Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government offers a range of grants for the installation of electric vehicle charge points at properties, including flatted dwellings where there is access to shared off-street parking. The residential grants are delivered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) on behalf of Scottish Ministers and are designed to ensure that a lack of traditional off-street parking is not a barrier to EV adoption. More information can be found on the EST website.

Being unable to charge at home using a private charger should not be a deterrent to making the transition to EV. The Scottish Government has invested over £65m to develop the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle charging network. CPS now has a network of over 2,500 publicly available charge points spread across Scotland, making it the 4th largest network in the UK and the most comprehensive per head of population outside London.

As part of the comprehensive approach being taken by the Scottish Government, new legislation has also been introduced to ensure new buildings in Scotland are equipped with charge points – for flats with designated parking, one socket for per flat should be provided. Steps have also been taken to amend existing Permitted Development Rights legislation to make it even simpler and quicker to install charging infrastructure, including in residential areas containing all dwelling types.

The National Statistics publication Provisional Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics: 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) provides information on the number of fishers on Scottish registered vessels. On 31 December 2022, there were 4,117 fishers employed on Scottish registered fishing vessels.

We do not routinely collect information on the nationality or migrant status of fishers. We last collected information on the nationality of fishers in 2015 from around 15% of the Scottish fishing fleet. This is published in Scottish Sea Fisheries Employment 2015 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and showed that 28% of the crew surveyed were from outside the UK.

Some more recent information on the nationality of fishers was collected from a sample of vessels by Seafish in 2021. This is published in 2021 Employment in the UK Fishing Fleet — Seafish. This publication shows that, based on the sample of Scottish vessels surveyed, 31% of the workers were from outside the UK. If a similar proportion of non-UK workers were employed on Scottish fishing vessels in 2022, then approximately 1,300 fishers were from outside the UK.

Police Scotland provided an update on the National Dashcam Safety Portal (NDSP) to officials at the Strategic Partnership Board meeting on 5 June, the highest tier to the Road Safety Framework to 2030 governance structure.

Prior to this, officials received a scoping paper from Police Scotland that outlines what will be required in order to initiate a business case that considers the development and anticipated demand of the pilot project before full national capability can be implemented.

Officials will meet with Police Scotland on 20 July to discuss the next steps.

Our Agencies, on behalf of Scottish Government, commissioned a series of reports into the economic opportunities around battery use and the circular economy, including Scotland as a potential location for future gigafactory opportunities. Our Enterprise Agencies in partnership with Department of Business and Trade and others will continue to respond positively to any business considering gigafactory scale manufacturing in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the harm and distress this activity causes to those targeted. I would urge anyone impacted to report it to Police Scotland for investigation. Police Scotland have been clear that all reports will be taken seriously, dealt with in confidence and without judgement.

The Scottish Government works closely with national and UK partners including Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland to tackle cyber-crime, including sextortion scams. There is a range of advice to help people improve their online safety, found on CyberScotland.com, as well from the National Cyber Security Centre, Cyber Aware, Take Five and Get Safe Online. Further, Police Scotland have information for victims and links to support services on their web site - Sextortion - Police Scotland . Also, the National Cyber Security Centre have specific guidance on sextortion scams that advises on practical steps for victims to take which is available at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/sextortion-scams-how-to-protect-yourself .

Via the Scottish Government “Our Delivering Equally Safe Funding” £110,822 has been provided to the South West Grid for Learning Trust Ltd to deliver helpline advice to those who have experienced intimate image abuse and improve awareness and understanding throughout Scotland – available here: Revenge Porn Helpline - 0345 6000 459 | Revenge Porn Helpline . Further, we recently refreshed our Safer.scot webpages, which include a section on intimate image abuse: Striving for a safer Scotland - Safer.scot .

ScotRail advised that between 6 January 2019 [the start of 2018-19: reporting period 11] and 27 May 2023 [the end of 2023-24: reporting period 2], there were 444 full cancellations and 122 part-cancellations on the North Berwick line as a result of infrastructure issues. This is out of 68,274 trains planned for that route during this time (0.82 percent).

While full- or part-cancellations as a result of track congestion are not reported separately, ScotRail also advise that there were a further 46 full cancellations and 39 part-cancellations to ScotRail services as a result of the actions of other train operating companies. This is out of 68,274 trains planned for that route during this time (0.12 percent).

In the last year, three meetings have been held on the subject of waste zoning with the Resource Management Association Scotland (RMAS) in June, July and August 2022. One meeting on the subject of waste zoning was held with the Scottish Environmental Services Association (SESA) in February 2023. The issue has also been raised in other forums that industry attend and as part of wider engagement regarding proposals for the Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map.

There have been no specific meetings on the topic of zoning with local authorities, but it is a topic that has been raised in various regular forums they attend and as part of wider engagement for the Circular Economy Bill and Circular Economy and Waste Route Map.

The Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme is commissioned by National Services Scotland (NSS) and operates out of eight centres across Scotland. Scottish Government does not hold the information requested centrally as this is a matter for Regional Screening Centres. However, Public Health Scotland publish programme statistics on an annual basis and the latest report can be viewed at : https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics-year-ending-31-march-2022/

The breast screening programme is commissioned by NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS) and operates out of six centres across Scotland. Scottish Government do not hold the information requested centrally as this is a matter for Regional Screening Centres. However, Public Health Scotland publish programme statistics on an annual basis and the most recent publication can be accessed on the following link : https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/scottish-breast-screening-programme-statistics/scottish-breast-screening-programme-statistics-annual-update-to-31-march-2022/

NHS Health Boards commission and have responsibility for delivering Diabetic Eye screening. Scottish Government does not hold the information requested centrally.