Chamber and committees

No additional funding has been confirmed as part of the Chancellor’s statement, with the consequential position, as per normal practice, confirmed as part of the Supplementary Estimates process in January/February 2025.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the UK Government to seek clarity on changes that have an impact on funding.

Information on future year funding will be outlined as part of the UK Government Spending Review, the first two years of which will be published alongside the Autumn Statement on the 30th of October.

The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy has regular meetings with SEPA which cover a wide range of topics related to SEPA functions. Most recently, Miri McAllan MSP met SEPA Chair, Lisa Tennant and Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive Officer on 13 June 2024.

The Scottish Government, through the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26 published in 2021, has enabled the upgrade to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre (ECC) at the Western General Hospital in NHS Lothian, which will complete this financial year.

Beyond this, given the extremely challenging financial position, all capital projects are now under review. Publication of the revised Infrastructure Investment Plan will be considered only once allocations from the new UK Government are confirmed and fully appraised by the Scottish Government.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this is dependent on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. It is for Health Boards to ensure best use of available resources whilst prioritising patient safety and care.

Each GP practice’s “Global Sum” allocation is adjusted every quarter to account for changes in their registered patients lists; growing practices should receive a greater share of national funding.

The Scottish Government annually uplifts General Medical Services funding specifically to account for population growth. In 2023-24, this amounted to £8.3 million.

All capital projects are under review and a revised Scottish Government infrastructure investment plan will be published later this year. All due consideration will be given to which projects can be included within that revised plan to ensure it is affordable and deliverable, while providing the best value for money. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement.

The Scottish Government uses modelling evidence such as the Electricity System Operators Future Energy Scenarios (FES) to explore the future storage capacity that could be required in Scotland and GB under different decarbonisation pathways.

The level of capacity being proposed through applications for battery energy storage systems can be found on the Renewable Energy Planning Database: quarterly extract ( Renewable Energy Planning Database: quarterly extract - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ).

Where Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) applications with a capacity greater than 50MW are brought forward, these will require consent from Scottish Ministers under the Electricity Act 1989. Proposals below 50MW are determined by the relevant planning authority in the first instance. Information on live applications under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 is available on the Energy Consents website, using the application search function and includes specific capacities, where this information is held.

Where new development proposals come forward, fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4), ensures that the impacts of proposals on communities and nature, including cumulative impacts, are important considerations in the decision-making process. All applications are subject to site specific assessments and the cumulative impacts of energy development proposals are also required to be considered through statutory Environmental Impact Assessment processes, where relevant and applicable.

The Scottish Ministers have an expectation that communities are engaged at an early stage and can meaningfully influence development proposals in their area. Where there is a need for co-ordination between applicants proposing development in the same area, all parties are expected to work together to co-ordinate development and minimise any impacts on communities and the environment.

When determining applications under the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish Ministers are required to seek advice from planning authorities to ensure that decision-making is co-ordinated to reflect local circumstances.

Since 2019, NHS Tayside has been focusing on developing and stabilising breast cancer services. They have successfully recruited new Breast Oncologists to their local service, including two Breast Clinical Oncologists who work solely for NHS Tayside alongside a joint Breast Medical Oncologist post with NHS Lothian.

NHS Tayside is replacing a radiotherapy linac machine, which has generated some constraints in physical radiotherapy capacity. To ensure patients can access radiotherapy in a timely manner, NHS Tayside has collaborated with NHS Highland to offer faster access to radiotherapy for a small number of patients with breast cancer. Once the linac is fully replaced, and with the new breast oncologists now in place, NHS Tayside will deliver the full pathway of Breast Cancer Care locally with a continued drive to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

Staff rotas and timetabling planning are operational matters for ScotRail. After coming into public ownership ScotRail was required to increase the number of Train Drivers to a level which would facilitate a reduction to reliance on staff working rest days and overtime.

The Scottish Government has funded the subsidy required to cover the net cost of ScotRail’s operations, including staffing.

ScotRail informs that its planning to recruit 160 train drivers each year from 2024-25 going forward.