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The Scottish Government has committed to introduce a Register of Buildings by the end of this Parliament. The Register of Buildings will hold information on buildings that have been assessed though the Cladding Remediation Programme. Single Building Assessment reports and remediation activity will define the information that needs to be held in the Register. As this work progresses we are developing the information base for the Register.

The data used was the last full year of data prior to modelling, wherever possible. This was not always available and, in those circumstances, Zero Waste Scotland agreed with the Local Authority the most appropriate data to be used. The model was then handed over to the Local Authority, allowing updates to be made if more appropriate or recent data became available.

Ministers have not yet had an opportunity to visit any independent schools this parliamentary session, although a visit that I had to postpone due to parliamentary business will be re-scheduled shortly.

The Scottish Government is currently working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify a workplan for the next phase of the Transforming Roles Programme. This involves agreeing priority actions and implementing outstanding recommendations from the ‘Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland’ publication.

At a time of significant system pressure, this priority setting is to be undertaken as part of wider considerations in collaboration with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group in­ Spring 2023.

The Scottish Government expects duty holders, including local authorities and the NHS, to deliver a safe environment for all users including the building types in question. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 requires that duty holders carry out a fire safety risk assessment of relevant premises to identify any risks to the safety of persons caused by fire, including the risk posed by combustible cladding.

The ban of combustible cladding that came into force on 1 June 2022 through the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 applies to new buildings, conversions and to existing buildings where the external wall cladding system is being replaced. The regulations do not apply retrospectively to existing buildings.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14269 on 7 February 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 .

The Scottish Government discussed with Architecture and Design Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023. There was no significant impact on its business.

Architecture and Design Scotland staff are not civil servants, however their pay and conditions are analogous with Scottish Government civil servants.

The Climate Action Towns project commenced in September 2021. The number of Architecture and Design Scotland staff working on the Climate Action Towns project is as follows:

Since joining the Scotland + Venice project in 2016, Architecture and Design Scotland has supported the commissioning and work of external curatorial teams. These teams develop and deliver the project including engagement with communities. Architecture and Design Scotland do not generally engage directly with cities, towns and villages as part of the project.

As part of the 2020 Scotland + Venice work, Architecture and Design Scotland staff members supported the delivery of a workshop in Elgin.

The draft budget for rail passenger services for (a) 2023-24 is £458 million, as published in December and remains subject to the Parliamentary approval process.

The following table sets out (b) budget against expenditure and explanations for variances that are included in the published outturn statements within the Scottish Government consolidated accounts each year.