Chamber and committees

Ayr Station Hotel is owned by an absentee landlord who has remained unresponsive to any approach regarding the future of the Station Hotel building. Network Rail’s sole responsibility, due to the proximity of the railway to the hotel building and the rail infrastructure, is to ensure the safety of the rail infrastructure.

Transport Scotland continues to engage with ScotRail, Network Rail and South Ayrshire Council through the Ayr Station Strategic Governance Group, to review the long-term options for the Station Hotel building. The Group last met on 14 November 2022.

Transport Scotland has provided significant investment to this project including fully funding the erection of the scaffolding and encapsulation, and the ongoing maintenance costs up to March 2020. Transport Scotland continued to fund 50% of the ongoing maintenance costs from April 2020 until May 2022 and has also fully funded the feasibility study and subsequent options review.

The Ayr Station Strategic Governance Group continues to lead the preparation and publication of the Ayr Station Hotel Option Review under the leadership of South Ayrshire Council. I met with the Leader of and Chief Executive South Ayrshire Council in May 2022.

I had expected this report would have been published by the new administration before now. I am advised that it is now expected to be published before the end of the year. While I of course recognise the good progress made; it has been 6 months since my last meeting with South Ayrshire Council and I would urge the Strategic Governance group to work together bring this process to the earliest possible conclusion.

The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the reason(s) for the addition of a property to, or removal from, the Valuation Roll. The valuation of all non-domestic properties is a matter for the Scottish Assessors, who are independent of central and local government.

To note in addition, as there are more than 70 days left until the end of the financial year, properties which have not yet met the criteria set out in the Council Tax (Dwellings and Part Residential Subjects) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 may still do so before the end of the financial year.

The following tables show the percentage of pupils by school condition for each local authority from 2018 to 2022 as reported in the School Estate Statistics.

The Fisheries Act 2020 outlines that sustainable fishing means environmental, economic, and social considerations are appropriately balanced when managing our fisheries to benefit present and future generations. To ensure we are achieving this balance, we will take management decisions and negotiation positions that are informed by the best available evidence. The recently published Joint Fisheries Statement further outlines that we consider both the short-term and the long-term impacts of decisions on fish stocks and the fishing industry before taking action. This aligns with the sustainability, precautionary, scientific evidence, and ecosystem Objectives in the Act as well as wider international treaties, such as UNCLOS.

The Scottish Government’s approach to negotiations on Total Allowable Catch (TAC) limits is underpinned by the best available scientific information, usually the advice from ICES, and we fully support following the headline scientific advice and setting fishing opportunities that are consistent with the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) approach wherever appropriate. However, setting an MSY-based TAC is not always possible, and it is sometimes more appropriate, for the stock and for fishing industries, to set a TAC above or below the headline scientific advice. There are a number of stocks where MSY based reference points are not available, for instance due to the data being limited. These stocks include North Sea and West of Scotland ling, North Sea and West of Scotland tusk, North Sea blue ling, and Rockall Cod. In the absence of better evidence being available, we believe following other models recommended by ICES should also be considered as being sustainable.

NHS Scotland provides expectant mothers with all clinically recommended scans during the course of their pregnancy.

Anyone choosing to have scans elsewhere, for any purpose, should choose a provider regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and satisfy themselves that the sonographer is a suitably qualified and registered healthcare practitioner.

Appropriate resources are in place to support the Gluten-free Food Service which has been delivered by community pharmacies since 2014. There are no plans to change this service which provides patients with a range of staple gluten-free food products without the need to request a prescription from their GP practice.

I understand how important infusions and injections are for those patients receiving them, and that work is needed to improve care for people with chronic pain and the sustainability of our pain management services.

It is our intention that people can access safe, effective, evidence-based care and support. Therefore, as set out in the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan which we published in July, we are taking action to develop a more consistent, nationally agreed approach to the provision of specialist medical interventions, such as infusions and injections.

This will take into account existing clinical evidence, the variation in approach between Health Boards and seek to reflect the views and needs of both the patient and clinical community.

The following table shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 21 November 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support 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 table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

The Scottish Government supports the installation of solar panels on new buildings.

The Scottish Government provides funding to homeowners, including new-builds and self-builders, through the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme.

Building regulations are not prescriptive in the technologies they require a new buildings to install. However, they do set overall emissions targets which new buildings must meet. These targets are set, in most cases, by a ‘notional building’ specification for domestic and non-domestic properties which includes PV, recognising the benefit this provides in offsetting energy demand. Following a recent review, these standards will be improved from 1 February 2023. They maintain the previous approach but include a large element of solar PV in target setting. Additionally, the new standards also identify the portion of generation which can be used at the building and exclude the benefit from power exported to the electricity grid.

Territorial NHS Boards’ 2022-23 funding from the long COVID Support Fund has been split into two tranches. The first tranche (70%) was provided to NHS Boards in June. The second tranche (30%) will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

This is a well-established practice for the allocation of health board funding to account for any slippage in programme delivery, and is used across a range of policy areas.