Chamber and committees

The Chair and Chief Executive of NHS Borders met with myself on 30 January to discuss the situation with Knoll Hospital. NHS Borders have also been providing regular situation reports to the Scottish Government updating them on developments.

The Scottish Government has provided over £65 million to support the development of public EV charging across Scotland. As a direct result of this funding, and increasing private sector investment, Scotland met its target for 6,000 public charge points in October last year, two years ahead of schedule and Scotland now has almost 6,200 public EV charge points.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government published the Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. In December 2024 we published our draft Vision Implementation Plan that identifies proposed actions for delivering this Vision, as well as a route map for delivering approximately 24,000 additional public electric vehicle charge points by 2030, largely funded and delivered by the private sector.

The Scottish Government does not install EV charging, but it continues to support EV charging expansion through its £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund which supports Scotland’s local authorities to partner with the private sector to continue to expand public EV charging and, following approval of the Scottish Government’s budget for 2025-26 by this parliament, a further £5 million will be made available to support the provision of public EV charging in rural and island communities. Further details of this funding and the charging infrastructure it will support will be announced in due course.

This is an operational matter for Caledonian Sleeper Ltd (CSL).

CSL advises that it is taking a number of actions to promote its iconic services, which are fully booked for a growing proportion of the year. The Member may wish to contact CSL directly for more details.

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) workforce data is publicly available in NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Turas Data Intelligence at: NHS Scotland Workforce Data.

This also provides data by each Health Board, including for NHS Lanarkshire.

The pilot surveys' purpose was to prove the methodology proposed to be adopted in the more detailed Phase 2 survey programme.

The pilots utilise point cloud technology which creates a digital representation of the area being assessed. This method provides an accurate and detailed picture of the structure's shape and dimensions, including identifying any areas of deflection, sagging, or damage that are not visible to a visual inspection. By comparing point clouds captured at different times, surveyors can monitor any changes in the condition of the RAAC structure over time. This is particularly important for NHS sites, as we will likely be using these sites for many years to come and we want to minimise the time and disruption of each survey.

The result of the point cloud surveys inform the location of intrusive surveys required by the surveying Structural Engineer. Once access has been provide in the required locations the surveying Structural Engineer will conduct their detailed surveys and provide a report on the observations.

Two of these pilot surveys were completed, the third has had a Point Cloud completed but requires a follow-up survey. The two completed Pilot surveys satisfactorily proved the methodology which has been adopted in the procurement of the full Phase 2 survey programme. In the two completed Pilot surveys the Structural Engineers Report has identified remedial actions but nothing critical.

Following the collapse of a school roof in 2018, the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS), alerted NHS Scotland Assure to the issue and the following steps were then taken:

• May 2019 - The Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS), alerted Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) to the issue in May 2019, this was circulated to NHS Scotland
• February 2020 – paper presented by NHS Scotland Assure to the NHS Strategic Facilities Group outlining a proposal for identifying and managing RAAC across the NHS estate
• May 2021 – NHS Assure gather a local assessment of RAAC from each local NHS Board, and conclude that a national survey programme would be best;
• November 2022 – a lead adviser is appointed and the desktop survey programme starts.
• December 2022 – NHS Scotland Assure commissioned a survey team to establish the extent of RAAC across the NHS Scotland Estate and the condition it is in.
• January 2023 – Desktop review begins
• July 2023 – Phase 1 Discovery survey work begins
• April 2024 – Discovery survey programme complete (except for several revisits and several later additions)
• May 2024 – three pilot detailed surveys commissioned to inform a programme to undertake a detailed survey of all buildings with RAAC in the NHS Estate.
• June 2024 – two pilot detailed surveys completed to inform a Phase 2 Survey Programme
• October 2024 – Scottish Government commissioned an Annual Inspection Programme to complete annual re visits required during the 2024/25 financial year
• November 2024 – Annual Inspection Programme commenced
• November 2024 – procurement of a Phase 2 Survey Programme

It is the NHS Boards responsibility for any actions identified in the Survey reports to be undertaken timeously.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the net zero economy. Together with our enterprise agencies, we have invested £75 million in the cutting-edge National Manufacturing Institute Scotland facility, which is actively supporting low-carbon and green manufacturing.

We are also committing £2.9 billion of capital for activities that will positively impact our climate goals and support domestic manufacturing in green sectors, including over £300 million in energy efficiency and clean heat measures and £150 million to anchor our offshore wind supply chain.

Our Enterprise Agencies play a key role in supporting our low-carbon, green manufacturing sector, for example through funding streams and links to Business Energy Scotland and the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service.

The Scottish Government have confirmed that they will provide an additional capital allocation to NHS Borders to allow them to remediate the RAAC situation at Knoll hospital. For other potential RAAC related issues across the NHS Scotland estate, requests for additional capital funding will be considered on a case by case basis.

When MV Caledonian Isles returns to service, CalMac have advised she will be expected to operate to the agreed Summer 2025 timetable which will provide 35 return sailings per week.

Transport Scotland provided £2.4 million to local authorities for the completion of their road assessments to identify if there are areas of footway they may wish to exempt from the national pavement parking ban. It is not for Transport Scotland to assess how local authorities undertook their road assessments. Local authorities are best placed to make informed decisions on the management of their local road network and to assess which of the footways within their area are suitable for exemption, in line with ministerial directions.