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The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have given their reassurances that given the other fire safety measures and fire safety management systems in place at the hospital, they are confident the building remains fire-safe, and poses no risk to patients and staff, however the decision was taken to replace the panels to provide extra reassurance to the public, patients and staff.

On 8 February 2018, the Director of Health Finance at Scottish Government confirmed with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that Scottish Government will provide the funding to replace the affected panels, with an estimated cost of ‎£6 million.

We do not hold the requested information centrally. Certain applications which were considered to be a significant departure were notified to Ministers as described below.

Prior to 2007 the notification categories were quite extensive and there were around 20 different triggers for notification. These covered applications such as development: on agricultural land; affecting trunk roads; affecting nature conservation; likely to result in loss of outdoor sports facilities; affecting a scheduled monument or category A listed building; involving wind generators etc as well as contrary to approved structure and local plans.

Category 8 Development contrary to approved structure and local plans

(a) Any development which the planning authority considers to be a significant departure from a structure plan approved by the Secretary of State under section7(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972.

(b) Any development which the planning authority considers to be a significant departure from the provisions of a local plan approved by the Secretary of State under section 12(4) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972.

For administrative purposes informal records were kept on the number of applications notified to Scottish Ministers under category 8. These are shown in the following table, however these are incomplete and we cannot separate applications relating to development or structure plan.

2000 – 24

2001 – 15

2002 – 20

2003 – 21

2004 – 3

2005 – 7

2006 – 22

Since 2009 only those applications in which authorities had an interest and that were significantly contrary to the development plan have been required to be notified to Scottish Ministers.

We do however hold some figures on the number of approvals made by planning authorities which were considered to be departures from the development plan within the period requested but not referred to Scottish Ministers. These are shown in the table below, later years can be found at the following link http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2008/01/31114430/1 .

As promoters of the scheme for a new rail station for Plains, North Lanarkshire Council instructed consultants SWECO to undertake an appraisal in line with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG). North Lanarkshire Council recommendation was to take forward more detailed work on options for a Bus Statutory Quality Partnership and not to progress a railway option.

We understand that North Lanarkshire Council met Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, during the week 23 April, to discuss progression of the Bus recommendation.

The equity loan pilot was initially due to run until the end of June 2018, with an option to extend the pilot to March 2019. Evaluation of the pilot will be prepared and published between December 2018 and January 2019.

Current data to the end of March 2018 on the pilot scheme is as follows: Total requests for application forms 288, Completed application forms returned 44 of these 13 loans have been offered and the remaining 31 applications are progressing through applicant’s solicitors prior to loan offers being made. The average equity loan value is £13,000 per property.

While the energy efficiency element includes a range of repair measures which contribute to energy efficiency, consideration will be given to providing funding for repairs which do not include an energy efficiency element as part of the evaluation of the pilot. To date only two enquiries at referral stage have been looking for repair and maintenance work only. It is also worth noting that as part of the initial referral applicants are given advice on all means of assistance from Care and Repair and the Home Energy Scotland network.

The refreshed housing strategy for older people is due to be published during this Parliamentary term, subject to receiving agreement from COSLA for its joint publication.

The mid-point review of Age, Home and Community: A Strategy for Housing for Scotland's Older People: 2012 – 21, which supports the review of this strategy, was published in October 2017.

A review of U-values assigned to stone construction within the EPC process remains under consideration. Information on action taken on this topic will be published as part of broader reporting under Scotland's Energy Efficiency Programme.

Policy 7 of the Land Use Strategy for Scotland 2016-2021 encourages the establishment of regional land use partnerships. Successful pilot projects have been carried out in Aberdeen and the Scottish Borders, however no full regional land use partnerships have been established yet as we are considering further development work in this area of policy which could be carried out.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government carried out a full policy review of the Home Report after five years of operation, which found that on the whole the reports were working well.

The review also recommended areas for improvement. The Scottish Government is considering how best to take forward work to respond to these recommendations, within the wider context of the development of Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme.