Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36801 on 8 May 2025. 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

Ensuring that workers and communities currently reliant on oil and gas are protected and indeed, stand to benefit from the transition to net zero is central to the rationale underlying our wider Just Transition policy.

The Grangemouth Just Transition plan will be an iterative document that is subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation and this will inform wider policy development around the transition to net zero at a local level.

We will continue to work with stakeholders across Scotland’s energy system, doing all we can within our power to identify priority areas for action.

The Scottish Government made clear to Project Willow partners that the outputs of initial work must align to its draft Grangemouth Just Transition Plan with workforce and community considerations as fundamental prerequisites.

Both the workforce and the wider community were fully engaged in the initial research informing Project Willow, and stakeholders have regularly been kept appraised of findings and progress through the Project Willow standing committee that had representation from Unite and through the Grangemouth Future Industry Board which has representation from both community and workforce members.

Going forward, workers and the wider Grangemouth community will be able to contribute to next steps of Project Willow through regular review points across the GFIB group, as part of the Just Transition process. And we continue to engage closely with trade unions, educational institutions, and workers to make progress.

The extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme pays local authorities for an efficient and effective collection and disposal system for household packaging waste. This includes costs for incineration.

Private sector investment in energy and infrastructure projects will be critical to realise a just transition at Grangemouth. That is why our final Just Transition Plan will seek to instruct and mobilise wider support from investors and developers, centred around the clear opportunities present at Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of Project Willow and its recommendations which set out a transformative future for parts of the Grangemouth cluster, if the public and private sectors work together.

To support this, Scottish Enterprise and the UK Office for Investment have established an “Investor Taskforce” to identify and attract investors with an interest in progressing the Project Willow proposals. I would encourage any interested investor to engage with Scottish Enterprise in the first instance to explore how any opportunity could be progressed.

On 25 April the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) started publishing weekly water scarcity reports. These use a range of hydrological and meteorological data to describe water scarcity levels across the country. The latest report can be found on SEPA’s water scarcity webpage and highlights areas in Scotland currently at risk of water scarcity. Scotland’s National Water Scarcity Plan explains what the different levels mean in terms of risk and sets out when regulatory action may be required.

The Scottish Government supports a wide range of research projects which investigate Scotland’s future risk and resilience to water scarcity. Within its Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Strategic Research Programme, the Scottish Government is funding a five-year project led by the James Hutton Institute that is developing our understanding of drought vulnerability in Scotland. Part of this project includes working with SEPA to improve drought risk assessment.

The Scottish Government also funds the Centre of Expertise on Water (CREW), which has funded, and continues to fund, projects to improve our understanding of water scarcity in Scotland. For example, in June 2024, CREW completed a study into the “Future Predictions of Water Scarcity in Scotland: Impacts to Distilleries and Agricultural Abstractors” and published a series of infographics highlighting potential future risk areas for different agricultural sectors.

The Scottish and UK Governments are working jointly, along with trade unions, to fund a tailored skills intervention for workers facing redundancy at the Grangemouth Refinery. This is designed to support the transition of the impacted workforce through the job market into in-demand industries. Forth Valley College (FVC) are the delivery provider.

Given the urgent nature of the work, both governments meet weekly to discuss this intervention. Our priority focus is ensuring that all eligible members of the workforce have access to training aligned to their redundancy. However, it is critical that this intervention retains skilled workers in the Scottish economy and we will continue working with partners to understand how it can support workers to play a central role as future low carbon projects are phased in at Grangemouth.

Scotland’s National Water Scarcity Plan sets out how water resources will be managed during periods of prolonged dry weather. As part of that plan, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Water have established processes to monitor the situation and support those affected.

On 25 April, SEPA published the first in a series of weekly water scarcity reports to update key sectors and stakeholders on the latest position. SEPA, Scottish Water, Nature Scot and the National Farmers Union Scotland are all working to encourage water users to develop contingency plans to minimise their impact on the environment.

Public Water Supplies are largely operating as normal and, due to many years of strategic investment by Scottish Government and Scottish Water to strengthen resilience measures, Scottish Water are able to maintain supplies during prolonged dry periods to all parts of Scotland.

We recognise that there are a number of households, largely in remote and rural locations, who are serviced by private water supplies and who may be affected by water scarcity. The Scottish Government are proactively engaging with local authorities to determine if water scarcity and low water flows are having an impact on households who are reliant on private water supplies. We will continue to assess the conditions closely and liaise with local authorities where necessary.

Decision-making on Scotland’s vaccination programme continues to be guided by the independent, expert advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI currently advises flu vaccination for all those aged 65 years and over, along with individuals who have specific underlying health conditions.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the JCVI advised routine flu vaccination for those 65 years and over, as well as those with underlying health conditions. Scotland followed this advice.

Our programme was expanded during the pandemic in order to protect the people of Scotland, the NHS and the wider health and social care sector, while it was under severe COVID-related pressure. The programme was expanded to those aged 55 years and over in 2021, and then to those aged 50 years and over in 2022 and 2023.

In winter 2024, as we moved beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we reverted to the standard JCVI-advised groups and those aged 50-64 years were no longer included. This is in line with JCVI advice, endorsed by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer.

The Scottish Government does not assess geographical variations in people accessing Scottish Medicines Consortium-approved therapies for advanced or complex Parkinson’s Disease. However, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery are having initial conversations about the potential to undertake Parkinson’s Disease pathway work, which we understand would help to explore and articulate pathways for therapies for advanced and complex Parkinson’s Disease.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) assesses the clinical and cost- effectiveness of newly licensed medicines on a once for Scotland basis and publishes advice for Health Boards to consider. It is expected that Health Board Area & Drug and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) will consider making an SMC-recommended medicine, or an equivalent, available on their local or regional formulary for routine prescribing within 90 days of SMC advice being published.

Health Boards are expected to apply common principles and processes in the introduction of newly licensed medicines to facilitate consistency of approach to local decision-making. The decision to prescribe a medicine, and which medicine to prescribe, is entirely for the clinician in charge of a person’s care, having considered their clinical condition, their safety, and any relevant clinical guidance.