Chamber and committees

The Reaching 100% (R100) programme aimed to ensure that every home and business could access a superfast broadband connection by the end of 2021 and this was achieved through a combination of the three strands that comprise the R100 programme - the over £600 million R100 contracts, our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and the ongoing expansion of commercial coverage.

To date, the R100 contracts have delivered connections to more than 45,200 premises across Scotland, along with an additional 13,558 non-contracted premises connected while Openreach is delivering R100 contract build.

In the last three complete financial years (2021-22 to 2023-24), we have invested almost £250 million mitigating the impacts of UK Government policy such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, and shortfalls in Local Housing Allowance rates through Discretionary Housing Payments. These policies have a direct impact on households in Scotland by reducing the level of social security support they receive.

This year alone, almost £134m will be spent through activities such as our Discretionary Housing Payments and the Scottish Welfare Fund. The Scottish Welfare Fund provides crisis support and helps eligible people to establish independent living, and shortfalls in the UK social security system have contributed to an increased demand on the fund.

In 2024-25, we are also investing £457 million in the Scottish Child Payment, giving support to the families of over 325,000 under 16s who currently receive it. However, its impacts are reduced by UK Government welfare policies, such as the two-child limit and benefit cap, and by the inadequacy of Universal Credit.

Table 1 below provides a breakdown of Discretionary Housing Payment funding for each activity in the last three years, including this financial year.

Table 1: Discretionary Housing Payments budget (2021/22 – present)

The three strands of activity which form the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the over-£600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and ongoing commercial build - continue to deliver faster broadband connections across Scotland.

The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was originally intended to close on 31 December 2021, but was extended by three months and closed on 31 March 2022.

Following the publication of the UK Government’s equality analysis on the impact introducing means-tested Winter Fuel Payments, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 September urging the UK government to reinstate Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners. The Cabinet Secretary also called for reform of the UK energy markets to address the root causes of fuel poverty in Scotland, such as high fuel prices.

This followed the previous letter to the Secretary of State on 14 August, in which the Cabinet Secretary urged the UK Government to undertake a benefits uptake campaign for Pension Credit and to move forward with plans for a social energy tariff.

In addition to the £600 million announced in December 2017, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £20 million with the UK Government's Project Gigabit programme contributing a further £31 million. This further investment has been deployed via the R100 contracts to extend and enhance the coverage footprint.

The R100 contracts form only one part of the overall R100 programme. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led and, as such, there is no pre-determined amount of funding allocated for delivering connections via SBVS. As of 31st August 2024, £10 million has been paid to suppliers to deliver connections via SBVS.

These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.

GP practices are funded to provide cervical screening services as a default part of their contracts with health boards. Practices are responsible for ensuring appropriate provision.

The handbook for people performing cervical screening includes guidance which states that sample takers who work with physically disabled women should be confident and experienced in taking cervical samples. In addition, sample takers should consider whether it is appropriate to take actions or make adjustments based on the woman’s healthcare needs, such as making arrangements with local colposcopy services to ensure samples are taken at clinics where hoists are available.

Scotland’s potential for renewable energy generation is one of our greatest environmental and economic opportunities. The forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will chart a path to a clean, fair and secure energy system.

As part of a just energy transition, the Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to continue to grow a thriving community energy sector. This is evidenced by our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), which has recently awarded funding to 20 projects from 19 community groups across Scotland through the £1.5 million Community Energy Generation Growth Fund. This funding will support these communities to develop their own renewable energy projects.

Our ambition to reach 2GW of community and locally owned energy by 2030 includes different types of community and local ownership to reflect the different needs, requirements and opportunities available to communities across Scotland. The latest Community and Locally Owned Energy statistics show at the end of December 2023, there was an estimated 1,028 MW of community and locally owned renewable energy in Scotland.

As laid out in the Programme for Government, the Planning Hub’s initial priority is to help planning authorities make quicker decisions on hydrogen planning applications.

This first phase of the Hub will be a pilot that looks to provide proof of concept for it to be in place for the longer term, with a plan to extend the services offered by the Hub in 2025-26 to support wider developments including the delivery of good quality homes and onshore wind. We will set out further details relating to extending the Hub’s services as this initial work progresses.

The ground investigation report is being prepared by Petroineos for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The Scottish Government would not expect to receive it formally and has no plans to publish it, as this is an operational matter for SEPA.

We are advised that the ground investigation work has concluded that the contamination is localised and SEPA continue to work with Petroineos and their consultant Adler and Allan to ensure the physical remediation works, which have commenced, can be delivered timeously. Once the remediation has concluded SEPA will be in a position to publish a statement regarding the environmental condition of the site.