Chamber and committees

Fire Safety laws for all homes in Scotland, including non-traditional homes, are primarily governed by:

• The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004
• The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Guidance
• The Tolerable Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987

The tolerable standard is a minimum standard for all houses in Scotland including houses constructed using non-traditional construction techniques. The tolerable standard sets out the basic requirements for a safe and habitable home including standards relating to electrical and fire safety. From February 1 2022, an amendment to the statutory tolerable standard requires that all houses, regardless of tenure (or method of construction), must have satisfactory provision for detecting and giving warning of fire or suspected fire.

All new build houses, including non-traditional housing must comply with the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 which includes requirements for electrical and fire safety.

The mandatory tolerable standard and building regulations do not differentiate between traditional and non-traditional housing. Detailed guidance on compliance with the tolerable standard and building regulations is available on the Scottish Government website: Fire and smoke alarms: changes to the law - gov.scot (www.gov.scot);Fire safety guidance - gov.scot: Building standards technical handbook April 2024: domestic - gov.scot.

The mandatory Tolerable Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 and the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 do not differentiate between traditional and non-traditional housing. Detailed guidance on compliance with the Tolerable Standard and Building regulations is available on the Scottish Government website.

On 3 April I announced the intention to bring forward a revised Heat in Buildings Bill to set a new target for decarbonising heating systems by 2045 alongside continuing work to reduce fuel poverty.

With respect to the use of e-consultations and telephone triage, while the Scottish Government sets the strategic direction, it is for Health Boards to plan their services based on local need. What is most important is appointments are agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and clinical judgement. We continue to engage with stakeholders in support of service delivery.

Muirburn is currently guided by the Muirburn Code: https://www.nature.scot/doc/guidance-muirburn-code which is a non-statutory code and sets out both the law and good practice relating to muirburn.

Section 3.3 of the current Muirburn Code clearly states that the person undertaking muirburn must not burn within 30m of a public road; create smoke that is a nuisance; and endanger anyone’s health and/or safety.

Anyone with concerns that the law is not being complied with in regards to muirburn should contact Police Scotland.

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act 2024 introduced a provision to further regulate the use of muirburn including that all muirburn will need to be carried out under licence.

A condition of the licence will be that anyone carrying out muirburn must have completed a training course. In future this will include both an online and a practical course. Currently no training is required for carrying out muirburn in Scotland.

NatureScot are also currently consulting on a new Muirburn Code that will accompany the licensing scheme, which sets out the essential considerations for muirburn, including where and when muirburn can be carried out, the required notifications before setting muirburn and necessary safety measures. The muirburn licensing scheme and revised Muirburn Code are being introduced to help ensure that muirburn is carried out safely and appropriately.

I have asked Alison Byrne, Chief Executive of NRS to respond. Her response is the National Population Projections (NPPs) for Scotland are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of National Records of Scotland (NRS). They are based on assumptions about future levels of fertility, mortality and migration. The latest set are 2022-based and were published on 28 January. Projections are typically produced every 2 years.

The assumptions are developed by analysing trends in past and current data and taking into account advice from NPP Expert Advisory Panels, devolved administrations and, in the case of mortality assumptions, the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD).

The ONS produce a principal projection and a number of variant projections based on alternative assumptions. The information referred to below relates to the principal projection. Equivalent information for variant projections is also available from the ONS website.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is the average number of children that a group of women would expect to have if they experienced the observed age specific fertility rates in each of their childbearing years. Projected total fertility rates (TFR) can be found in Table 1 of the Scotland summary tables. Between 2025 and 2075 these are projected to vary between 1.26 and 1.29. This compares to a TFR of 1.30 in 2023.

The same table also provides figures for Expectation of Life at Birth (EOLB) which are based on assumed projected mortality rates. EOLB is projected to rise to 83.3 years for males and 86.6 years for females by 2075. The more detailed information on the projected mortality rates on which these are based can be found in the mortality assumptions sheet within the machine readable dataset.

Projected mortality rates are based on an assumed long-term rate of annual mortality improvement in 2047 of 1.1% for ages 0 to 90 years. Mortality rates are assumed to converge to this long-term level of improvement over the first 25 years of the projection.

Although Local Authorities, as the employers of teachers, hold the legal responsibility to provide appropriate health and wellbeing support which meets their employee’s needs, the Scottish Government understands the importance of providing additional, national support, for our teaching workforce.

Since October 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting the wellbeing of our education workforce.

In the last financial year, we invested over £120,000 in a free national wellbeing coaching program for all teaching staff and educational professionals in Scottish schools and early learning facilities aiming to address issues such as workplace stress.

We have also worked with the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland to consider how we can continue to support the wellbeing of teachers, nationally, through measures such as the sharing of best practice and resources across Local Authorities.

The Scottish Government has no powers to influence grid management in Scotland as legislation and regulations relating to gas and electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government. The independent system operator, National Energy System Operator (NESO), is responsible for strategic planning and the day-to-day operation to balance the supply and demand of the electricity network, working with all network companies across Great Britain.

Section 47 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 requires the Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish an environmental policy strategy. There is no deadline set in the Act for the publication of a strategy. The Scottish Government published the Environment Strategy Vision and Outcomes in 2021. Updates are in progress.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for. In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.