Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. This work is framed in terms of the Sustainable Procurement Duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which requires public bodies to consider how they can improve the environmental, as well as social and economic, wellbeing of the authority’s area, and act in a way to secure improvements identified. Public bodies routinely report on the environmental benefits generated through their procurement activity in their Annual Procurement Reports.

In response to the Climate Emergency the Scottish Government established the Climate and Procurement Forum with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

Examples of actions leading from the Forum include publishing a procurement policy note to clarify expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations; Ministers writing to local leaders stressing their role in enabling sustainable outcomes through procurement, and producing Climate Literacy eLearning to assist public bodies to take account of climate and circular economy through procurement. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector and charities, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks supports the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors. Additionally, we host the latest current guidance on training on the Sustainable Procurement Tools platform.

The Scottish Government has announced £375m of business support to support businesses in the sectors most affected by the restrictions and guidance to control the spread of Omicron. This includes £6m for the most directly affected businesses in the tourism sector including inbound tour operators, day tour operators, coach operators, hostels, visitor attractions and marine/outdoor. Guidance on this funding and other funds is available on Financial support for businesses - News | VisitScotland.org and findbusinesssupport.gov.scot

We have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance. Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

This was one of the most fiscally challenging Scottish Budgets to date, with efficiencies having to be found across a number of portfolios. The budget allocation to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) should be seen in that context.

The SDS budget allocation includes Grant in-Aid for programme delivery and programme liabilities, which fluctuate depending on the numbers of people in training. The allocation also covers operational and staffing costs.

In 2021-22, the SDS budget allocation included around £8m for the continued delivery of programmes created as a response to COVID-19 which we do not expect will be continuing at the same levels in 2022/23.

We are working with SDS to finalise the details of their budget approach in 2022-23. This will ensure continued provision against Ministerial priorities and prioritise the delivery of training and learning opportunities.

We announced £375m of business support to tackle Omicron and provided details on how £276m of this will be allocated.

Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

The Scottish Government used a range of sources of evidence when determining the latest isolation policy changes including data on various key aspects of the pandemic including vaccination rates; clinical advice from senior clinicians including the Chief Medical Officer, PHS public health clinicians, the National Incident Management Team and UKHSA analysis.

In addition, the Scottish Government considered the effects on key workforces and service, including health and social care, of retaining the same isolation policy.

The Scottish Government and NHS recognise the importance of ensuring cervical screening is accessible. Every sample taker is therefore required to undertake training provided by NHS Education for Scotland, and guidance is provided to account for each screening participants needs. This guidance includes making the appropriate adjustments, including those required for disabled women, to ensure that samples can be taken from all eligible women invited for screening. As part of our on-going commitment to providing the best service, in the coming months, the screening programme will explore additional steps to improve the experience for disabled women.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05521 on 24 January 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

Transport Scotland has engaged with Transport for Edinburgh and Strathclyde Passenger Transport to try to understand the potential impacts of the introduction of the national free bus scheme on their operations. This work will help to develop a baseline evaluation of the new Scheme, which will be reviewed after its first full year of operation.

There are separate local concessionary schemes run by local authorities or Regional Transport Partnerships that cover other modes of transport. Any decision to extend concessions to these modes rests with them.

The Scottish Government is also working with CoSLA and the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers (ATCO) to quantify the overall effects of the introduction of the scheme on wider Local Authority budgets.

It is for Abellio up to 31 March and the new operator ScotRail Trains Ltd from 1 April 2022, to decide what rolling stock it runs and this needs to deliver the required timetable performance and provide capacity to meet changing demand levels. Transport Scotland continues to monitor the capacity provided through the current service operation contract.

Since November 2021, a mix of class 43 HSTs (4 + 5-cars) and class 170 (3-cars) trains has been running between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. From time to time it has been necessary to substitute other types of trains for the planned HSTs due to a variety of operational reasons, including absence due to Covid of the staff trained to operate HSTs.

The process for identifying and designating one or more new National Parks in Scotland will involve a fair and transparent bidding and evaluation process to identify the area or areas which will be put forward to obtain National Park status and allow the statutory process to begin. The Scottish Government remains open minded about the number of areas which will be progressed to National Park designation during the lifetime of this Parliament.