Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government believe that transport plays a crucial role in supporting a green and fair recovery and that in the face of the climate emergency we need to shift away from new road projects that encourage more people to drive, and instead focus on maintaining roads, improving safety and providing a realistic and affordable alternative through investing in public transport and active travel. This is set out in the shared policy programme element of the agreement with the Scottish Green Party.

Future investment in our transport network will be set out in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review and will align with the sustainable mode and investment hierarchies. In the shared policy element of the agreement we state that during this parliamentary session, new roads projects will normally only be taken forward where they reduce the maintenance backlog; address road safety concerns or adapt the network to deal with the impacts of climate change or benefit communities such as bypassing settlements. We will not build road infrastructure to cater for forecast unconstrained increases in traffic volumes.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role the A1 plays in providing access to key markets, jobs and services between the south east of Scotland and north east England, and beyond. The Borders Transport Corridors Study, published in March 2019, identified intervention on the A1 within its 21 recommendations and further appraisal work is being down through STPR2.

The appraisal process for STPR2 is considering the performance of all options against the transport outcomes we are seeking, and against the Transport Planning Objectives, which are aligned to our National Transport Strategy priorities and outcomes. Therefore, we need to consider the social and economic benefits and impacts based on performance against these objectives, and against the five Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance criteria, to determine overall Value for Money. Also underpinning STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy where we will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to the Infrastructure Investment Plan. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

Until the appraisal process is completed, it is not possible to make individual decisions on options being considered including improvements to, or dualling of, the A1 south of Dunbar.

The NHS Scotland already has in place the electronic transfer of prescriptions between general practice and community pharmacy.

Our NHS Recovery Plan and Programme for Government commits to investing in developing new digital solutions such as ePrescribing and eDispensing to make the prescribing process paperless which will free up capacity for healthcare professionals so that they can see more patients and making it easier for patients to access their medicines quickly and safely.

The timeline is a matter for Lord Hardie. Updates on the publication of his Report will be provided on the Inquiry website at the appropriate time, a link to which is included below. 

Home Page - The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry

The Scottish Household Survey 2017 shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of people using food waste recycling caddies, rather than throwing food out with general waste. Less than half (48%) of households now dispose of food waste with their general rubbish. The proportion of households making use of local authority-provided food caddies was 55 % in 2017

In response to (b), the duty to segregate food waste in the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 covers approximately 80% of Scotland’s population. The latest figures are from September 2015 and can be found in Zero Waste Scotland’s report: How Much Food Waste Is There in Scotland? , published in 2016, showing that over 1.5 million Scottish households had access to food waste collection.

The upcoming review of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan in addition to the development of a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets will consider improvements to the data collection and monitoring relating to food waste.

The planned consultation on the range of commitments identified in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan has been delayed by a number of factors, including the recent Covid-19 crisis.

We are developing a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets which will inform the development of the new Circular Economy Bill and there will also be further engagement and consultation to shape the Bill’s contents. A review of the rural exemption for food waste will be considered as part of this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02280 on 7 September 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02280 on‎ 7 September 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

Initial data from our local authority partners shows that 3,101 childcare settings and 116,293 eligible children are registered to the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme out of around 7,822 total childcare settings in Scotland.

Please see the following table:

The Scottish Government supports the Scottish Venison Strategy and its ambition for 2030 to make Scottish Venison the premier choice of consumers and commercial buyers, both here in the UK and in international markets. We have provided funding to support a venison promotion campaign earlier this year.

I was delighted to recently support Scottish Venison Day on 4 September and I was pleased that retail sales of Scottish venison have recently increased. As part of the Food and Drink Recovery Plan, the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership has also provided £80,000 to support demonstration sites for locally based chill and processing facilities.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a wild venison marketing board.

It is not possible to determine exactly how many owner occupied homes have alarms of the prescribed type installed as this information is not currently collected as part of the Scottish House Condition Survey. In the future, when the regulations on the new fire alarm standard have come into effect, it will be possible to collect more precise data because compliance with the tolerable standard is included in the Survey. This will allow us to monitor progress in bringing Scotland’s homes up to the new standard.

Drawing on the latest 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey data we estimate that of the approximately 1,550,000 owner occupied properties in Scotland, 7% (or around 100,000) of homes did not have any smoke alarm at all, and around a quarter (or 400,000) had only one alarm. This indicates that around 500,000 owner-occupied properties are likely to fall below the proposed standard. It is possible that a proportion of the remaining 1,005,000 properties with more than one alarm would also not comply with the standard, although it is not possible to determine this from the currently available data.