Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30309 on 28 October 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

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS have no specific evidence as to why the use of steroids is reportedly increasing within prisons. However, in collaboration with our Partners at Dundee University, the regular re-calibration of Rapiscan machines does support our ability to identify new substances.

We recognise the profound impact that illicit articles entering our prisons and acknowledge the continued need to support to those in our care who misuse substances and those who are on their recovery journey.

There is no set timescale for ministerial decisions on energy consents. The consideration to be undertaken by ministers before reaching a determination will depend on the particulars of each application.

The Chief Entrepreneur has been fundamental to the development of some of our most ambitious economic policies, including but not limited to: the building of a new policy agenda embodied by the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review; the Entrepreneurial Campus Blueprint report to enhance the economic impact of our universities and colleges, and promote the teaching of Computer Science in schools; the Pathways report to increase women’s participation in entrepreneurship; and the delivery of Techscaler, a programme central to our ambitions to create one of the finest state-funded entrepreneurial systems in the world dedicated to the creation of high-growth businesses.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund (SHNZHF) launched in August 2020 and provides capital funding to social landlords to retrofit their existing housing stock by installing clean heat and improving their energy efficiency. Projects are eligible for up to 60% of the capital costs of clean heating systems and 50% of energy efficiency measures.

This year the SHNZHF is investing approximately £16.8m in 19 projects. To date, the fund has awarded approximately £75.3 million to 80 projects across Scotland for the installation of net zero measures to existing social rented homes.

The date set for the next funding checkpoint of the SHNZHF has not yet been set. When set it will be communicated to stakeholders through the fund website and stakeholder channels.

Social Landlords interested in developing heat networks can also access Scotland’s Heat Network Fund which makes capital funding available for the construction of new heat networks in addition to the decarbonisation and expansion of existing heat networks.

Our Area Based Schemes target areas with high levels of fuel poverty and enable improvements projects to go ahead in mixed tenure blocks benefiting some social tenants. Since 2013 we have invested over £600 million in area based schemes. This has helped around 40,000 social tenants and their neighbours to benefit from net zero measures and warmer homes that are less expensive to heat.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) makes funding available through two main strands: the competitive strand administered by NatureScot, and the Edinburgh Process strand, which provides direct allocations to Local Authorities and National Parks.

In total, to date, 220 projects have been offered funding from the competitive strand of the NRF, including 28 NRF-funded Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF) projects. This represents a total of £33,366,872 in committed funding.

The following table sets out by local authority area the 183 projects awarded competitive funding to the end of March 2024, the period for which data is currently available. We do not hold information about the amounts of funding offered in this format and this does not include the NRF-funded SMEEF projects referred to above.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting a cross-sector portfolio of projects ranging across sectors like energy, agriculture, digital innovation and construction while also supporting communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

Public Health Scotland's (PHS) independent evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol estimated that our world-leading policy reduced wholly alcohol-attributable deaths by 13.4% and was likely to have reduced hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol by 4.1%.

There was strong and consistent evidence of a reduction in alcohol consumption following MUP implementation, and that the reduction in consumption was driven by the heaviest purchasing households, leading to the conclusion that MUP was well targeted. As MUP was estimated to have resulted in a decrease in alcohol-attributable deaths and hospital admissions related to chronic conditions, the evaluation took this as further evidence to suggest that MUP has reduced consumption in those that drink at hazardous and harmful levels.

Overall, the evidence supports that MUP has had a positive impact on health outcomes, including alcohol-related health inequalities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30309 on 28 October 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30309 on 28 October 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