Chamber and committees

Since 31 March 2024 three organisations have been unsuccessful in applying for support from the Victim Surcharge Fund.

The Scottish Government works with local authorities in several ways to improve access to active travel, primarily through our ‘Active Travel Infrastructure Fund’ (ATIF) that supports infrastructure building, and our ‘People and Place Programme’ that supports behaviour change services tackling barriers to using that infrastructure. Through these programmes Aberdeenshire’s councils received over £4.2m of support in 2024-25.

In terms of infrastructure, in 2024-25 Aberdeenshire Council received £1,232,393 for their ATIF Tier 1 allocation, and Aberdeen City Council received £1,557,324. These funds are used to design, develop and deliver active travel infrastructure according to local needs and priorities. Both councils have used their funding across a number of current projects as well as designing future works, creating a construction pipeline

In terms of behaviour change, in 2024-25 Aberdeenshire Council received a direct grant of £210,141 through the Local Authority Direct Award (LADA) , and Aberdeen City Council received £178, 622. In addition, Nestrans, the Regional Transport Partnership for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, received £1,113,240 through the People and Place Programme. These funds are used to support active and sustainable travel behaviour change interventions that improve the uptake of walking, wheeling, and cycling for short everyday journeys.

The evidence of the relationship between increased uptake of active travel and positive health outcomes, including maintaining a healthy weight, is proven beyond doubt. This is why active travel is a key Strategic Delivery Outcome in the Physical Activity for Health Framework published on 4 October 2024. This framework applies a systems-based approach with all parts of government, including transport and health, joining the call to action behind the collective aim and ambition of promoting the crucial role of physical activity in improving the health of people in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32584 on 14 January 2025. 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.

I can confirm that I have written to the Chief Constable to draw the attention of her and her colleagues to the recent range of questions lodged on the use of e-bikes and e-scooters.

The Scottish Government published our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023. The strategy and plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care with an ambition to provide person centred care for all.

The actions contained in the plan will enable health and care professionals to work in partnership with the people they care for to ensure shared decision making with realistic medicine approaches in mind.

Scottish Government launched Single Point of Contact pilots in 2020, which ensure people recently diagnosed with cancer have person-centred support and can discuss their specific circumstances. This helps ease anxieties related to their care and treatment plans and to relay the support available to them and their families. Scottish Government is considering how best to scale up this approach.

We are also working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme. This partnership is worth £27 million and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme ensures that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial, and practical support to those who need it most.

Regulating service provision and the consumer experience of public EV charging is an area that is reserved to the UK government. The UK Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 established minimum standards in terms of reliability and functionality for all public charge points. I welcome these regulations and I encourage all public charge point owners to comply with them to ensure that drivers receive the level of service that they have every right to expect.

To date, the Scottish Government has invested over £65 million in developing Scotland’s public EV charging network, which has included providing funding to public charge point owners for warranty and maintenance packages.

Our £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund aims to ensure that continued investment in Scotland’s public EV charging network is balanced across urban, rural and island areas by focusing public funding on those parts of Scotland that are less likely to see private investment, including rural an island communities. This fund also supports a transition to a public charging network that is increasingly operated by the private sector and will require those private charge point operators to continue to invest in and maintain Scotland’s public EV charging network to a high standard.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes a register of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) submitted to the Scottish Ministers for confirmation since 2012: https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-order-register/. The current register, published in December, includes CPOs received up to the end of October 2024.

The register includes information on when a CPO is submitted, who the acquiring authority (i.e. body with compulsory purchase powers) is, the date of the Scottish Ministers’ decision on confirmation, a description of the project, the location, including local authority area, the type of CPO (for example, for Planning, Housing, Energy or Transport purposes) and legislation under which it was made.

CPOs are recorded in the register by local authority area. In the five years to 31 October 2024, the top four such areas for CPOs confirmed or confirmed with modifications were:

• Glasgow City 27 (Housing 25 and Planning 2)
• Highland 6 (Transport 5 and Environment (Water) 1)
• Perth and Kinross 5 (Transport 4 and Planning 1)
• Falkirk 5 (Transport 4 and Energy (Gas) 1)

The Scottish Government procures software subscriptions services through centrally tendered national procurement frameworks which fully consider and technically assess environmental and sustainability factors through the procurement framework evaluation process.

Professional memberships and media subscriptions are managed in individual business areas rather than on an organisational basis. We do not hold centralised information on the Net Zero or sustainability position or ambition for media suppliers or each professional body the Scottish Government aligns with.

All buildings owned by the Scottish Government use electricity supplied via a REGO tariff (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin).

6 buildings have solar PV which contributes approximately 5% of each building’s electricity use. 1 building has an air source heat pump which provides 100% of the buildings heating requirements.

Buildings owned by the Scottish Government on the Core estate fall into the following EPC categories.

A – 0 Buildings

B – 1 Building

C – 4 Buildings

D – 5 Buildings

E – 2 Buildings

F – 3 Buildings

G – 2 Buildings