Chamber and committees

As stated in the answer given to PQ S6W-09389, the Scottish Government has had no specific discussions about this issue with these local authorities. It is for headteachers to decide on how to spend Pupil Equity Funding, based on their local contexts and working in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

As outlined in the Pupil Equity Fund national operational guidance, any school plans for using Pupil Equity Funding must be grounded in evidence of what is known to be effective at closing the poverty related attainment gap. Local authorities can also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally . Local authorities also have a role in supporting school improvement through providing assistance to schools and partners by supporting and challenging schools in their use of PEF to make progress in improving the health and wellbeing and educational outcomes of children and young people impacted by poverty.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10282 on‎ 26 August 2022. 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

The Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) last met on 24 August 2022. Updates on the work of the Board, including minutes of meetings and the Board’s Terms of Reference, are available on the Scottish Government website . In relation to the ARIOB publishing its findings,

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05896 on 7 February 2022 and S6W-08269 on 6 May 2022. 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

1,806 devices have been distributed by the Council in East Lothian using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020/21.

In addition, information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring every school aged child in Scotland has access to a device by the end of this parliament, in 2026.

This is a complex and ambitious commitment, and we are currently undertaking preparatory work, including looking at the available infrastructure in schools. We are taking work forward in partnership with local government colleagues and have convened a joint partnership board with COSLA to oversee the work.

£10 million of funding has been directed to support cancer waiting times (CWT) improvements in NHS Scotland across 2022-23, as announced by me on 10 August 2022.

Funds will be directed across a number of specialties and initiatives including investing in diagnostic tests to extended working days and weekend working, to increase capacity and see/ treat cancer patients as timely as possible.

Three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) have been established in the last year within NHS Scotland, providing a new referral pathway to primary care for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, which can often be a sign of blood cancer.

Scottish Government fund 31 third sector organisations throughout Scotland to deliver Support in the Right Direction, offering Advocacy and Brokerage Services, of which there is an administrative element. In financial year 2022-23 Scottish Government invested £2,959,658.23 in the Support in the Right Direction programme.

Part of the Grant tender process for SDS funding includes an assessment criterion that all funded projects should be accessible to anyone who might need social care, which includes disabled people.

Scottish Government has provided £46.6m funding since 2014 to organisations providing a range of support services. All people requiring support through the four Self-Directed Support options can benefit from administrative services. Figures are not available solely for the delivery of options 1 and 2, nor available solely for administrative support.

Information on the delivery of SDS Options 1 and 2 is not held centrally nor is the information on administrative support.

We are currently reviewing processes and systems for gathering such data going forward.

The Scottish Government has no direct plans at present to extend the National Cycle Network (NCN) route 73. Sustrans manage the NCN in Scotland and have set out ambitions to improve and extend the NCN in their 2018 Paths for Everyone Document. The Scottish Government has funded Sustrans with £10.6 million in 2022-23 (increased from the £4 million award in 2021-22) to undertake this work.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommends creating new and improving existing active travel routes to connect Scotland’s cities, regions and major gateways, using high-quality active travel infrastructure that segregates users from busy roads, but makes use of quiet roads where appropriate. This will support long-distance active journeys, although it is anticipated that most benefit will arise from relatively short journey routes between or within the communities that the network would pass through.

The long-distance active travel network would enhance the existing National Cycle Network to create a strategic national network of active travel routes mirroring in part the Trunk Road and rail networks. The draft STPR2 report was published on 20 January this year for a three month consultation period. Feedback is now being considered and the final report is due later this year.

Programme for Government in 2016 and 2017 addressed potential transport issues in South West Scotland and extensive stakeholder engagement was undertaken to inform the South West Scotland Transport Study; the initial appraisal report was published in January 2020, and included 23 recommendations for consideration in STPR2, including one to develop the Strategic Active Travel Network in the South West of Scotland and better connect communities to key destinations with cycle paths parallel to trunk roads and improvements to the NCN. This intervention is currently subject to detailed appraisal as part of Phase 2 of STPR2.

The Scottish Government has welcomed the report from Environmental Standards Scotland. They requested some clarifications and made a number of recommendations on how processes relating to the enforcement of acoustic deterrent devices could be improved. They were content with Marine Scotland’s replies and the amendments made to procedures, and concluded that ESS had "no ongoing concerns."

Details of fish farm inspections relating to Acoustic Deterrent Devices will shortly be published on the Scottish Government website, all ESS recommendations will then have been addressed. Marine Scotland continue to monitor compliance with unannounced inspections.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10282 on‎ 26 August 2022. 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

As set out in our Part II consultation on the New Build Heat Standard (NBHS) ( New build heat standard consultation: part II - Scottish Government - Citizen Space ), the Scottish Government proposes that from 2024, new buildings must use zero direct emissions heating systems of the sort set out at section 2.2.1 of that consultation.

It is our intention for these regulations to be technology-neutral, to ensure developers have flexibility in achieving compliance.

The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research to establish the direct greenhouse gas emissions associated with all readily available low and zero direct emissions heating systems. A copy of this research is available here: Direct greenhouse gas emissions from low and zero carbon heating systems (climatexchange.org.uk)

Our Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project, published in June 2022, provided an analysis of the current scale of the existing workforce in Scotland trained to fit certain zero emission heating systems such as heat pumps. The report highlighted that there are no publicly available statistics regarding the total number of heat pump installers in the UK and Scotland, but estimated that there are around 500 trained heat pump installers currently active in Scotland, based on data from the Microrenewable Certification Scheme. The report highlights that other forms of zero direct emissions heating such as direct electric radiators can be installed by an electrician, without any specialist heating knowledge, and there were an estimated 22,000 electricians operating in Scotland in 2018.

Ultimately, sending employees on training courses to develop new skills is the responsibility of businesses in the supply chain and this will be guided by commercial drivers. However we have sought to support businesses by offering free heat pump training in Scottish colleges through our National Transition Training Fund, with over £470,000 funding to support over 500 college places since 2020. This support combined with our early signal of intent and consultation on the proposed NBHS standard has provided businesses with an opportunity to prepare their workforce for regulation.

There are no specific statutory minimum qualifications required to install zero direct emissions heating systems, however we have worked with industry to define the minimum skillsets and recommended minimum qualifications required to install a full spectrum of zero direct emission heating systems, and have published this as part of an Installer Skill Matrix .

We have worked to integrate this matrix into the certification schemes that underpin quality assurance in any public funded work, and we would encourage the private sector to also use this in any non-public funded works.

To date we have provided £164,700 capital investment in colleges in the North of Scotland for heat pump and thermal insulation training equipment, with further investment in the South of Scotland provided by the Scottish Power Green Economy Fund. According to the Energy Skills Partnership, there are currently 11 colleges in Scotland with capacity to train up to 120 heat pump engineers each month. Three new training facilities will come online later this year, taking capacity to 150 each month. We understand that this provision is capable of meeting existing levels of demand for training in the sector.

We are committed to working with the new build sector to ensure that our investment in skills and training matches the needs of the sector as demand grows in the future.