Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22110 on 30 October 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 Government is committed to decarbonising Scotland’s buildings in line with our climate targets for net zero by 2045. We recognise it may be more challenging for some traditionally built homes and buildings to meet any energy efficiency and heating standard we propose, especially those granted listed status.

This is why officials have met with a variety of organisations with an interest in the retrofit of traditional and protected buildings. These include Historic Environment Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Under One Roof, Federation of Master Builders, and Historic Houses. The workshop on Traditional and Protected buildings, undertaken by the Tenements Short Life Working Group in October 2022 was attended by a range of stakeholders, including Changeworks, Church of Scotland, Local Energy Scotland, MAST Architects, National Trust for Scotland, Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland (RIAS), and South Seeds.

Officials plan to continue engagement with key stakeholders alongside the planned consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill. This engagement will be vital in helping us develop cost-effective and technically feasible solutions to improve the energy efficiency and transition Scotland’s traditional and listed buildings to climate-friendly heating. We are committed to ensuring that we do this while respecting and preserving the special characteristics of our buildings and places and considering the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people.

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) collects information about the physical characteristics of Scotland’s homes. The SHCS gathers data on the age of the dwelling broken down into six categories, pre-1919, 1919-1945, 1945-1964, 1965-1982, 1982-2002, post-2002. The age bands used reflect different architectural styles, construction techniques and building regulation standards. In the SHCS, traditional buildings are defined as pre-1919 built as evidence shows that construction methods moved away from solid stone walls to more modern practices at this time. The proportion of the housing stock in each local authority area comprised of traditional buildings is included below. Averaged over 2017-2019 we estimate that around 19% of occupied dwellings were constructed pre-1919.

Scottish Government and Education Scotland are currently developing options for a National Digital Academy. Details of timescales and funding will be available when these are complete.

The National e-Learning offer (a range of live, recorded and supported resources, funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with Education Scotland, ADES, the 6 regional improvement collaboratives, and EIS) continues to be delivered.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact the British Transport Police.

Data on crime and anti-social behaviour incidents on the rail network is available on the British Transport Police website: British Transport Police - Crime information for the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales (btp.police.uk) .

Information on the percentage of plastic collected and recycled in Scotland, and outwith Scotland is available from SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) via its ‘waste from all sources’ data reporting tool: https://informatics.sepa.org.uk/WasteAllSources/

Police Scotland consider they would be able to effectively police the proposed site in Glasgow. Police Scotland have operational independence and how any facility might be policed is a matter for them, however it has been of the utmost importance to me to ensure that Police Scotland retain the operational ability to effectively police the facility and ensure that the wider community, those operating the site and those using the facility can be kept safe.

Paragraph 1.27 of the Scottish Law Commission's Homicide Project Discussion paper indicates corporate homicide is one of a number of topics that the Commission will not be considering as part of their project. As paragraph 1.27 and associated footnotes indicates, a Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2020 in this area of law and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament made a statement that the Bill was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament. The Commission's Homicide project relates to matters which would be within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government provided no direct funding to the British Allergy Foundation in 2022.

Taxis and private hire cars are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 ("the 1982 Act"). While the Scottish Government has responsibility for the overarching legislation, the day to day administration of the licensing regime is devolved to independent licensing authorities – in effect the 32 Scottish local authorities. The 1982 Act authorises a licensing authority to appoint, after consultation, stances for taxis.

There are no current plans to review the taxi licensing regime, as set out in the 1982 Act. If there are any issues with any specific taxi stances/bays this will be a matter for the relevant licensing authority to consider and address where appropriate.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government published updated ‘Best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and private hire car operators on the licensing of taxis and private hire cars and their drivers’.

This guidance offers best practice advice to licensing authorities on a range of issues relating to the licensing of taxis, private hire cars and their drivers and was revised with the assistance of a working group including representatives from the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, local licensing authorities, taxi and private hire car trade representatives and UNITE the Union.