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All buildings owned by the Scottish Government use electricity supplied via a REGO tariff (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin).

6 buildings have solar PV which contributes approximately 5% of each building’s electricity use. 1 building has an air source heat pump which provides 100% of the buildings heating requirements.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes a register of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) submitted to the Scottish Ministers for confirmation since 2012: https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-order-register/. The current register, published in December, includes CPOs received up to the end of October 2024.

The register includes information on when a CPO is submitted, who the acquiring authority (i.e. body with compulsory purchase powers) is, the date of the Scottish Ministers’ decision on confirmation, a description of the project, the location, including local authority area, the type of CPO (for example, for Planning, Housing, Energy or Transport purposes) and legislation under which it was made.

CPOs are recorded in the register by local authority area. In the five years to 31 October 2024, the top four such areas for CPOs confirmed or confirmed with modifications were:

• Glasgow City 27 (Housing 25 and Planning 2)
• Highland 6 (Transport 5 and Environment (Water) 1)
• Perth and Kinross 5 (Transport 4 and Planning 1)
• Falkirk 5 (Transport 4 and Energy (Gas) 1)

6% of buildings owned by the Scottish Government meet an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or B.

Feasibility studies have been conducted to look at options to improve the lower performing buildings.

Policy development was taken forward to determine which courses were available. It was concluded that, due to a number of factors, that it would not be taken further, not least due to the inhibitions of the current devolution settlement.

We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

With regards to the average wait times across all boards compared with waiting times in rural areas such as Aberdeenshire, this information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Grampian directly for information.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Operational decisions on matters such as this are for Police Scotland with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority. You may wish to contact them directly.

Teams within General Practice, local community pharmacies and optometry practices frequently work together to support their patients. Other primary care providers can and do refer patients to community optometry services. Community optometry is the accepted first point of contact for any eye related issues.

As well as a sight test, a routine NHS eye examination in Scotland provides a comprehensive eye health assessment, tailored to meet the needs of the patient. This helps with early detection of a range of sight-threatening conditions and some general medical conditions.

Where the optometrist suspects the patient has a sight-threatening condition, where clinically appropriate they will refer the patient to the hospital eye services. Data on such referrals can be found in the Public Health Scotland report referred to in answer to question S6W-33638 on 27 January 2025.

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

All referrals to the hospital eye service from community optometry are electronic and enable the attachment of retinal images and other examination results to aid the triaging of the patients. In addition, since the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government has facilitated the use of technology to support remote consultations under General Ophthalmic Services which is likely to be of particular benefit to patients living in rural areas. The cloud-based national Electronic Patient Record is also being used by community optometrists providing the Community Glaucoma Service - an important technological initiative supporting safe and high quality care.