Chamber and committees

Given the importance of sandeel to the wider ecosystem and the subsequent benefit in aiding long-term sustainability and resilience, it remains an overarching Scottish Government position, which is reflected in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, not to support fishing for sandeel in our waters.

There are several measures in place for the protection of sandeel stocks through the network of Marine Protected Areas. Furthermore, the Northeast UK closed area in sandeel management area 4 has been in place since 2000 and, the UK has not allocated sandeel quota to UK vessels since 2021.

However, recognising a commitment to consider what additional measures could be put in place to manage the sandeel fishery, in May 2023 I announced that the Scottish Government will be undertaking a public consultation this summer on potential measures to manage fishing for sandeel in Scottish waters. I refer the member to the answer to S6W-18244 on 19 May 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 does not hold information on the number of people held in police custody suites in Scotland.

A short-term pilot led by the Refugee Survival Trust and third sector partners in Glasgow commenced on Monday 30 January and will run until July.

The pilot provides free bus travel to people seeking asylum living in Glasgow for three months, along with information and digital support to access and use the pass.

The information gathered from this pilot will help inform options on how to deliver our Programme for Government commitment to consider how best to provide free bus travel to people seeking asylum in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18462 on 15 June 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 Heat in Building Strategy (October 2021) states that we will build on existing regulations to require existing non-domestic buildings to reduce demand for heat where appropriate, and install a zero emissions heating supply, within the extent of our powers. The Scottish Government is committed to working with commercial and public sector organisations across Scotland to develop the regulatory and support framework that will enable all non-domestic buildings to reduce their direct greenhouse gas emissions. We will consult on primary legislative powers in the coming months. However, we have not, to date, made any proposals around requiring non-domestic rented properties to achieve EPC C by 2028.

The rating on a non-domestic EPC cannot be compared with the relative rating used on domestic EPCs. This is because non-domestic EPCs use fundamentally different calculation methodologies and rating scales. Domestic EPC ratings are currently based on calculated running costs for a dwelling. Non-domestic EPC ratings are based on calculated direct and indirect emissions from the building and estimate a building’s absolute energy demand. We recognise the need for reform of EPCs and first consulted on proposals in 2021. We will consult on finalised proposals later in 2023.

The range of non-domestic EPC ratings for buildings within the Scottish Government Estate reflect their varied use as greenhouses, laboratories, storage units and offices. The variety of activities and building types in the non-domestic built environment will require many different options for decarbonisation - reflecting, for example, the difference between an office in Edinburgh and a laboratory in Aberdeen. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the public sector playing its part and the Bute House Agreement includes a commitment to develop and agree a series of phased targets for all publicly-owned buildings to meet zero emission heating requirements, with a backstop of 2038.

An Estate Strategy for SG Core buildings is under development to support our asset planning and the future investment decisions required to deliver the Heat in Building Strategy and Net Zero targets.

As of Friday 9 June, 45 members of staff were working in the Deposit Return Scheme Division. The FTE is 43.2

We do not hold information on how many staff have worked on DRS each year since development began as DRS sat within a wider division with staff covering a range of issues. A separate division for DRS was created in March this year.

Details of the infrastructure improvements to be constructed as part of the Aberdeen Central Belt Journey Time Improvements Project will be contained with the Outline Business Case for the project, which will be available once complete.

The delivery of the actions in the Report of the City Centre Recovery Task Force 2021-22 is being carried out under the auspices of the Scottish Cities Alliance, in agreement with our local authority partners. As a member of the Alliance, the Scottish Government will work with the cities to progress the strategic objectives in the report as part of the Alliance’s Operational Programme 2022-2026.

In addition, the Scottish Government has also adopted the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in February 2023, which references the ambitions of the Report and directly influences all planning decisions. NPF4 recognises that our cities and towns are a national asset and their centres bring together a wide range of functions and land uses. Its policies help centres adapt and be vibrant, healthier, creative, accessible and resilient places for people to live, learn, work and enjoy. In March 2023 we also introduced new permitted development rights that provide greater flexibility to change the use of buildings and place furniture outside specified hospitality premises.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for undertaking assessments of housing need and demand which form a shared evidence base for Local Housing Strategies and Local Development Plans.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) Tool contains Household projection data prepared by National Records of Scotland (NRS) which captures trends in household formation including where adults are living with their parents. Any trend, upwards or downwards, in the incidence of adult children living with parents, will, along with many other factors that drive change in household numbers, be captured and projected forwards in the projections. The HNDA tool data can be supplemented with robust, local information.

As set out in the answer to S6W-13149 on 10 January 2023, which can be found at Written question and answer: S6W-13149 | Scottish Parliament Website , the available information on average rents across the private rented and social rented sectors is as follows.

The latest Scottish Government Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2022 , published on 29 November 2022, presents average private rents by property size and Broad Rental Market Areas between 2010 and 2022 (years to end September), based predominantly on advertised rent data. This is the lowest level of granularity available for the Scottish Government Private Rent Statistics, as the data collection method used has not been designed for the purpose of providing local authority level results. In addition, data is not held for the years prior to 2010. The next publication covering the period 2010 to 2023 (years to end September) is planned for November 2023.

Information on average local authority rents is included in the Scottish Government Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Statistics publication, which contains a time series from 1997-98 onwards of average weekly rent by local authority area (Table 8), with the average rent figures presented being based on each Council’s total standard rental income being divided by total HRA stock.

Separate information on average social sector rents is published by the Scottish Housing Regulator, based on average rent figures collected from individual social landlords as part of the Charter Data collection. Results are available in the Scottish Housing Regulator Statistical Information webpages , with social landlord level average rent figures available from 2013-14 onwards, and local authority area level average rent figures published as part of the stock dataset for the most recent two years 2020-21 and 2021-22.

In addition, summary figures on average housing association rents by local authority area across the earlier years 2005-06 to 2012-13 are available in an archived Scottish Government Housing Statistics publication table .