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From 25 June 2023, all elements of the Caledonian Sleeper operations undertaken by Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd will be delivered by Caledonian Sleeper Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd . Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd is a company wholly owned by the Scottish Government

It will be a matter for Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd and Caledonian Sleeper Ltd to determine the optimum arrangements post mobilisation of the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) arrangements.

In September 2020, ClimateXChange published a study titled “Potential sources of waste heat for heat networks in Scotland”. The report examined a variety of potential waste heat sources, including data centres.

The study identified nine commercial data centres located in Scotland, but recognised the actual number is likely to be much higher. In addition, some commercial data centres are likely to be kept confidential for security reasons. It concluded that the total waste heat that can be recovered from data centres is therefore likely to have been underestimated in the study.

The study can be accessed at the following address:

https://www.climatexchange.org.uk/research/projects/potential-sources-of-waste-heat-for-heat-networks-in-scotland/?msclkid=42fdd948b3fe11ecbd09640b7d2a6cc2

The Scottish Government has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

As an employer we adopt Fair Work practices and we take the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff very seriously including ensuring appropriate breaks and periods of rest and annual leave, as well as having a right to disconnect policy.

The typical working arrangements for staff in the Scottish Government is flexible working hours (within the hours of 7am to 7pm) with a full time working day equating to 7 hours 24 minutes.

Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd has significant existing contracts with a number of suppliers and it will be a matter for Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd and Caledonian Sleeper Ltd to determine the optimum arrangements and value realised from those contracts post mobilisation of the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) arrangements.

The Scottish Government understand the challenging financial circumstances that leisure centres and swimming pools are facing and are fully aware that rising energy costs are a significant issue.

We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to use all the powers at its disposal to tackle this cost of living crisis and to provide appropriate energy bill relief to sport and leisure facilities.

We are considering what support can be provided to the sport and leisure sector in Scotland, following the announcement by the UK Government of the financial package to support swimming pools in England.

More than 670 businesses have registered so far, representing 95% of products sold in Scotland.

The number of companies in the drinks industry inevitably changes over time and, at the outset of developing a deposit return scheme, approximately 4,500 companies were estimated to have an interest in the scheme.

However, significantly less would have to register – for example, once groups of companies registering under one registration are identified, the number of individual producers/importers is likely to be below 2,000.

The Scottish Government has committed to designating at least one new National Park in Scotland during this parliamentary session provided relevant legal conditions can be met. In the Spring we will publish a draft evaluation framework with proposed selection criteria before opening the nominations process for new National Parks later this year.

We are aware of several areas which are interested in National Park status, including some which have well established campaigns. Through the nominations process, we will ask interested parties to register their interest and submit a nomination. We intend to make support available to local groups and organisations wishing to submit a nomination, for example to help arrange and host local discussions and workshops.

All proposals for New National Parks that are received will be assessed against the criteria set out in the evaluation framework and a report will be prepared. A panel of experts will then review the evaluation report and will provide advice to Scottish Ministers on which nomination or nominations should be considered for National Park designation. In theory it would be possible for the panel to recommend that overlapping or contiguous areas are considered.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that Scottish Government has today published its improvement plan for air quality.

The improvement plan confirms that the Scottish Government welcomes and accepts all six of ESS’s recommendations.

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805256229

As at Friday 24 March, Social Security Scotland had concluded the final processing of client data and expect all automatic payments to be made by 31 March.

This means that throughout February and March almost 400,000 low income households will have automatically received £50 financial support towards their energy bills for this winter.

In line with our policy, every eligible household in Scotland will have received reliable support, regardless of the weather or where they live. At a time when energy bills are increasing, this investment of over £20 million will have provided an important financial contribution to many low income households, including those with disabled people, young children and older people, many of whom would not have received a £25 Cold Weather Payment in previous years.

Even though there is no statutory requirement to do so, I have already made the decision to uprate Winter Heating Payment in April 2023 by 10.1%, to £55.05, recognising the difficulties people are facing and will be facing going forward.

There are a very small number of payments requiring manual intervention prior to being processed, for example where we are awaiting further information from the eligible person, and Social Security Scotland is taking all measures to ensure that those final payments are made as soon as possible.

A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on
‎ 6 June 2023 and then on an annual basis in future. These will be available on Social Security Scotland’s statistics publication page at:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

The 20% Reduction in Car Km Route Map published on 13 January 2022, outlines the approach to meeting this commitment. Following a post-publication public consultation on the draft route map, Transport Scotland is currently working with local authority partners to prepare a final version of the route map for publication in the coming months.

The Scottish Government also publishes annual National Transport Strategy Delivery Plans which set out the actions being taken across the Scottish Government, including on the route map, to deliver on our transport vision, priorities and outcomes.

I further refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15653 on 21 March 2023. 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