Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-24287

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide details of how it ensures (a) cultural, (b) arts and (c) heritage organisations that are in receipt of grant funding abide by Intangible Cultural Heritage principles.

The general Intangible Cultural Heritage principles of transparent collaboration, open communication, mutual respect and inclusivity are echoed across the Scottish Government, as well as across the work delivered by our public and national bodies.

The Scottish Government delivers support for cultural and heritage organisations through the sponsorship of our public bodies. In turn, Historic Environment Scotland and Creative Scotland deliver grant programmes to support many varied heritage, traditional skills and cultural practices.

Museums Galleries Scotland, the national development body for Scotland’s museum sector, also distributes grant funding for the Scottish Government to support accredited museums in Scotland which can also showcase Intangible Cultural Heritage and living heritage.

Question reference: S6W-24275

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to living heritage organisations.

The Scottish Government delivers support for culture and heritage organisations through the sponsorship of our public bodies. In turn, Historic Environment Scotland and Creative Scotland deliver grant programmes to support many varied heritage, traditional skills and cultural practices.

Museums Galleries Scotland, the national development body for Scotland’s museum sector, also distributes grant funding for the Scottish Government to support accredited museums in Scotland which can also showcase living heritage.

Question reference: S6W-24553

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-24441

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been allocated in its Budget for 2024-25 for Changing Places toilets.

The Scottish Government knows that Changing Places Toilets make a real difference to disabled people and their families. We are committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets during this parliamentary term, in order to increase the provision of these fundamental facilities across Scotland.

We will look to make a new £10 million fund available across the financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26. We will undertake the necessary development work, alongside key stakeholders, to open the fund by the beginning of 2025.

The draft budget for 2024-25 was announced in Scottish Parliament on 19 December 2023 and stated that the direct programme budget for Mental Health will be £290.2 million. Allocations from this budget, including for the Changing Places Toilets fund, are under consideration and will be confirmed once the budget has been approved by Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-24462

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-23231 and S6W-23887 by Mairi McAllan on 11 December 2023 and 9 January 2024 respectively, which figure provided for the number of sites sampled is correct; for what reason there is a discrepancy between the two figures provided, and whether it will provide an update on when it anticipates that data for the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 reporting year will be published.

The figures quoted in these questions are both correct. The first figure of sites sampled from 2013-14 to 2019-20 is from a published assessment, and the second figure is from the number of sites visited within the raw data that has been published to date (2013-14 to 2021-22).

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in the winter of 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. The sample sites are distributed throughout the 11 Scottish Marine Regions and the Offshore Marine Regions. Not all Regions were sampled in every year and the number of sampling sites visited also varied between years.

In reference to question S6W-23231, the microplastics in surface water assessment in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 used data from 2013-14 to 2019-20. For this assessment data from 398 sample sites were included. This assessment can be viewed at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/microplastics-surface-water

The raw data from the monitoring programme is publicly available but not all of this data is yet included in published assessments. In reference to question S6W-23887, the number of sites sampled up to and including 2021-22 is 479. The dataset can be viewed at https://data.marine.gov.scot/dataset/dataset-sources-sinks-and-hazards-micro-plastics-scotland%E2%80%99s-seas-2013-present/resource#{query:{from:400},view-grid:{columnsWidth:[{column:!season,width:157},{column:!date_deploy,width:149}]}}

Data for 2022-23, and the current sampling year of 2023-24 have not yet been published. Once raw data has been collected it needs to undergo quality control and processing before it can be used and published. The 2022-23 data is currently undergoing this process. The 2023-24 data collection season has not yet concluded, and the processing will commence when the data for the whole year is complete.

Question reference: S6W-24199

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates its proposed £720,000 reduction in the allocated funding for the Hydro Nation, as set out in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, will have on its Hydro Nation agenda.

