Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland has not had any discussions regarding funding of the Neilston to Uplawmoor link through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund.

Transport Scotland did not receive an application from East Renfrewshire Council for the proposed Neilston to Uplawmoor link through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) Tier 2 since it started.

In addition, East Renfrewshire Council did not allocate any of its ATIF Tier 1 funding to the proposed Neilston-Uplawmoor link in 2025-26.

Analysis of the responses to the Call for Evidence is expected to be completed and published in Autumn 2026.

The Call for Evidence did not ask any specific question on BS8414, although some respondents may have referred to it in the responses.

ALLIANCE compiled a report of all the public meetings their staff facilitated as part of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Service Delivery Review (SDR) public consultation.

S7W-00815 refers to prostate cancer screening. Information on both bowel and prostate cancer screening is set out below.

Since 2009, Scotland has offered bowel screening in line with the current UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommendations; screening is offered every two years to people aged between 50 and 74. Those aged 75 and over can also request a kit every two years. In July 2026, the Scottish Government submitted a proposal to the UK NSC to review their recommended age range, highlighting that the number of bowel cancers are increasing in those under the age of 50.

As noted in the answer to S7W-00815, our initial focus is on strengthening existing high-risk surveillance pathways for prostate cancer, which already allow eligible men to access testing in line with the UK NSC recommendation. This work will progress at pace, and will be completed ahead of any implementation of a national screening programme, which will require a number of formal processes to be developed, including a dedicated IT system.

To support both pieces of work, we have established a multi-disciplinary Prostate Cancer Screening Working Group (PCSWG).

Individual Clinical Trials run public recruitment campaigns if needed to meet their recruitment targets.

The NHS Research Scotland Infrastructure is available to support this activity through both the Scottish Research Register and Biobank Recruitment to clinical trials | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland, and Topic-specific Research Networks Research Areas | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland.

The changes approved by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Board will be delivered over the next 5 years with SFRS developing a change programme.

a) In the short term, there will be no net savings from the review as the total number of wholetime firefighters employed by SFRS will not reduce and there will be additional on-call firefighters (20 new posts) to be recruited. 69 wholetime firefighters in front-line fire stations will be redirected to the essential training and prevention roles. It is expected any savings from building maintenance or future capital expenditure avoided will be invested in other parts of the SFRS estate.

b) With regards to Helensburgh Fire Station, when the changes are implemented, around four wholetime pump crews (17 people), equating to £779,000 salary costs, would be available for reallocation elsewhere in the service, as only one expanded crew would be required for operating the Day Shift Duty System (DSDS). Additional on call staff, costing approximately £109,000 per annum, will be required for providing additional resilience in the evenings and weekends for the DSDS/On-call pump. Costs of approximately £67,000 in relation to training the on call crew and swift water and flood response capability will also be required. This reduced staff footprint will realise property related cost reductions of approximately £23,000 annually. It should be noted that Helensburgh and the wider area will benefit from staff being redeployed into community safety/prevention and training roles.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service paid ALLIANCE £18,416 (ex vat) for the design, facilitation and reporting on in-person public meetings as part of the Service Delivery Review (SDR) consultation. This included the participation of multiple ALLIANCE staff as note-takers during breakout table discussions.

The latest data for the position to the end of March 2016 demonstrated that there were 16 Government funded SBAs completed and 1 developer led SBA completed.

The Scottish Government are seeking to accelerate progress in a number of ways.

Those in receipt of grant funding are required to initiate the SBA within a required time frame, and we will only provide final funding upon receipt of a completed SBA.

Since the SBA is a relatively new standard, we have run workshops with the industry on how the SBA works in practice and to identify any challenges in application. We have also engaged directly with factors to better understand barriers to commissioning assessments and to support a more consistent and timely approach across the private sector. This engagement is helping to identify practical solutions to issues affecting delivery and inform ongoing improvements to programme guidance and support.

We have commissioned Local Delivery Plans from Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords whose buildings currently comprise over 75% of the programme. These plans provide greater visibility of assessment timelines and key milestones enabling us to monitor progress more closely, engage where delays arise and hold delivery partners to account for delivery.

The same data release demonstrated that 149 Government-funded SBAs and 21 developer-led SBAs were underway. As SBAs involve detailed assessment of complex buildings, they can take time to complete; however, the significant number currently underway demonstrates progress. Importantly, where an SBA identifies urgent life-safety concerns, action to mitigate risk can be taken immediately and does not depend on the assessment being fully completed.

The next data release, covering the position to the end of June, will be published on 15 September. For the first time, this will include information on the number of completed SBAs that have been submitted to the Scottish Government for review and compliance checking against the published SBA standard, providing a more complete picture of assessment progress.

The Scottish Government is aware of recent decisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England concerning the application of PAS 9980 assessments and remediation obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022.

These decisions were made within the legal framework that applies in England and Wales and do not alter the legal framework for building safety in Scotland. Decisions on building assessment and remediation in Scotland continue to be taken in accordance with Scottish legislation, building standards and the evidence available for individual buildings.

The cases nevertheless highlight an important principle: a fire risk assessment is one source of professional evidence and does not, in itself, determine whether remedial works may ultimately be necessary. Decisions on remediation require consideration of the full range of evidence available, including the construction of the building, the nature and condition of materials present, fire safety measures and any additional information obtained through assessment and investigation.

That is why the Scottish Government's Single Building Assessment (SBA) takes a holistic approach to assessing cladding risk in buildings, and in doing so considering a broad range of factors. Where further investigation is identified as necessary to establish the nature and extent of any risk, this can form part of the evidence used in determining appropriate next steps.

We will continue to monitor developments in building safety policy, practice and case law across the UK and consider any relevant lessons that may support our objective of ensuring residents are safe and feel safe in their homes.

As part of the Scottish Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report, a full review of Section 2 (Fire) of the building standards will strengthen, and not weaken, fire safety standards in Scotland. This review is being informed by a Call for Evidence, undertaken between 16 January and 10 April 2026, which will identify fire safety priorities for review. The review will be advised by an independent expert panel, and supported by targeted research and stakeholder engagement. These measures will ensure that future changes are evidence-based, technically robust and improve fire safety outcomes.