Chamber and committees

There was no Scottish Government process to contract dualling for ‘Tomalin to Mor’.

The procurement for the A9 Dualling: Tomatin to Moy contract, however, involved a 10-month procurement process using a Competitive Dialogue procedure in accordance with Regulation 31 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. During this process two tenders were invited to submit a Final Tender, however only one tender was received.

In accordance with the above procedure, the tender evaluation followed a pre-defined methodology which included an assessment of the technical, quality and financial aspects of the tender submission received.

Following this evaluation, Ministers concluded that the tender received did not represent best value for the taxpayer at this time and made the decision not to award the contract.

Homelessness data collected by the Scottish Government is management information gathered by local authorities as part of carrying out their statutory duties in providing support to anyone in Scotland who is found to be unintentionally homeless/threatened with homelessness, and who is eligible for homelessness assistance, including students. Detailed information on occupation or student status of household members is not currently collected in the homelessness data returns.

The review of homelessness data collections is considering what changes need to and can be made to data generated by local authorities with the aim of bringing these up to date, improving consistency and better meeting user needs.

A public consultation on changes required for the homelessness data collections was carried out in Winter 2020. No responses were received from universities, colleges or the National Union of Students Scotland. Feedback on Scottish Government homelessness statistics can be provided to the homelessness statistics and analysis team at any time via their dedicated inbox [email protected].

Data gaps identified during the development of new homelessness data collection content will be considered as part of the review. Decisions on content will require a balance to be struck between asking local authorities to record any additional information, the resources this would require to implement, data quality and how much this would improve the overall monitoring of homelessness in Scotland.

The Homes2Fit accessible housing register was set up and is run by Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL). The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information.

The Scottish Government has a number of retail operations such as staff canteens that sell drinks containers and therefore, like other organisations, is working with Circularity Scotland Limited (CSL) to prepare for the launch of Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in August.

As stipulated under the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020, Circularity Scotland (CSL) is a private non-profit organisation and is not subject to the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. As such, no contractual obligations can be imposed.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations state that any return point operator must retain scheme packaging for collection by, or on behalf of, a producer or a scheme administrator.

Circularity Scotland are a private non-profit organisation and therefore decisions regarding their contracts are for them – this is entirely appropriate for a scheme that has industry responsibility at its heart. The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether Circularity Scotland has consulted with the Competitions and Markets Authority on this matter.

Our Single Building Assessment programme includes 105 buildings. 27 buildings have started the Single Building Assessment process and 22 Single Building Assessment surveys have been commissioned. Remediation works have started linked to one of those Single Building Assessment.

The Scottish Government is providing £11.6 million in grant funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST), an independent organisation working to administer the Scottish LEZ Support Fund.

The LEZ Support Fund for households is a part of this LEZ Support Fund, and does not have separate admin costs. The following table therefore represents the whole LEZ Support Fund, this similarly applies to PQ S6W-14972 and PQ S6W-14965.

The administrative costs (which include EST staffing costs) are set out below alongside the value of funds that EST are distributing and the outputs achieved.

Transport Scotland and Network Rail officials have continued to discuss options for the North Hanover Street site. These discussions have concluded that Network Rail should come forward with a revised proposal, at an appropriate time, when the strategic value of the site can be realised.