Chamber and committees

Transforming our homes and buildings to be net zero carbon is one of the most important steps we can take to help end Scotland’s contribution to climate change and will require action from all of us.

New homes currently delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) are required to meet Scottish building regulations which set high levels of energy efficiency and the installation of heating systems that produce zero direct emissions at the point of use is encouraged through the AHSP.

We are actively working with the construction and house building sectors to identify and support good practice and to help ensure that new regulations enforced from 2024 are achievable and effective. The Scottish Government is currently seeking views through the New Build Heat Standard (Part II ) consultation , open until 20 October 2022.

The Scottish Government is aware of the impact that the UK Government’s pension annual and life time allowances policy is having on the GP workforce in Scotland. There is limited action we can take to mitigate the impact as issues relating to pensions are a reserved matter. We have written to the UK Government on a number occasions to urge them to take action, and we have highlighted our concerns about the risks to delivering in-hours general practice as well as out of hours services.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is the UK's independent regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises and ensures pharmacy services are delivered in accordance with the required standards. There are no plans to instruct the Care Inspectorate to regulate this sector.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to amend the current National Health Service ((Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009. The Scottish Government is committed to review the current contractual arrangements in line with the recommendations set out in the Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care strategy.

All stages of the menopause, including perimenopause, are within the scope of the menopause and menstrual health workplace policy.

Over the past decade the Scottish Government has invested more than £55 million in electrical vehicle charging. ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), a publicly available network, now consists of over 2,300 charge points across Scotland.

Scotland benefits from the most public charging points outside of London, and the most rapid charge points anywhere in the UK. We now want to see greater private sector investment and involvement in line with our vision for Scotland’s public EV charging network – delivering more infrastructure faster and in way that is more accessible than ever before.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much each Local Authority has spent on installing electric vehicle charging points, we can only advise how much funding they have received from us.

In the last three years, we have invested over £30m across all local authorities, as shown in the table. Investment has been awarded through a range of initiatives, including innovation projects such as the £5.3m Project Pace in North and South Lanarkshire.

The former Lord Advocate, James Wolffe KC, and the former Solicitor General, Alison di Rollo KC, had sight of the note submitted to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry by John Halley on 1 April 2019.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID, delivered across the full range of services provided by our NHS.

In 2022-23, funding of £18 billion is provided for the health portfolio. This substantial investment is already benefitting a range of services that are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

In addition, we have established a £10 million ‘Long COVID Support Fund’ and are investing an initial £3 million from the fund over this financial year to enable NHS Boards to continue to develop and deliver the best models of care for their local populations.

For 2022-23, the funding allocations to thirteen of the fourteen territorial Health Boards (NHS Orkney did not request funding), I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09934 on 23 August 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 .

As set out in the Women’s Health Plan, we are developing a menopause/menstrual health policy for NHS Scotland, which can then be promoted across the public, private and third sectors.

Work is underway, with the University of Glasgow to establish an evidence base for the new policy through a survey which will ask staff about their experiences of menstrual health and menopause at work. A series of focus groups will also take place with NHSScotland staff in early 2023.

The findings will be used to develop the policy in partnership with NHSScotland employers, trade unions and an expert working group.'

As investigations into this matter are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment.