Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government wants to realise as many opportunities as possible for community energy and to maximise the benefits flowing to communities from our energy transition. That is why we continue to invest in CARES, which is currently putting a strong focus on heat decarbonisation while continuing to help communities assess their priorities for net zero activity, which can include potential opportunities for energy generation. Across all projects and technologies, CARES has advised over 900 organisations and offered £60 million in funding to over 680 projects. It has supported the installation of 57.9MW of renewable energy. In Na h-Eileanan an Iar, CARES has supported 44 projects and offered over £2.74 million in funding, which has supported the installation of 13.5MW of renewable energy.

The Scottish Government has commissioned independent research to consider how we create the right policy environment and target support in a way which maximises the contribution of community energy to a just transition. The outputs from this research will be used to inform future policy development and the support provided through CARES.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty, with £119 million allocated this year to provide heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures to fuel poor households throughout Scotland.

This incudes funding for our Area Based Schemes (ABS) delivered in partnership with local authorities. This year North Ayrshire council has been allocated £1.8 million to help fuel poor households living in `hard to treat’ properties (typically requiring external wall insulation).

Since the start of our ABS programme in 2013, we have invested £13.2 million in improvements benefitting over 2,800 fuel poor households in the North Ayrshire council area.

More than £210 million has been invested through our national Warmer Homes Scotland scheme since its launch in September 2015. This has helped over 32,000 households throughout Scotland to achieve an estimated average saving of £160 per year on their energy bills.

The Scottish Government has also established our Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF), working with trusted third sector partners to deliver direct emergency funds to people struggling to pay their energy bills, and who were at risk of self-disconnection or self-rationing their energy use as a result. We have increased our overall funding to £30 million this financial year.

The Island Communities Impact Assessment makes clear that the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme will not increase the amount of waste that will arise in island communities as most waste is currently transported off the islands. Furthermore, as part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Deposit Return Scheme Strategic Environmental Assessment: Post Adoption Statement’ at table 3.1 Mitigation of environmental effect does set out the “effects (including greenhouse gas emissions) from the potential for increased vehicle movements from consumers, retailers and reprocessors” and it highlights a number of proposed mitigation actions to minimise carbon emissions. The Scottish Government, Circularity Scotland, and our business partners are developing solutions which build on these proposals where possible. The Scottish Government does not consider an additional assessment necessary at this stage.

A) SEPA is the regulator for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), responsible for the producer registration service and checking compliance with the Regulations. It is not within SEPA’s remit to model the carbon footprint of any transportation used for the scheme, and it has not conducted this modelling. SEPA was consulted on and responded to the consultation relating to the Deposit Return Scheme’s strategic environmental assessment (SEA) which considered the carbon emission associated with the DRS.

B) Circularity Scotland has not conducted carbon footprint modelling on their transportation network, but seek to operate to the highest ethical and environmental standards. This includes developing with their partners a solution for the collection of scheme articles on islands which makes use of local supply chains where possible in order to minimise carbon emissions.

BMA Scotland are the biggest medical trade union who represent 99% of unionised Junior Doctors in Scotland. We have long established successful partnership structures with BMA Scotland, and discussions on pay are held through these.

After weeks of intense negotiations, I am delighted we have come to an agreement with BMA Scotland on pay deal which they will now put to their members.

Recognising the incredible work that Junior Doctors do, we have offered a fair and progressive rise which will mean a cumulative pay increase of 14.5% over two years - the best offer on the table in the UK.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Work within Inverclyde Council’s Pottery Street depot has been progressing well, although there has been some delay to starting work on the A8 itself due to other urgent utility work. For the section of work on the A8, Scottish Water’s forecast start date is at the end of June, with an anticipated completion by mid- to end-December. Information on the project is published online at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/In-Your-Area/Investments-in-Your-Area/A8-Greenock

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) Survey provides estimates of employment in offshore wind across the countries of the UK.

The 2021 LCREE estimates show that 3,100 Full Time Equivalent Staff (FTE) were directly employed in offshore wind in Scotland. There is no regional breakdown of the data available.

The results in LCREE are survey-based, the data is gathered from a sample rather than the whole population. The estimates are therefore subject to uncertainty, which is expressed through the publication of confidence intervals alongside the data.

The latest version of the LCREE publication can be found here: Low carbon and renewable energy economy, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

There are a range of training providers across Scotland delivering training for apprenticeships including Independent Training Providers, Colleges, Universities and Third Sector Organisations.

The number of Modern Apprenticeship contracts by year are as follows:

• 2018-19 – 268
• 2019-20 – 256
• 2020-21 – 255
• 2021-22 – 243
• 2022-23 – 228

The number of Foundation Apprenticeship providers were as follows:

• 2018 – 17
• 2019 – 39
• 2020 – 39
•  2021 – 40
• 2022 – 39

The number of Graduate Apprenticeship providers were as follows:

• 2018-19 – 13
• 2019-20 – 15
• 2020-21 – 14
• 2021-22 – 12
• 2022-23 – 12

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland continue to regularly engage directly with businesses on matters which are within our control to ensure all involved are ready for successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Organisations from across the UK frustrated by the UK Government’s position have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exemption to the Internal Markets Act. Many more have privately expressed their concern that the lack of an Internal Market Act exemption is creating uncertainty and confusion for all the businesses that have worked so hard to prepare for the scheme.

The Scottish Government has been engaging with tertiary education providers, and other relevant stakeholders, on how to implement a structure to best support entrepreneurialism in colleges and universities and intends to publish its blueprint on entrepreneurial campuses prior to Summer recess.

In the following table, data on all restriction of liberty orders imposed since April 2013 is provided, covering two contractual periods of the current electronic monitoring service provider (G4S Monitoring Technologies & Services). The data set out shows “status at order end”, either: completed, revoked or expired.

Compliance with a restriction of liberty order is reported back by the monitoring provider to a court, and the court then determines what actions they wish to take in relation to that order, which may include continuing or revoking that order. A restriction of liberty order can be revoked by the issuing court for a number of reasons including: on appeal, on breach of a concurrent order, because a new offence had been committed or a breach of restriction of the liberty order has occurred. The outcome of a revoked order could include actions such as imposition of a further court order or imposition of custody. A breakdown of reasons for restriction of liberty orders being revoked or outcome of revocation, by issuing court, is not held.

The category of “expired” orders, includes orders where the outcome of any court consideration may not yet be known at the point the order ends. It will also include orders that were not being actively monitored at order end. Active monitoring could cease for reasons including: absence of the monitored person without consent, householder consent to monitor at that address being withdrawn or as the individual is otherwise absent for example they are already in custody or are in hospital.