Chamber and committees

In February 2022, an application under section 36 of the Electricity Act seeking consent for construction and operation of the Peterhead Low Carbon Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Power Station was formally lodged with the Energy Consents Unit. This is currently before Ministers for determination and as such, it would be inappropriate for Ministers to make any comment.

(a) The Scottish Government is continually working with health boards and local health and social care partnerships to reduce the number of delayed discharges.

(b) The Scottish Government issued to all 14 Health Boards on 12 September 2024 the ‘Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach self-assessment' to support practitioners in applying the six principles of good rehabilitation. Data collected through Board's self-assessment can be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services, as well as, raising its profile across health and social care services.

(c) Community Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) are pivoting the balance of care away from secondary care and physiotherapists are an integral part of this work.

As the latest associated published data remains unchanged, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26239 on 2 April 2024 and to question S6W-26655 on 15 April 2024. 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

We are firmly committed to supporting Scotland’s freight industry and recognising the vital role hauliers play in driving economic growth and prosperity.

In October 2014, the speed limit for goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes on single carriageway sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness was increased from 40 mph to 50 mph. Simultaneously, the A9 average speed camera system was introduced. A comprehensive review conducted in 2018 assessed the safety performance of the route three years after these measures were implemented. The findings demonstrated a consistent reduction in collisions and casualty numbers involving HGVs over 7.5 tonnes. This evidence highlights the positive impact that increasing the HGV speed limit has had on road safety along the route.

On 27 November 2024, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation as part of the National Speed Management Review. This initiative seeks to ensure that speed limits across Scotland are both appropriate and effective in reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our roads. The proposals include lowering the national speed limit for motor vehicles on single carriageways from 60 mph to 50 mph while increasing HGV speed limits to 50 mph on single carriageways and 60 mph on dual carriageways. The consultation is open until 5 March 2025, and we encourage all stakeholders to share their views. Once the consultation responses have been analysed, any resulting changes will be announced alongside the next steps for implementation.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

The Scottish Government has increased revenue funding for inter-island connectivity by £8.6 million in 2025-26, including extending free ferry travel between islands to under 22s. Provisional local authority allocations are included in Annex E of Local Government Finance Circular 10/2024.

Comparisons of 2024-25 Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) to 2025-26 Budget are misleading in the context of local government funding as the 2024-25 ABR includes an agreed transfer of £13.9 million. This transfer will also be processed at the 2025-26 ABR, increasing the Inter Island Connectivity funding included in table 4.14 of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget from £36.4 million to £50.3 million.

Our commitment to reform is not a single programme; it is a cross system approach with a focus on strategic priorities which we set out in the Budget. This work is being progressed through multiple and interconnected work-streams and requires a whole-of-government approach.

There are 5.8 civil servants working in the team that is leading the core public service reform programme.

The Scottish Government is committed to making savings by driving key efficiency programmes such as Scottish Single Estates, Commercial Value for Money (CVfM), Collaborative Procurement frameworks, Oracle Cloud implementation, the Intelligence Automation Centre of Excellence, Digital programme, and Revenue Raising. This work reflects our approach of building these key efficiency programmes into the overall PSR approach.

There has been strong progress across these programmes, with cashable savings delivered. Our Single Scottish Estate, National Collaborative Procurement, Commercial Value for Money and Digital programmes are collectively securing cost avoidance and cash releasing savings, expected to reach up to £280 million over a two-year period by the end of 2024-25, with further projected savings of nearly £300 million over the following two financial years to the end of 2026-27.

The Single Scottish Estate (SSE) will help us have a more efficient approach to public sector property management, optimising costs, enabling the delivery of excellent public services and providing staff with great places to work, recognising the shifts in working culture since the pandemic. The SSE engages with all parts of the public sector including health and local authorities as well as central government bodies. The programme is currently focused on the public sector administrative estate and is undertaking a number of location-based reviews and projects including across Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow. We are estimating £50-80m total savings from now to 2028, with associated carbon reductions and improvements in service delivery to the public. An overall total of £36m of direct Single Scottish Estate benefits have been secured.

Collaborative procurement can help public bodies achieve better value for money, through consolidating volumes, driving efficiencies and social value and making better use of skills and resources. The Scottish Government establishes national collaborative procurement framework agreements on behalf of the whole Scottish public sector. There are opportunities to increase Scotland’s collaborative buying power by expanding the use of National Collaborative Frameworks across the Scottish public sector, leading to a significant increase in financial benefits delivered on a cross-sectoral basis via economies of scale. Building on current financial benefits delivered annually of around £130m, made up of both cost avoidance and cash savings, work is underway to scope the potential to scale up the service offered by the national collaborative procurement team.

The Commercial Value for Money programme (CVfM) is providing commercial expertise and support across all Scottish Government expenditure to support increased value for money through the delivery of monetary efficiencies and/or increased impactful policy outcomes. This includes work in areas such as grant alignment, commercial scrutiny of costs, development and implementation of performance monitoring and reporting to show the effectiveness of SG spend, development of novel funding approaches and increased leverage of SG spend. Almost £7m of cashable and £600k of non-cashable savings have already been delivered, with little or no impact on policy delivery. The CVfM programme is projected to save up to £50m over the next 5 years whilst also supporting other efficiency work.

Meanwhile, the Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence has already been realised significant benefits within government and several core agencies. £3.9M in cost-avoidance benefits have been achieved to date with a projected £14.5M by 28-29.

As the PSR programme develops further, building on the data and capacity around savings, and the embedding of reform and efficiency in the budget process, we will look to drive and quantify other and future savings opportunities.

Since June 2022 the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme has offered grants totalling almost £7m to a total of 31 projects, split across two streams:

• Stream 1 - funding for feasibility studies or technical demonstration of hydrogen production, distribution or storage solutions - 27 projects.
• Stream 2 – funding to support the development of test and demonstration facilities and equipment in Scotland - 4 projects.

To date 24 projects have been completed, with the remaining 7 due to conclude by late 2025. All have performed or are performing well in achieving their agreed outputs. Details of projects and their grant awards are available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/emerging-energy-technologies-fund-hydrogen-innovation-scheme-successful-projects/.

On 16 September 2024 the Scottish Government launched a funding call that aims to provide support to the industry to help it scale up as it responds to market demand. Following due diligence call delivery partner Scottish Enterprise began making grant offers in December; details of call grant awards will be published in due course.

It is deeply concerning that there have been two recent incidents involving buses colliding with low bridges, and I wish to express my best wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured. Both incidents are currently under investigation.

While vehicle safety is a reserved matter that is dealt with by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). There is no legal requirement for bus operators to install technical solutions into their vehicles to reduce the risk of collisions, it is a matter for individual bus operators to determine whether they want to install such systems. However, in recent years some bus companies have been trialling low bridge detection systems to improve the safety of their fleet.

Bus operators and drivers have a duty to take all practical steps to ensure that vehicles avoid colliding with infrastructure through proper route planning, training in risk assessment, and providing correct information to drivers on the vehicles they use, this includes access to height conversion charts and measurement gauges.

Collision of low bridges by commercial vehicles is a serious matter for the Traffic Commissioner and they will consider the liability of both the operator and the driver, which could result in the Commissioner taking action against them both.