Chamber and committees

There are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings.

Only a Single Building Assessment meeting the Scottish Standards can identify what cladding if any, a building has and further identify whether the cladding is unsafe.

Developers, homeowners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government. Therefore, the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

My officials are in exploratory discussions with the service provider and users of the Timberlink ferry service to explore the future of the contract. As part of this officials are engaging with Timberlink users to assess the feasibility of introducing a new funding contribution from them. At this stage no formal impact assessment has been undertaken.

FLS has a portfolio of 25 operational windfarms on the national forests and land, amounting to a total of 1217MW installed generation capacity. FLS is not currently aware of any community ownership in this portfolio.

The National Electricity Supply expires on 31 March 2026, the framework has 3 optional 12 month extensions.

Variations to the framework can be made, however these must be in accordance with procurement law and be non-material changes and in agreement with the Supplier.

The Managing Deer for Climate and Nature: Consultation Analysis report was published on the Scottish Government website on 9 September 2024.

All 32 local authorities use the national Framework for the Supply of Electricity, however if local authorities are also getting electricity from another source or another contract, then Scottish Government do not have visibility of this and this information would only be available from each individual local authority.

At present no timeline is available for the completion of all remedial works however work is on going with developers to ensure timely completion.

We have not identified buildings with a specific sleeping risk, however buildings on the pilot are residential.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) must result in a report on any risk to human life that is (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the building’s external wall cladding system and what work (if any) is needed to eliminate or mitigate that risk.

There are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings. Pilot assessments have been undertaken for 30 of the pilot entries. A pilot assessment includes any assessment carried out prior to the publication of the SBA specification on the 21 June 2024.

These numbers relate to known pilot assessments only as developers, home owners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government and therefore the true numbers may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available

Pilots of a new pre-application consenting process developed by the Consenting Task Group commenced in January 2024 in the Shetland and Highland local authority areas.

Our priorities for this year, developed by the Consenting Task Group and agreed by the Scottish Aquaculture Council, include delivering more pilots, completing and responding to evaluation activities to improve the process, exploring opportunities to better coordinate Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) activities and working to align onward application processes.

We are also taking action to clarify the consenting process for aquaculture developments beyond 3 nautical miles.

As part of this work we have recently published a consultation on proposals for plans to address an existing gap in aquaculture planning regulations by extending Local Authority planning controls through marine planning zones further offshore out to 12 nautical miles.

The public consultation will run until 11 December and can be viewed at Extending marine planning zones: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.