Chamber and committees

When considering any application for a proposed gas-fired power plant application, Scottish Ministers’ consideration of emissions would be considered within the accompanying environmental impact assessments (EIA), which would be carried out on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the relevant EIA regulations.

Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) makes clear our opposition to the continued use of unabated fossil fuels to generate electricity.

The following tables provide the data as currently held.

Table 1 – Area of approvals for planting by Scottish Forestry

Warmer Homes Scotland remains open for referrals and has an allocated budget of £65m in 2024-25, its highest ever budget level. Anyone that is considering applying to the scheme should contact Home Energy Scotland in the usual way.

The Scottish Government has introduced a waiting process for people who have been accepted onto the Warmer Homes Scotland programme due to the scheme’s success and high levels of demand. This is a necessary step taken to ensure that people who have been identified as eligible for the scheme can still receive assistance.

We understand that some customers will be disappointed with the waiting times. However, our managing agent Warmworks, continues to work hard to minimise the impact of this process, keeping customers informed throughout and making sure they are supported and receive regular communication every step of the way.

Warmer Homes Scotland is a demand-led scheme and it is important that we take the necessary steps to ensure the scheme remains within its allocated budget. In instances where someone has a broken boiler or no heating, Home Energy Scotland will explore with the customer if any suitable alternative crisis funding options exist.

Number of businesses which have received correspondence requesting corrections to underpayments as part of (a) control test inspections and (b) inspections as a result of a complaint from employees, in each of the last five years:

The number of control test inspections the Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team have investigated that involved the use of interpreters, over the past five years, is:

The Scottish Government plans to commence the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 in its entirety in early 2025.

Ministers are developing plans for access to the Cladding Assurance Register, and will announce arrangements shortly.

The first cohort of 52 ScotGEM students graduated in summer 2022 after completing the four year course. Of these, 45 undertook Foundation training in Scotland with 42 completing their required foundation year 2 (FY2) in August 2024; a small number opted to go less than full time. Of those 42 individuals, 10 have chosen GP training and have taken up GPST 1 posts in Scotland, with two of these in the North which contains the areas denoted by the question, as follows:

a) Highland - 2 trainees

b) Western Isle – 0 trainees

c) Orkney – 0 trainees

d) Shetland – 0 trainees

e) Grampian – 0 trainees

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers. As part of this work part time, distance learning and earn as you learn models of education, which may benefit rural and island areas, are currently being explored by the Allied Health Professions (AHP) advisory group that oversees the implementation of the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review recommendations.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is developing a model of sustained ongoing direct support for employers across health, social care, social work and children’s services in rural and island areas to overcome barriers to recruitment and retention The direct support model will consist of three key elements including a Rural and Island Recruitment Forum, a Living Library and a Recruitment Toolkit.

The 2018 GP contract included a programme of service redesign to ensure that arrangements for GP services better met the needs of the whole system and the needs of communities; it makes no new requirements of remote and rural GP practices. The 2018 GP contract is intended to reduce current risks to practice stability and sustainability by addressing some of the key risk factors relating to rising workload, premises and employment of staff. This in turn intended to make the partnership model more attractive to newer generations of GPs.

The Scottish Government established the Remote & Rural Working Group chaired by Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie in response to the concerns of rural GPs about the 2018 contract. The group produced the Shaping the Future Together report in January 2020 and various actions were undertaken as a result.