Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will set out options for calculation of a devolved Building Safety Levy as part of the consultation on the policy design of the Levy. The consultation process will commence once an agreement has been reached with the UK Government on the transfer of legislative competence.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table shows the number of cells as on 1 November 2023 which accommodate two or more people in our care, and have an average living space of under 8m² (excluding sanitary facilities).

Since the publication of the draft second Strategic Transport Projects Review in January 2022, a multi-partner working group consisting of Transport Scotland, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and Glasgow City Council, known as the Client Delivery Group, has met regularly to discuss and better define the scale of work that Clyde Metro might represent, together with the associated resource and programme requirements. This is overseen by a Programme Steering Group comprising of the Chief Executives of those organisations. I am pleased that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport have undertaken to lead the next stage of the case for investment for Clyde Metro. Transport Scotland will continue to be involved in a project assurance and support role.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance (DFM) has written to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and other UK Government Ministers to formally request the devolution of the requisite power under section 80B of the Scotland Act 1998 (“Power to add new devolved taxes”).

We remain in discussion with the UK Government on the process and timelines through which powers can be devolved. The DFM will provide an update to Parliament once agreement on these matters has been reached.

The Programme for Government 2023-24 committed to the implementation of an infrastructure levy by spring 2026. Preliminary work to inform the preparation of regulations under Part 5 of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 will commence later this financial year. Formal stakeholder engagement and discussions have not yet taken place.

Exceptions to the Treatment Time Guarantee, as set out by The Patient Rights (Treatment Time Guarantee) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 are as follows:

• Assisted reproduction.

• Obstetrics services

• Organ, tissue, or cell transplantation, whether from living or deceased donor.

Over 2.8 million inpatients and day cases have benefited from the 12-weeks treatment target since it was introduced.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22759 on 14 November 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. The SHCS records double glazing for occupied dwellings, however this is recorded as installed pre or post 2003, when higher requirements for double glazing were introduced. The SHCS does not record data on all public sector buildings, just Local Authority owned homes, therefore complete information requested is not available in this form.

The most recent estimates of households with double glazing installed pre 2003 broken down by privately owned, local authority and housing association is presented in the table below.

Table 1: Number of households with pre 2003 double glazing in 2019

The Scottish Government is aware that there are ongoing global supply issues affecting the availability of various products which are licensed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is anticipated that the shortages will be resolved by end of December.

The shortages are caused by a combination of manufacturing issues and an increase in global demand. The pricing and the supply of medicines is currently a reserved matter for the UK Government. We continue to engage with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and we will continue to monitor the situation.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact of these global shortages on people living with ADHD and their families. NHS Scotland has robust systems in place to manage medicine shortages when they arise and anyone affected by this issue should speak to their usual clinical team.

The Scottish Government considers the definition of invasive non-native species to be that provided in the GB Invasive Non-Native Species Strategy and that this does indeed align with the definition given by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The Strategy defines an invasive non-native species as any non-native species that has been intentionally or unintentionally introduced outside its native range by human actions and which has the ability to spread causing damage to the environment, the economy, our health, or the way we live.