Chamber and committees

Scottish Government ran a very successful five-week, multi-media marketing campaign last autumn to raise awareness of the new standard. This was supported by over 96,000 leaflets distributed to all libraries in Scotland as well as posters, website and an online campaign toolkit shared with over 500 partners.

Independent analysis showed the campaign reached 95.2% of its target audience and follow-up analysis in December 2021 showed 88% were aware of the new standard.

Furthermore, Scottish Government has published material online through social media and a dedicated website and the Cabinet Secretary has written on several occasions to MSPs with information and FAQs to support their constituents.

We welcome that the unions are sharing their ideas and views. Transport Scotland officials attended the launch of the unions’ publication, and the previous Minister for Transport discussed various subjects covered in that report in his engagements with the unions.

Our focus is currently on the mobilisation of ScotRail Trains Ltd, which will provide passenger services within the public sector, under Scottish Government control, from April. Discussions with rail trade union representatives are underway, ensuring continued engagement, as part of the transition on 1 April 2022 of ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Ltd.

I am keen to meet the unions and advance a constructive dialogue on these matters and, to that end, a meeting is scheduled with all four rail trade unions for 10 February.

The application process, card renewals, card replacements and all other cardholder management are the responsibility of the Improvement Service for online applications and of individual local councils for all other applications. All local councils have been given the option of coordinating applications through schools on behalf of their pupils with the necessary information having been provided to them by the Improvement Service late last year.

We have worked very closely with partners including the SFRS throughout the legislative process and they fully welcome any measures that support fire prevention.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05860 on 7 February 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

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently.

New regulations, which came into force on 9 November 2020, require Scottish public bodies from November 2022 to report on how they will align spending plans and use of resources to contribute to delivering their emissions reduction targets.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes: including decisions on de-risking of net zero projects.

One way in which we are supporting local authorities is through our Green Growth Accelerator programme which will help local authorities reduce the risk of investment in low carbon infrastructure, by providing agreed resource funding based on project outcomes, as well as access to Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust advice and support at the development stage of projects.

Scottish Ministers are supported by clinical advisors including the Chief and Deputy Medical Officers, National Clinical Director, and Senior Clinical Advisors.

The Scottish Government draws on scientific advice from a number of sources including the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). The Chief Medical Officer, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Adviser and the Chief Scientist (Health) have SAGE participant status.

The Scottish Government also receives advice from the Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group, chaired by Professor Andrew Morris, which applies the advice coming to the four nations from SAGE and other appropriate sources of evidence and information and uses it to inform decisions in Scotland during the pandemic.

Scottish Government Ministers have not met the Independent SAGE group.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days

We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue discussions with UK Government and the other devolved administrations and continue to seek to take a four-nations approach to future changes to regulations and the travel regime.