Chamber and committees

The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth met with representatives from Scottish Renewables on 21 July 2021 to discuss the renewable energy industry’s vision for NPF4.

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 where possible.

Scotland already has “Beyond the Glen – a strategy for the Scottish Venison Sector to 2030”. This industry-led strategy commits to a range of actions including development of the supply chain and marketing.

Scottish Government provides support to the sector in various ways including funding of £50,000 in March 2021 towards a venison promotional campaign.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CSO) launched a call for Rapid Research in COVID-19 on 25 March 2020 and a second call specifically addressing longer-term effects of COVID-19 infection on 5 October 2020. Following independent expert review, 65 projects were funded in total, 56 through the Rapid Research programme and 9 through the long COVID call.

None of the projects specifically address microemboli and long COVID. Many of the projects are still active and include research on vascular aspects of COVID-19.

The full list of funded projects is available from the CSO website

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/covid-19-research/

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

Grant Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Applications looking at links between microemboli and long COVID may be submitted to the CSO funding committees. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

Modelling undertaken using the National Household Model (NHM), and by applying a minimum cost approach to achieving EPC C, indicates that it could cost up to £1.7bn to retrofit the private rented sector housing (PRS) stock to an EPC C, or as near to this standard as is technically feasible. The modelling methodology is available here .

It should be noted that the Scottish Government is proposing that private-rented and owner-occupied homes will be required to reach a minimum energy standard equivalent to EPC C. Accurate estimated costs to the PRS sector will therefore depend on our final approach to regulation – including any cost-effectiveness and technical-feasibility, or exemptions that may apply. We will undertake a full range of impact assessments ahead of introducing any legislation.

We have committed to supporting property owners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and are encouraging property owners to contact Home Energy Scotland who offer free impartial energy efficiency advice, and may be able to offer tailored advice for stone built properties. They are also the route to Scottish Government funded loans, in Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan: overview - Home Energy Scotland . Home Energy Scotland can be contacted on Freephone 0808 808 2282 or through their website https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/home-energy-Scotland

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05935 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

The Skills Action Plan for Rural Scotland (SAPRS) is a joint initiative supported by Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Government, Plan stakeholders and partners.

An evaluation of the SAPRS is currently underway; it will be published in Summer 2022.

This will help inform what future action is needed to drive forward coordination and delivery of skills for rural Scotland and as such we are keen not to pre-empt the outcome of the evaluation.

The Full Business Case Stage 1 for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), published on 8 May 2019 (pp36-37), considered the costs and benefits of including glass within the scheme and concluded that glass should be included due to the substantial environmental and economic benefits.

We do not consider that there will be extensive switching away from glass containers to other materials as a result of DRS. Format decisions are driven by a range of considerations including practicality, convenience, brand preference and presentation of the product. Indeed, the impact on material choice could be greater if glass were left outside the scope of DRS, creating an incentive to switch towards glass.

We are working collaboratively with Community Learning and Development providers to support safe practices and behaviours through the Advanced Learning COVID-19 Recovery Group and to deliver guidance that will support the Strategic Framework. This will include encouraging local/community facilities to permit access to organisations and groups working within this sector, operating in line with their own requirements under the terms of the Strategic Framework.

We have also prepared safer workplaces guidance and the organised activities for children guidance to support and accelerate these organisations ability to safely reopen these buildings. However, the responsibility for reopening youth and community facilities ultimately rests with the owners.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy commits to introducing a Bill in the current session of the Scottish Parliament which, amongst a range of powers, will enable the application of minimum energy efficiency regulations in the private rented sector (PRS) from 2025. All PRS homes will be required to meet the standard, equivalent to EPC C, by 2028. We plan to hold a consultation on such regulations in the coming year, which will include how they will be enforced.