Chamber and committees

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has continued the commitment to support SFRS service delivery and reform with a further uplift of £10m resource for 2023-24, which will bring the total budget to £362.7m.

I am aware that SFRS has been engaged with the FBU and the work of Lancaster University for a number of years and its well established contamination working group has taken action across all aspects of operations to reduce exposure to harmful contaminants. This includes investment in new fire appliances and fire station facilities.

This continues to be a priority for SFRS and the contaminants group will continue to consider the research and take appropriate action.

The public consultation on developing a Scottish tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy was open from 26 September to 5 December 2022. This was thought to be a sufficient window considering the issues in question, plans for concurrent stakeholder engagement, and the relatively recent review of the UK levy.

A total of 25 consultation responses were received. These are now being analysed to help inform our next steps, and a formal consultation report will be published in due course.

I visited Inverclyde Royal Hospital on 4 July 2022. All Ministerial engagements, including visits, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

We will continue to support SFRS as they continue to work in partnership with the FBU and Professor Anna Stec to build on the existing work of their dedicated Contaminants Group.

The Scottish Government will carefully consider any related proposals from the FBU or SFRS as a result of this important research.

The achievement of Fair Trade Nation status for Scotland, first in February 2013 and once more in March 2017, signals to the world that Scotland takes an active leadership role in challenging global poverty and recognising the dignity and rights of producers, through a commitment to fairness in international trading.

The Scottish Fair Trade Forum, which has received core funding from the Scottish Government since 2007 to take forward our work on Fair Trade, continues to engage across all sections of Scottish society from schools, colleges and universities to faith groups, businesses and charities, to raise awareness of the plight of farmers and producers in the developing world and build support for our status as a Fair Trade Nation.

This year sees the 10th Anniversary since Scotland first achieved the accolade of Fair Trade Nation status, and events are planned up and down the country during this year's Fairtrade Fortnight to mark the occasion.

The Scottish Government commends and congratulates the athletes competing at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf later this year. The Invictus Games has been hosted in a range of locations worldwide, and has been successful in using sport to inspire recovery and support rehabilitation of injured and sick servicemen and women.

In terms of what consideration the Scottish Government has given to Scotland hosting the Invictus Games, the Scottish Government works with a range of organisations and partners, particularly VisitScotland's Events Directorate, to assess hosting opportunities to secure a strong and diverse pipeline of major events.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of financial education in order to equip young people to live independently and confidently. These topics are embedded in the curriculum in Scotland through numeracy and maths, business studies and personal and social education.

Education Scotland provide professional learning and resources for practitioners on financial education. It also features in qualifications, particularly through SCQF 4 and 5 Personal Finance awards, and through Applications of Mathematics, which provides advanced learning on a range of core and practical maths skills, including finance, up to Higher level.

At local level, schools have access to a range of organisations who visit schools to reinforce and enhance learning such as HMRC, Barclays Lifeskills, NatWest MoneySense and the Young Enterprise ‘My Money’ Talks.

The Scottish Government is also supporting young people after they leave school with a new School Leavers Toolkit which includes practical information about budgeting and finances.

The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining alignment, where possible, with developing EU standards, including those set out by the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive. Last year, Scotland became the first part of the UK to implement a ban on some of the most problematic single-use plastic products through the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. This legislation delivered Article 5 of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.

The Scottish Government is going further than these Regulations to deal with the problem of single-use plastics. For example, last year we announced plans to introduce a mandatory charge on single-use cups by 2025. This commitment aligns with Article 4 of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.

At present, the Scottish Government has not set a timetable for the implementation of Article 6 requirements. Any proposed Scottish Government action in this area will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and public consultation. We are already taking concrete action, including by implementing a deposit return scheme and a reformed extended producer responsibility scheme for plastic packaging. With specific reference to Article 6, from 2025 drinks producers will be required to meet a 90% collection target of all in-scope drinks containers (plastic, glass, and metal).

Local authorities are required, under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, to keep houses they let fit for human habitation and ensure that any repairs are carried out when they are needed.

Whilst it is for local authorities to determine how they use funds available to them, including to maintain housing stock, the Scottish Government has increased local government funding by more than £1 billion in 2022-23 and the 2023-24 Local Government settlement of over £13.2 billion represents an increase of £570.8 million or 4.5% since the Budget Act, which is a real terms increase of £160.6 million or 1.3%.

We work closely with social landlords in our shared ambition to provide quality, affordable social homes and continue to have constructive engagement with them on a range of matters.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets over this parliamentary term, in order to increase the number of these facilities across the country and to support mobile Changing Places Toilets to allow people easier access to events and outdoor venues.

Further details will be available soon.