Chamber and committees

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including how much money has been spent by Historic Environment Scotland on the repair of Properties in Care, are best answered by Historic Environment Scotland.

The purchase of reverse vending machines is a matter for individual retailers. There are a number of companies who will manufacture reverse vending machines to the specifications provided by Circularity Scotland Ltd.

The woodland carbon market is making an important contribution towards our Net Zero targets. Scottish Forestry manages the Woodland Carbon Code which is a UK-wide carbon standard and underpins integrity in the woodland carbon market. The number of validated carbon credits from creating new woodlands in Scotland under the Woodland Carbon Code has risen by over 60% since March 2020. There has been a similar increase across the UK. These figures show that the 50% target has already been met. At the end of September 2022, 6.3 million validated credits had been generated across 249 woodland creation projects in Scotland. This means that these projects are predicted to sequester at least 6.3 million tonnes of CO2 over their lifetimes.

Further to the list of active groups and sub-groups within the Finance and Economy portfolio provided in answer to question S6W-12330, the last meeting dates for these are set out in the following table:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12970 on 20 December 2022. 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

Scottish Water is required to test both drinking water and wastewater in line with legislative requirements and to submit these to the relevant regulator. Annual reports are provided by both the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency which provide a commentary on the levels of compliance with mandatory standards. Scottish Water also publishes water quality information which is searchable by postcode.

The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university, have been provided in the following table.

The tables only cover those entering ‘pre-clinical medicine’ and do not include other students entering medical schools on ‘clinical medicine’ or students in continuing years of study.

Data has been provided in two tables due to a change in the subject classification coding used by universities in 2019-20.

The Joint Working Group, which includes COSLA and the Scottish Green Party commenced it work, initially focussing on targeted changes to Council Tax to reflect the current circumstances created by the cost crisis. The group will also consider approaches to longer term reform, utilising the development of effective deliberative engagement, on sources of Local Government funding and Council Tax. I will ensure that Parliament is kept appraised of this work at suitable junctures.

After competitive tender, a contract was awarded to Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP to obtain expert independent advice on the implications of VAT on the NCS and associated Care Boards. This work is ongoing. We are also engaging with HMT. No decisions have been made at this point and a full understanding of the impact of all options will be considered after the co-design process has been completed. The co-design will involve COSLA and Local Authorities as well as people accessing care and support and care workers.

Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration. They are best placed to develop the right partnerships to deliver regeneration and to identify suitable funding for regeneration activity.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local authorities and communities to tackle persistent vacant and derelict land and we launched the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) in 2021 to support place based approaches to delivering regeneration and sustainable inclusive growth, as part of a ‘just transition’ to net-zero.

The VDLIP complements our existing investment in support of place based regeneration across Scotland, including the Place Based Investment Programme. We are keen for South Lanarkshire Council to work with its communities and other partners to develop suitable project proposals and apply to the VDLIP.

We are also providing support for town centre regeneration through the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP), which aims to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. The PBIP includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund which is providing funding for The Hamilton Hub which is transforming the formerly vacant Vogue cinema in Hamilton town centre.

Additionally South Lanarkshire Council are in receipt of an allocation of the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund. This is a ring-fenced element of the local government finance settlement which is allocated to five eligible Scottish local authorities where there is the greatest amount of long-term vacant and derelict land alongside deprivation. Each eligible local authority is responsible for developing proposals based on its local regeneration priorities in the area, and they must ensure that their proposals meet the aims and objectives of the fund.

Finally we are seeking to promote the reuse of vacant and derelict land and buildings across Scotland through revised Draft National Planning Framework 4 – which was laid in Parliament on 8 November 2022 for the Parliament to consider and approve. This sets out the priority given to the reuse of brownfield land, including vacant and derelict land and buildings, and seeks to proactively enable its reuse and limit greenfield expansion.