Chamber and committees

All boiler and heating systems, including Air Source Heat Pumps installed under Warmer Homes Scotland are guaranteed for a 2 year period. Warmworks, the Managing Agent for the scheme provide a one year maintenance warranty with the installer and this runs from the date of the installation for 12 months. Once this 12 month period is up, there is a further 12 month warranty with the boiler/heating system manufacturer. This means the boiler/heating system is covered for a full 2 years from the date of installation.

At the end of this 2 year warranty period all Warmer Homes Scotland customers become responsible for the maintenance of their boilers and heating systems together with any associated costs.

The level of engagement with the ‘New Deal for Tenants’ consultation has been positive, generating a large number of responses. The Scottish Government are currently considering these responses to inform the development of our approach to collection of rent data. The emerging findings from the consultation will help to define the scope of the proposed feasibility study, which we will seek to commission as soon as we have fully taken into account the analysis of responses from the consultation.

The Scottish Government remains committed to our target of eliminating hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024; however, we must acknowledge the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on all our health services.

We are exploring in collaboration with the Scottish Health Protection Network Hepatitis C group where focused interventions would bring about the biggest impact and support us to reach our target. We intend to include concrete proposals in the next iteration of the sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Framework, which we expect to publish later this year.

The Scottish Government has published proposals on the collection of additional rent data on pages 76 to 78 of the Draft Rented Sector Strategy Consultation paper titled ‘ A New Deal for Tenants ’.

The scope of the feasibility will cover all the aspects raised on pages 76 to 78 and will also take into consideration any additional issues raised through Consultation responses and during discussions with key delivery partners.

The Scottish Government expects women to receive high quality, safe care including in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of pre-eclampsia.

We are working with the Scottish Perinatal Network to examine the adoption of PlGF testing for pre-eclampsia in Scotland. This will include consideration of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on PlGF (DG23) that is currently out for consultation and expected to be published in July 2022.

Confirmation of the additional £150 million for flood risk management was provided to COSLA by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in her letter of 4 February 2021. The indicative annual capital allocations, as set out in the letter, are provided in the attached table. The initial £10 million tranche was distributed to local authorities in the 2021-2022 financial year. Discussions are ongoing with COSLA on the arrangements for distribution of the remaining £140 million.

On 27 October 2021, SEPA published independent audits , commissioned from Police Scotland, The Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Azets and its own organisational response to allow others to learn from the SEPA experience. There were 44 learning points identified, all of which were accepted by SEPA and 35 have already been implemented.

The Minister for Equalities and Older People has agreed to meet with the Chief Executive of Hourglass Scotland in the coming weeks. Officials are arranging a suitable date and time.

(a) The National Strategy for Economic Transformation puts a clear focus on growing new companies. Scotland aims to be a nation of entrepreneurs and innovators, with resilient supply chains and competitive advantages in the new industries generated by technological change and scientific advances. This is the epitome of medical research companies in Scotland.

(b) Life science company growth is being supported by a breadth of policies across government to support growth investment, skills development, R&D and innovation as well as business planning and support. The Scottish Government recognises that the commercialisation of university research is an important generator of new and innovative businesses, products and services, for societal and economic good. Scottish Enterprise has long been a key contributor to investment in the industry and participated in half of the life science start-up funding here. In addition, Scottish Government set up the Scottish Growth Scheme in 2019 to provide loans and equity investment to start-ups and high growth businesses, including those in life sciences. During 2022-23 we expect the Growth Scheme to invest approximately £28m in total to start-ups and high growth businesses.

Charities are a major funder of medical research and development in Scotland, with investment estimated to be worth £122m in 2018 (Fraser of Allander report 2022). Scotland is a global centre of excellence for clinical research and there are a number of organisations in Scotland supporting those charities and their researchers.

The Association of Medical Research Charities works to maximise the potential for research and innovation in the NHS to ensure the investment from medical research charities has the greatest impact for patients. Medical Research Scotland supports individuals through the award of doctoral studentships and through other training initiatives to companies. Scottish Health Innovation Ltd also support clinical research and work closely with NHS Research Scotland, in partnership of Scottish NHS Boards and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), to innovate and commercialise products and services. The Scottish Funding Council offer a number of funding programmes, which are administered by Interface, to offset the cost for collaborations to support innovation and research.

To further support research and development the Programme for Government has committed £100m to R&D over the next 5 years.