Chamber and committees

Police Scotland collect data on road traffic accidents that were a) reported to the police and b) involved someone being injured or killed. The latest statistics available are up to 2020.

The following table shows the number and severity of casualties who were injured in road accidents that involved an electric scooter. No such casualties were recorded prior to 2019.

Electric scooters (e-scooters) are illegal to ride on streets and in other public places across Scotland due to a number of pieces of UK-wide and Scottish legislation. E-scooters can only be ridden legally on private land with the owner’s permission.

The UK Government has signalled its intention to publish proposals in 2022 for potential further legalisation of e-scooters beyond the current trials in England. The Scottish Government is engaged with the UK Government in this regard and once more is known, we will consider any such proposals in order to inform future policy on e-scooters.

Enforcement of the law is a matter for Police Scotland.

We have provided support to the aviation sector within the powers available to us. We are providing 100% non-domestic rates relief for the sector for 2021-22. As the owner of Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) we continue to provide HIAL with the funding required to maintain operations while their commercial revenue recovers.

Family-centred care is at the heart of our maternity and neonatal strategy, the Best Start: A Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland . We expect all maternity units to take a flexible approach to the presence of partners, to provide a relaxed and supportive environment for care that promotes natural, person-centred childbirth, and to ensure that suitable accommodation and facilities are provided to enable families to stay together.

The remit for the Just Transition Commission set by the Scottish Government tasks them with “undertaking meaningful engagement with those most likely to be impacted by the transition, hearing from a broad range of representative voices and advising on how to ensure these can shape and contribute to just transition planning work in Scotland.” The Commission is independent of Government and will be responsible for setting out a work plan that fulfils the remit they have been given.

To further ensure a range of voices are heard in the Commission’s work, the membership announced on 15 December brings together a broad range of expertise and experience. This includes those with a background in industry, trade unions and environmental organisations, with collective expertise in areas such as gender equalities, community empowerment, economic development and worker support.

As part of our Accessible Travel Framework, and recent engagement with disabled people and organisations that represent them, the Scottish Government have committed to exploring the current provision of passenger assistance currently provided at Scotland’s bus stations. To that end officials within the Accessible Travel Policy Team are currently engaging with bus station managers.

From 6 September 2021, the Scottish Government funded support schemes Warmer Homes Scotland, Area Based Schemes or Home Energy Scotland Loans have no longer been accepting new applications for oil and LPG boilers. All committed offers for these schemes signed prior to 6 September 2021 will be honoured and receive their installations/loans. Households eligible for assistance under Warmer Homes Scotland will be offered low-carbon alternatives, where these are technically appropriate for the property. These include High Heat Retention Heating Systems, Air Source Heat Pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Micro-hydro and Micro-wind systems. Since April 2021 our Area Based Schemes have included additional funding to provide low carbon and micro-generation measures as part of a whole house approach.

The Scottish Government is committed to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers, in off gas areas from 2025 and in on gas areas from 2030, subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas. We will introduce primary legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that will provide the regulatory framework for the zero emissions heating systems which will replace fossil fuel boilers, with all buildings needing to meet this standard no later than 2045. That proposed legislation will be accompanied by required impact assessments and allow for proper parliamentary scrutiny of these impacts.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy was accompanied by a series of impact assessments. As we take forward the actions within the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we will ensure the issues highlighted through impact assessments are considered in the design of delivery programmes and development of further policy and regulation.

In line with Scottish Government guidance, any legislation or further policy development required to fulfil the actions within the Strategy will be subject to a range of further impact assessments. We will consult on our proposals to regulate for zero emissions heat later in 2022.

Bus service providers and passenger representatives regularly inform us about the additional pressures placed on the bus industry by the COVID-19 pandemic which are compounded by the ongoing consequences of EU EXIT.

We also receive data on driver shortages in Scotland from ongoing Department for Transport bus operator surveys and Transport Scotland is conducting its own monitoring exercise to gather information specifically on COVID-related absences.

The 2021-22 Programme for Government committed to developing plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children, and start to pilot this provision. In order to effectively deliver this universal breakfast offer we need to better understand the extent of current breakfast provision across local authorities, including a mixed model of in-school, private and voluntary provision of breakfast, often delivered alongside early morning childcare. The priority this year will be to map existing breakfast provision and plan what delivery of a future breakfast offer should look like to best meet the needs of children and families in Scotland. It will be important to combine the provision of breakfast with the provision of childcare – where it is appropriate to do so – recognising the importance of accessible childcare at the beginning of the day to enable parents and carers to enter and sustain employment. To understand this need, we will ask our People Panel for school age childcare what children and families want and need from a breakfast offer combined with childcare and consider how this can best be delivered.

Since we commenced Case Transfer, there have been a) zero cases lost and b) zero cases compromised.

We work in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and Social Security Scotland to design and deliver a safe and secure case transfer process for the benefits transferring to Social Security Scotland as part of Scottish Devolution. With the client at the heart of the design, each process is tailored around;

1. How the benefits are administered by the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that cases are transferred at the optimal time and in line with ministerial agreements; for instance, clients with ongoing awards do not need to apply, will not be reassessed, fall out of payment or go through a face to face assessment with the Department for Work and Pensions after the Scottish benefit launches. The ongoing award will be transferred automatically; the transfer of data and supporting evidence to enable Social Security Scotland to set up the new benefit award.

2. To safeguard Social Security Scotland’s ability to deliver and manage the case transfers. The case transfer processes are automated and the case transfer period is between 13 and 17 weeks to allow time to resolve any exceptions or manual invention required. Social Security Scotland and the Department for Work and Pensions work together during the transfer process to ensure the correct awards are transferred at the correct time and we work together to monitor the transfer of awards to ensure none are lost or compromised.

The first cases to be selected for transfer to Social Security Scotland were Disability Living Allowance for children awards in October 2021; to date the number of awards expected and received is correct and the first cohort of cases will commence the new award on 19 January. The aim is to complete these transfers for all clients by spring 2023. We will begin transferring awards of Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance for working age people in the summer of 2022.