Chamber and committees

Inbound international travel restrictions were eased across the four nations on 4 October. These changes mean that people who have received two doses of different vaccines are regarded as having completed a full course of the vaccine and therefore are treated as ‘fully vaccinated’ for travel purposes. This applies to people who have been vaccinated by accepted vaccines in countries that are already eligible under the vaccinated traveller policy.

Travellers from non-red list countries who have been fully vaccinated in a country that meets recognised standards of certifications will no longer be required to provide evidence of a negative test result before they can travel to Scotland, and will not be required to self-isolate or take a day 8 test. They must still currently take a day 2 PCR test, though we have announced that we intend to align with the UK post-arrival testing regime later in October, with further details to be announced in due course.

Those who are not considered eligible fully vaccinated travellers must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

Further guidance for international arrivals can be read at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-international-travel-quarantine/pages/red-amber-and-green-list-countries/

Since 2018 Scottish Government has invested the following amounts on expanding the public and non public electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Scotland. These figures includes support provided to electric vehicle owners to install home charging points and support provided to Local Authorities, businesses and other organisations. The figures below represent all chargepoints that we have supported some of which are not publicly available chargers and as such won't appear on the ChargePlace Scotland network.

1) 2018-2019 – £13,405,324.67

2) 2019-2020 – £15,796,625

3) 2020-2021 – £14,416,073.57

The shift to electric vehicles is an important part of responding to the climate emergency and improving air quality in our cities. To help incentivise this shift, we have since 2013 invested over £45 million in ChargePlace Scotland, Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 1900 publicly available charge points. Scotland is leading the way on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The latest figures show that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from almost 40 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to fewer than 30 in England, just over 20 in Wales and less than 20 in Northern Ireland.

The guidance on reducing risks in schools was updated on 30 September. The amendments reflected changes to advice from the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues around school visitors, specifically with regard to enabling greater flexibility around parental visits, parent councils and parent-teacher associations, community-based interventions, and spectators at outdoor sports events. It should be noted that visitors to schools should be agreed in advance, and any such arrangements should be appropriately risk-assessed.

The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-reducing-the-risks-in-schools/

The Scottish Government’s guidance for employers on Test & Protect is regularly updated. This sets out the support that employers should give to employees who are required to self-isolate. It also sets out steps that employees can take if they feel that their employer is not enabling them to complete periods of requested self-isolation. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-test-and-protect/pages/advice-for-employers/ .

Anyone who returns a positive LFD test result should self-isolate and book a follow-up PCR test. Employers should be supportive of any colleague who needs to self-isolate following a positive LFD test while they await their follow-up PCR test results, even if the colleague remains asymptomatic.

Furthermore, employers should carry out COVID-19 risk assessments as part of managing risk in the workplace to reduce the risk of transmission.

Regulators (including local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive) have engaged with businesses throughout the pandemic to ensure they understand the guidance and are able to meet the regulatory requirements.

The 2020-21 Programme for Government (PfG) stated that over £500 million will be invested in active travel over the next 5 years. The 2021-22 PfG states that by 2024-25 at least £320 million or 10% of the total transport budget will be spent on active travel.

Budget allocations for 2022-23 have yet to be set.

We will publish the conclusions and recommendations of the City Centre Recovery Task Force this autumn.

Ministers take decisions on travel restrictions based on evidence provided by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC). These reports take into account a number of factors in judging the risk associated with travel from each country, including case numbers, incidence of the virus amongst the population, the prominence of variants of concern as well as any other practical factors relevant to each country.

The Scottish Government considers this data in relation to the public health situation in Scotland. Following careful consideration of clinical and scientific evidence, the four nations have agreed to ease inbound international travel restrictions from 4 October.

Restrictions put in place to protect public health have been substantially revised to make travel simpler, with green and amber classifications merged while the red list is retained for those countries deemed to have high COVID19 case rates or variants of concern.

Travellers from non-red list countries who have been fully vaccinated in a country that meets recognised standards of certifications will no longer be required to provide evidence of a negative test result before they can travel to Scotland. The requirement to self-isolate upon arrival will be removed and Scotland will also align with the UK post-arrival testing regime in due course.

In certain circumstances, there may be hardship or welfare arrangements available to travellers who are unable to afford hotel quarantine. The following link provides further information:

Coronavirus (COVID-19): international travel and managed isolation (quarantine) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The development of a domestic hydrogen sector will play an important role in supporting a just transition to Net Zero by 2045, and presents significant long-term economic opportunities.

We are taking forward an Energy Transition Scotland programme, including the Energy Transition Fund (ETF), which in its first year of operation is already funding key transition projects – such as the Global Underwater Hub, the Energy Transition Zone, the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, and the Net Zero Technology Transition Programme.

These projects will help to ensure Scotland’s energy sector plays a leading role in the development and deployment of new, low carbon projects.

Additionally, the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF) will provide £180m over the next five years to support the development of hydrogen, and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) that underpins negative emissions technologies (NETs).

Details on the £100m capital funding that will be dedicated to the support of the Scottish hydrogen sector as committed in our Hydrogen Policy Statement will be published alongside our Hydrogen Action Plan targeted for publication in the first year of this Parliamentary term.

The Hydrogen Action Plan will set out the actions that will be taken over the coming five years to support Scottish supply chain activity and drive the development of a low-cost hydrogen capability to meet our initial ambition to generate 5GW of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030.

We also support to the Acorn Hydrogen projects at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, where 35% of the UK’s annual gas supply enters the National Transmission System. We believe Acorn can be the first large-scale hydrogen project developed in Scotland. Acorn Hydrogen will be enabled by its sister project, Acorn CCS, considered the most advanced CCS project in the UK. Acorn is leading the Scottish bid into the UK Government’s cluster sequencing process to allow Carbon, Capture and Storage (CCS) to be deployed by the mid-2020s, and we are supportive of the Scottish Cluster’s bid into the UK Government’s cluster sequencing process. It is critical that the UK Government recognises Acorn CCS as one of the first two projects to commercialise in the 2020s as part of this cluster sequencing process, and does not delay these Scottish projects, which are essential for meeting our emissions reduction targets.

The Acorn Hydrogen project will initially involve the construction of a 200 MW hydrogen production plant that could become operational by 2025, and which would allow for a 2% hydrogen blend by volume into the National Transmission System (NTS). The emissions from the hydrogen production would be captured, transported, and safely stored offshore deep underground, reusing current oil and gas infrastructure.

Acorn CCS and Hydrogen are key catalysts for clean growth in the north east of the UK and beyond. These projects are highly scalable, due to availability of large volumes of natural gas feedstock, up to 46GT of offshore CO2 storage capacity, and the availability of existing offshore pipeline infrastructure. Large volumes of hydrogen can be generated in the 2020s and beyond, offering an opportunity to establish hydrogen infrastructure before other complementary decarbonisation technologies reach scale.

There is no data held on reasons for missed or non attendance for COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

In the statistical report for 16th of June 2021, Public health Scotland published a one-off analysis of "did not attend" (DNA ) appointments for the time period between 1 February 2021 and 6 June 2021. In this they found that 18.2% of first dose appointments and 3.9% of second dose appointments had resulted in either a missed appointment or a cancellation. The full report is available here : COVID-19 Statistical Report - 16 June 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

In general terms, in the event that any Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, including the Additional Dwelling Supplement, is due in relation to a transaction it could not be reclaimed.