Chamber and committees

NHS Grampian’s current closure of Insch War Memorial Hospital is a temporary measure due to pressures resulting from the pandemic. Health and social care services continue to be delivered to the people of Insch and its surrounding areas.

Future use of the hospital will be shaped by the strategic needs assessment (SNA) of health and social care provision and services in Insch and the surrounding areas, which is currently underway. In consultation with the local community, the SNA will look at how health and care services can be improved and adapted to develop options for service delivery models that best meet the current and future needs of the local population. Further information on the SNA, including outline timetable is publicly available via: https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/insch-strategic-needs-assessment .

Over the next decade the Scottish Government will invest £10 billion in health infrastructure, which will include support for renewal or upgrading of primary and community facilities. The SNA that Aberdeenshire Integration Joint Board is carrying out will inform plans for investing in the facilities serving Insch and the surrounding communities.

Transport Scotland has been monitoring transport trends during the Covid-19 pandemic. This information is regularly published on the Transport Scotland website and can be found using the link: COVID-19 National Transport Trend Data . The Covid-19 Sub-National Reports provides travel trends on ferries.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01514 on 6 August 2021. 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

We responded to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on 11 March 2021 outlining the scope and advising there is nothing ‘off limits’ to the appointed consultants when addressing the issues within the scope of the review. This reflects the desire that the review should be independent, and recommendations not influenced by any pre-conceived views.

Transport Scotland is aware of the ferry services model in British Columbia, Canada. This will be included as part of international benchmarking element of the ongoing review of tripartite arrangements in place in Scotland.

Transport Scotland officials have remained in close contact with operators throughout the pandemic. A meeting to specifically discuss the issue was held on 30 March 2021 with Pentland Ferries, 22 April with John O’Groats Ferries and 17 February with Serco NorthLink Ferries. Officials will remain closely engaged with operators as the work progresses.

The resources referred to in the previous answer related to staffing resources within Transport Scotland.

Those officials who had been asked to respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic to our transport network and the impacts on Islands communities are now returning to normal duties, and has been made clear, a priority has been restarting the work taking forward identifying potential options for reducing fares on ferry services across the Pentland Firth.

Over the course of the last Parliamentary session, Scottish Ministers and government officials have engaged with industry representatives on priority issues for their sector, including planning for and supporting the transition to net zero. Additionally, sectoral engagement is regularly undertaken through forums including the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group, the Construction Industry Training Board and the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan Implementation Steering Group.

As set out by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy in July, the Scottish Government is developing a 10 Year National Strategy for Economic Transformation. This strategy will prioritise investment in the industries of the future and deliver new, good and green jobs, therefore, co-production with industry will be key.

In March this year, I attended the first meeting of the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan Implementation Steering Group and continue to liaise with industry representatives such as The Construction Industry Training Board - most recently in July - on the importance of training and skills as we transition to net zero.

In addition, the former Energy Minister met with key stakeholders regularly to understand the specific challenges and barriers to the sector but also wider energy transition opportunities, with a key forum being the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG held two focused meetings on workforce retention, skills and training challenges and opportunities and is representative of industry, OPITO, Skills Development Scotland and offshore unions.

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council.

The second New Scots refugee integration strategy was published in January 2018 and runs until December 2022. Partners have begun discussions on arrangements to develop the third strategy, with the aim of publishing this in 2023.

The Scottish Transport Statistics report an increase in car use from 35,362 to 36,747 million vehicle kilometres driven in Scotland between 2016 and 2019. We do not yet have these figures for 2020, which will have been impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions. This happened alongside significant population and economic growth. During this time period, Scotland’s population grew by almost 60,000 and the country’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.6% in real terms.

Transport is Scotland’s highest carbon emitting sector, and the largest source of transport emissions is cars. This is why in the Climate Change Plan Update (published December 2020), we committed to reduce car use in Scotland by 20% by 2030. This is monitored as part of the Climate Change Plan monitoring and evaluation framework , which the Scottish Government reports on annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to significant uncertainty for transport, with future trends and people’s work and lifestyle choices difficult to forecast at this point in time. Subject to this uncertainty, we will publish a route-map that sets out how we will meet this target by the end of this year. This is a cross-government and sectoral effort – not all the policy levers and answers rest in transport.

The most direct levers on the attractiveness of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved to the UK Government. Additionally, transport demand derives from other factors – where people live work, learn and access goods and services are all key to their need to travel. Meeting the commitment will involve reducing people’s need to travel with more local access to goods and services, digital connectivity and flexible and remote working approaches.