Much has already been delivered under the Hydro Nation Strategy, as set out in the annual reports.

https://www.gov.scot/policies/water/hydro-nation/

Going forward the programme will continue to benefit from Scottish Government spend, with a proposed £2.8 million allocated to 2024-25, and will deliver through the additional input of partners such as The James Hutton Institute and Scottish Water, who benefit from Scottish Government funding, and the Hydro Nation Chair.

Question reference: S6W-24124

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances there have been in the last 12 months, in the form of the total prisoner days, where a prisoner has been allowed less than one hour of outdoor exercise on any given day.

Question reference: S6W-24128

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024

Data covering the period 2020-23 is available via the published National Statistics on the Scottish Prison Population.

Financial Year	Individuals under 18 arriving to remand
a) 2020-21	92
b) 2021-22	82
c) 2022-23	57

Information about the number of individuals under the age of 18 arriving to remand for the period d) April 2023 to December 2023 is only available via Scottish Government collections of management information. The values provided by this source are not directly comparable with those provided by our National Statistics data.

Using this management information, the number of individuals under 18 arriving to remand in 2023 Q2-Q4 was 29.

Question reference: S6W-24002

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes have had energy efficiency measures installed in each year since 2019 to date.

We record data on energy efficiency measures installed as part of Scottish Government programmes, but do not monitor the measures installed by households acting independently. According to the 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS), 55% of households had an Energy Performance Certificate band of D or lower. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, fieldwork for the 2020 SHCS was suspended and the methodology for the 2021 SHCS was also impacted. Future SHCS publications will provide more information to measure progress.

The number of energy efficiency measures installed through SG funded delivery schemes are as follows:

Financial Year	Area Based Schemes – number of measures	Warmer Homes Scotland – number of measures	Social Housing Fund - number of measures	Total number of measures
22-23	4,172	6,902	13,267*	24,341
21-22	4,287	6,390	593	11,270
20-21	5,715	3,703	0	9,418
19-20	7,737	3,918	0	11,655

*Includes project with Wheatley Group installing 10,000 Connected Response devices in homes.

For Home Energy Scotland, these figures are per household (not per measure) and include a wider range of measures than just energy efficiency:

Financial Year	Home Energy Scotland Grants and Loans Scheme - Households Receiving Insulation and/or EE Measures
22-23	739
21-22	607
20-21	424
19-20	295

We have recently published the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy ( heat-buildings-monitoring-evaluation-framework.pdf (www.gov.scot) ). This includes a proposed indicator ‘share of domestic properties achieving a good level of energy efficiency (equivalent to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or better)’. We will report against this Framework for the first time in October 2024.

We record data on energy efficiency measures installed as part of Scottish Government programmes, but do not monitor the measures installed by households acting independently.

Question reference: S6W-23988

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Transport Scotland’s reported decision not to fund Smarter Choices, Smarter Places from April 2024, what practical difference there will be between this and any other funding stream that will replace it.

The Scottish Government has ambitious plans to make it easier for people to walk, wheel and cycle for everyday journeys, with record levels of investment over this Parliament and significantly ahead of anywhere else in the UK. Our biggest focus is on delivering physical infrastructure on the ground. But we also have important programmes to support people to change behaviours and choose active travel, and to access a range of bikes, including adapted bikes. At present, and over the course of next year, to make sure that people in Scotland get maximum benefit from that investment, Transport Scotland is transforming the delivery models for active travel interventions across the infrastructure, behaviour change and access to bikes programmes. This will see the end of some long-standing programmes, funded on a year by year basis, and a shift towards funding and control moving to local authorities, as the strategic transport authorities for their area, and regional transport partnerships.

Part of the Active Travel transformation process has involved the Smarter Choices Smarter Places programme closing, but behaviour change projects remain a high priority in our Active Travel programme. We are developing a new system of funding for 2024-25, and Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships, and the third sector Active Travel Delivery Partners are all involved in the design of that solution and we continue to see a vital role for our delivery partners in turning our record investment into the transformative change we all want to see.

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