Chamber and committees

There are currently 3,758 electric vehicle charging devices which make up the public charging network in Scotland. There are no publicly available statistics on the number of private charging devices in Scotland, such as those in workplaces, fleet depots and at residential properties.

The latest statistics quoted above are taken from Department for Transport’s ‘Electric vehicle charging device statistics’ published in January 2023. The next statistical release is due to be published in April this year.

Carrying statistics for passengers, cars and commercial vehicles are recorded by CalMac on a route by route basis and not by vessel and I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-15777 on 27 March 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 research on Women and Girls’ safety on Public Transport Scotland makes 10 recommendations Transport Scotland will continue to work with stakeholders and operators to identify actions in the recommendations and work towards progressing those. As part of this work a Summit is being organised to bring together stakeholders and experts to discuss the recommendations and identify any specific policy actions for Transport Scotland, as well as any actions for operators, police authorities and local authorities.

A number of partner organisations are working to specifically challenging men’s behaviour through a number of education and training programmes. Transport Scotland continue to support other policy areas on the systemic issue of gender based violence. The outcomes of this research have been shared with colleagues in the Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Team who are working to deliver the Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.

Spending data on additional support for learning (ASL) is provided below. This data is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). In addition to 2021-22 expenditure data, figures for 2020-21 have also been provided due to revisions in LFR statistics since the response to S6W-08040 in April 2022. These revisions reflect an upward revision in ASL spending reported by Clackmannanshire Council, and an upward revision in total education expenditure reported by Renfrewshire Council.

Local authorities are asked to provide this data in line with guidance to ensure returns are completed on a consistent basis to allow for a reasonable degree of comparability. However, these figures may be affected by variations in local accounting practices and education strategies. It is important to bear this in mind when making comparisons between local authorities and years.

Local authorities are asked to record all centrally funded ASL expenditure under Special Education, irrespective of where it is delivered. Decisions about prioritisation and budgets, including those for the provision of services for pupils with additional support needs, are a matter for individual councils. We recognise the challenges facing authorities in balancing their need to meet a wide range of statutory duties, local priorities and local circumstances.

Tables 1 and 2 show gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning (ASL) education from 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively, split by Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Special Education.

Table 1 – 2021-22 ASL expenditure by Local Authority (£000)

NHS Lanarkshire identified that the current performance of the ventilation system within Ward 16 (haematology) does not meet the recommendations of the current Scottish Healthcare Technical Memorandum (SHTM). The health board is currently undertaking a project to upgrade the ventilation system within Ward 16, in line with SHTM requirements. A number of mitigations have been implemented to address the performance of the ventilation system in Ward 16 whilst the works are being developed and clinical teams continue to closely monitor patients with patient safety remaining at the centre of all decisions.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that Scottish Government has today published its improvement plan for air quality.

The improvement plan confirms that the Scottish Government welcomes and accepts all six of ESS’s recommendations.

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805256229

As at Friday 24 March, Social Security Scotland had concluded the final processing of client data and expect all automatic payments to be made by 31 March.

This means that throughout February and March almost 400,000 low income households will have automatically received £50 financial support towards their energy bills for this winter.

In line with our policy, every eligible household in Scotland will have received reliable support, regardless of the weather or where they live. At a time when energy bills are increasing, this investment of over £20 million will have provided an important financial contribution to many low income households, including those with disabled people, young children and older people, many of whom would not have received a £25 Cold Weather Payment in previous years.

Even though there is no statutory requirement to do so, I have already made the decision to uprate Winter Heating Payment in April 2023 by 10.1%, to £55.05, recognising the difficulties people are facing and will be facing going forward.

There are a very small number of payments requiring manual intervention prior to being processed, for example where we are awaiting further information from the eligible person, and Social Security Scotland is taking all measures to ensure that those final payments are made as soon as possible.

A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on
‎ 6 June 2023 and then on an annual basis in future. These will be available on Social Security Scotland’s statistics publication page at:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

Of the fifteen gateway review recommendations for the period the question relates to, eleven are complete and four are ongoing.

A table has been placed has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 64087). The table details the recommendation and the status against each individually at this present time.

In September 2020, ClimateXChange published a study titled “Potential sources of waste heat for heat networks in Scotland”. The report examined a variety of potential waste heat sources, including data centres.

The study identified nine commercial data centres located in Scotland, but recognised the actual number is likely to be much higher. In addition, some commercial data centres are likely to be kept confidential for security reasons. It concluded that the total waste heat that can be recovered from data centres is therefore likely to have been underestimated in the study.

The study can be accessed at the following address:

https://www.climatexchange.org.uk/research/projects/potential-sources-of-waste-heat-for-heat-networks-in-scotland/?msclkid=42fdd948b3fe11ecbd09640b7d2a6cc2

From 25 June 2023, all elements of the Caledonian Sleeper operations undertaken by Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd will be delivered by Caledonian Sleeper Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd . Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd is a company wholly owned by the Scottish Government

It will be a matter for Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd and Caledonian Sleeper Ltd to determine the optimum arrangements post mobilisation of the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) arrangements.