these local strategies.

The Scottish Government is also working directly with public authorities including statutory consultees and local authorities to actively support sustainable forestry management through partnership initiatives such as the Clyde Climate Forest, Rainforest Alliance, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust and Cairngorms Connect.

The Scottish Government has sought advice from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding their views on making changes to muirburn legislation.

The Scottish Government is working with Palladium to consider how modular housing could be used to provide longer-term sustainable housing. . The contract that the Scottish Government entered into with Palladium in August last year will end on 15 March 2023. The Scottish Government has competitively tendered for a successor contract to be put in place after the current contract ends. This will support the Scottish Government’s plans to pilot the use of short-term modular accommodation. However, the successor company will also work with the Scottish Government to continue to develop a proposal to deliver longer-term modular housing. Bids for the successor contract are currently being reviewed and a decision will be taken very shortly.

Today the Career Review Programme Board, chaired by Grahame Smith, have published the Career Review: Final Report, titled 'Skills and experiences to grow and succeed in a rapidly changing world' . This report concludes a comprehensive review of Scotland's career services and provides detail on how the ten recommendations that the Scottish Government accepted in February 2022 will be taken forward.

The report is available at www.careerreview.scot