Chamber and committees

Scotland’s Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in October 2021, outlines our ambitious programme that reflects the scale and the size of the challenge to reduce emissions from our buildings. Our commitment to allocate £1.8bn over this parliament is helping kick-start growth in the market and support those least able to pay.

Of the £1.8bn commitment made in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, over £1.3bn has been allocated to date, of which, over £575m has been spent to the end of September 2024.

Any further budget allocations will be set out in the Scottish Government draft budget, which will be published on 4 December.

The Scottish Government has committed to full implementation of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards 1-10 in community and justice settings by April 2025, and for this implementation to be sustained by April 2026.

The implementation of the MAT standards is being supported and monitored by Public Health Scotland, who publish an annual benchmarking report each June. And the requirement for quarterly progress update reports to SG from local areas, against their Implementation Plan, is continuing.

When considering any application for a proposed gas-fired power plant application, Scottish Ministers’ consideration of emissions would be considered within the accompanying environmental impact assessments (EIA), which would be carried out on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the relevant EIA regulations.

Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) makes clear our opposition to the continued use of unabated fossil fuels to generate electricity.

The nature of the relationship between the Acorn Project and other members of the Scottish Cluster is a matter for the UK Government to determine as part of the cluster sequencing programme. This includes when, and which, emitter projects (which may include gas-fired power plants) are selected. We urgently need a firm commitment from the UK Government on the timeline and funding arrangements for the Acorn project and stand ready to work constructively with the UK Government to ensure the fastest possible deployment.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers. As part of this work part time, distance learning and earn as you learn models of education, which may benefit rural and island areas, are currently being explored by the Allied Health Professions (AHP) advisory group that oversees the implementation of the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review recommendations.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is developing a model of sustained ongoing direct support for employers across health, social care, social work and children’s services in rural and island areas to overcome barriers to recruitment and retention The direct support model will consist of three key elements including a Rural and Island Recruitment Forum, a Living Library and a Recruitment Toolkit.

The 2018 GP contract included a programme of service redesign to ensure that arrangements for GP services better met the needs of the whole system and the needs of communities; it makes no new requirements of remote and rural GP practices. The 2018 GP contract is intended to reduce current risks to practice stability and sustainability by addressing some of the key risk factors relating to rising workload, premises and employment of staff. This in turn intended to make the partnership model more attractive to newer generations of GPs.

The Scottish Government established the Remote & Rural Working Group chaired by Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie in response to the concerns of rural GPs about the 2018 contract. The group produced the Shaping the Future Together report in January 2020 and various actions were undertaken as a result.

The first cohort of 52 ScotGEM students graduated in summer 2022 after completing the four year course. Of these, 45 undertook Foundation training in Scotland with 42 completing their required foundation year 2 (FY2) in August 2024; a small number opted to go less than full time. Of those 42 individuals, 10 have chosen GP training and have taken up GPST 1 posts in Scotland, with two of these in the North which contains the areas denoted by the question, as follows:

a) Highland - 2 trainees

b) Western Isle – 0 trainees

c) Orkney – 0 trainees

d) Shetland – 0 trainees

e) Grampian – 0 trainees

Scotland has the resources, skilled workforce, and ambition to become a leading hydrogen nation and developing this sector will create international trade opportunities in terms of our hydrogen production and across the supply chain.

That is why an export plan aimed at realising Scotland’s hydrogen potential as a leading net exporter of hydrogen will be published on 29 November 2024.

The plan will set out how Scotland will realise the international opportunities presented by the development of the Hydrogen sector and will outline the immediate international export opportunities and strategic actions needed to support Scottish businesses.

Achieving this goal presents a great opportunity to combine the efforts of a range of partners. I look forward to continuing to work with them as we take forward delivery of the plan and realise Scotland’s hydrogen future.

Number of businesses which have received correspondence requesting corrections to underpayments as part of (a) control test inspections and (b) inspections as a result of a complaint from employees, in each of the last five years:

This is an operational matter for Skills Development Scotland. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, Damien Yeates to write to you outlining these costs.