Chamber and committees

Ministers have no current plans to use the discretionary power to align with European Union legislation provided through the UK Withdrawal from the EU (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, but will do so where appropriate to maintain and advance the high standards Scotland has enjoyed as part of the EU.

The development of an electronic system for hazardous waste is being taken forward through a multi-agency project which proposes to implement a mandatory electronic waste tracking system. We plan on consulting on these proposals in the Autumn. Accurate costs and staffing hours for this multi-agency project are not held centrally.

The transfrontier shipment of waste is a reserved matter. We will work with Defra to consider any changes to improve data collection on transfrontier shipment of waste.

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit is currently delivered by the UK Government. The UK Government do not currently consider dementia as an industrial injury.

Last year we added an additional £1.1 million to the annual £3 million voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund and have committed a further £570,000 this year, enabling more families/carers and young carers to take a break from caring, including families of loved ones with dementia.

Recently we launched a £1.4 million holiday voucher scheme for tourism businesses to sign up to help low income families, unpaid carers and disadvantaged young people enjoy a break. The scheme will open for applications from these groups in October 2021.

Scottish Ministers advised the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee throughout the course of their inquiry leading to publication in Dec 2020 of its report “The Procurement and Construction of Ferry Vessels in Scotland” that, as part of a drive for continuous improvement, a review would be undertaken of the current legal constraints and governance arrangements for the existing tripartite of CMAL, Transport Scotland and David MacBrayne Limited including its subsidiaries. We have already advised this review is underway and provided further details to the committee on 11 March 2021 and the answers to S6W-01516 and S6W-01517 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

The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is an autonomous Higher Education Institution (HEI), and as such has responsibility for its own strategic and operational decision making, including those related to the rebuilding of the Mackintosh building. The GSA has made clear its intention to rebuild the Mackintosh as a fully functioning art school, engaging fully with the local community in taking this forward.

All category A listed buildings, including the Mackintosh, are of significant cultural and historic importance to Scotland and are defined in Historic Environment Scotland (HES) guidance as buildings of “outstanding special architectural or historic interest”. HES, as the lead public body for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment, will continue to work with the GSA, Glasgow City Council and other interested parties on the complex issues surrounding the rebuild of the Mackintosh building.

All Scottish HEIs in receipt of public funding must comply with the terms of their Financial Memorandum with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), and the principles of good governance set out in the Scottish Code of Good HE Governance.

The SFC continues to engage regularly with the GSA at senior management and board level on a range of issues, such as institutional governance, its plans for the delivery of high quality education, and the use of its estates for this purpose. This includes the Mackintosh and the approach the GSA is taking to inform decisions around its rebuilding.

The GSA will shortly publish the first stage of this process, the Strategic Outline Business Case (OBC), which was developed in accordance with UK and Scottish Government guidance and includes input from a range of internal and external stakeholders.

Our National Infrastructure Mission plans for over £33 billion of Scottish Government investment over the course of the current Parliamentary term. This means that annual investment in our hospitals, schools, houses, transport, low carbon technology and digital connections, will be around £1.56 billion higher by 2025-26 than in 2019-20.

All international studies show that boosting infrastructure investment is expected to have a positive impact on Scotland’s long-term economic growth. Scottish Government analysis published in 2018 available at www.gov.scot/Infrastructure investment: evidence summary showed the annual UK government investment was around 2.6% of UK GDP, one percentage point below the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average.

The National Infrastructure Mission represents an increase in annual investment by 1% of 2017 Scottish GDP by the end of this Parliament, raising the level of public investment in infrastructure in Scotland to internationally competitive levels and providing economic stimulus.

The Scottish Government allocated £475,000 of additional funding to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority over this year and last year to meet the costs associated with additional visitor management pressures in the National Park following the easing of restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic in the National Park. This is in addition to £425 000 which has been allocated to mitigate the wider impact of the pandemic on businesses and local communities.

The additional funding for visitor management has been spent on a range of additional measures by the Park Authority, including increasing its seasonal staff complement (such as rangers, campsite wardens and environment officers) to manage the substantial number of visitors to the national park and the high volume of litter and waste generated; providing and maintaining additional temporary toilet facilities; making adjustments to Park Authority sites to ensure COVID-safe access for the public; and providing additional signage, for example to help manage traffic in congested areas.

In addition, the Scottish Government allocated £70,000 to the Park Authority from the Scottish Government’s COVID Recovery Task Force Funding in 2021 to fund strategic development plans for East and West Loch Lomond to assess how these areas can continue to attract visitors whilst reducing visitor pressures such as traffic and parking capacity issues.

Looking to the future, the Scottish Government’s increase in the Park Authority’s Capital budget by £540,000 for 2021-22 and for each of the next three years will enable the organisation to deliver visitor infrastructure improvements and develop a capital investment plan to better support visitor management in the National Park.

The Scottish Government criminal proceedings database does not hold information on the specific type of vessel involved in charges prosecuted under Loch Lomond Byelaws.

The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service were able to manually search relevant case records and confirmed that 3 people have been prosecuted for offences involving a jet ski under Loch Lomond Byelaws 2013 B3.5(1)&3.17 - Knowingly/recklessly/negligently navigate and behaviour of vessel.

A University of Glasgow study on lifelong health outcomes in former professional footballers, especially in relation to dementia, was published in 2019 containing evidence of possible increased risk of dementia for this group. Further work is underway to establish why footballers may be at greater risk and we will give full consideration to the report published into this subject in August 2021 led by Dr Willie Stewart.

We remain in close contact on these issues with experts at the sportscotland Institute of Sport and the Chief Medical Officer at the Scottish FA and will work with partners, including PFA Scotland, to carefully consider emerging evidence on former footballers developing dementia.

We are funding a new body, Brain Health Scotland, for five years , to embed brain health within clinical services and across public health. As part of this, we are exploring links between pilot brain health clinics from next year and the feasibility of additional national work focussing specifically on brain injury.