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Over the last five years the Scottish Government has spent £4,122,329 on public outdoor digital advertising in Scotland with public health campaigns and Covid-19 activity utilising the majority of this space. There has been a total of 181 weeks of advertising over the last five years, which are broken down as follows across the category of campaign:

Category - Number of Weeks Advertising is Active - Total Spend

Brand Scotland – 3 - £30,515

COP26 - 2.5 - £388,000

COP26 Travel - 2.5 - £79,289

Greener/Net Zero – 9 - £271,200

Health including Covid-19 – 112 - £2,996,724

Parental Support - 2 - £9,900

Safer including Road Safety – 33 - £250,622

Economy/Financial Support – 17 - £165,153

These figures do not include occasions when the Scottish Government has been offered the use of outdoor advertising space at no cost. For example, during the Coronavirus pandemic the Scottish Government has provided advertising materials to football clubs to be used on their pitch side advertising to support the promotion of important public health messages.

Outdoor advertising plays a pivotal role in ensuring that key public information can be effectively communicated to people in Scotland, especially when run in collaboration with other media such as television, digital and radio. Outdoor advertising can support the delivery of communications that need to target specific geographical locations. Digital outdoor advertising has the benefit over non-digital sites in that creative can have more visual impact than static poster sites, especially during non-daylight hours. There is also reduced lead time for production, which means messaging can be quickly updated or removed when required.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy confirms our intention to introduce – subject to consultation later this year – regulations requiring Scotland’s homes and other buildings to meet EPC Band C equivalent by 2033, where that is technically feasible and cost effective. This key proposal from the Heat in Buildings Strategy aligns with our commitment in Tackling Fuel Poverty Strategy in Scotland: Strategic Approach, of addressing poor energy efficiency and fuel poverty in homes.

We have previously consulted in December 2019 on proposals for introducing minimum energy efficiency standards in owner occupied housing, which included potential options for defining cost effectiveness and technical feasibility. We are further developing these definitions ahead of the planned consultation later this year.

Parties involved in planning cases are expected to meet their own costs. The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government will meet the costs of the reporter and administrative staff; advertisement of the case and the cost of the inquiry venue if necessary; and the general administrative costs of the case. DPEA deal with a wide range of casework and reporters and administrative staff normally deal with a number of different case types at the same time. The cost of an individual case can vary depending on a number of factors including the complexity of the case and whether an inquiry is necessary. DPEA do not record the cost of dealing with wind farm appeals or Section 36 wind farm applications.

The Core Scottish Government has 18 owned buildings. Solar panels are installed at 4 buildings; Victoria Quay Edinburgh, Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) Edinburgh, St Andrews House Edinburgh and Cameron House Oban. 22% of owned buildings have solar panels.

It has not been possible to install solar panels on all owned buildings due to the availability of useable roof space, roof orientation and shading, roof structure and other technical constraints.

NatureScot’s budget allocation for 2022-23 is £49.561 million. This year’s budget settlement represents the best possible outcome against the backdrop of significant pressures on public finances and the level of resources required to deliver statutory functions and agreed Ministerial environmental priorities across 2022-23. The Scottish Government are in dialogue with NatureScot on the specific priorities to be reflected in their forthcoming 2022-23 Operational Plan and next 5 year Corporate Plan. Both these documents are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2022.

Incidents of hate crime on public transport will be recorded by either Police Scotland or, if they occur on the railways (on trains or at stations), the British Transport Police.

Table 1 presents information provided by the British Transport Police on hate crime offences recorded in Scotland, by type of hate category, since 2017-18. The 2021-22 reporting year is partially complete as it will run up to the end of March 2022. The total number of crimes recorded each year is less than the summation of the separate hate categories, as some crimes include more than one type of prejudice.

Information is not held centrally on the number of hate crimes recorded in other public transport settings. Some analysis is available from a study into the characteristics of police recorded Hate Crime , published by the Scottish Government in February 2021. This report was based on a review of just over one-third of all hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19, and findings were presented separately depending on whether the victim was a police officer in the line of duty. For those cases that didn’t involve a police officer as the victim (estimated to be 4,620), table 2 below shows the percentage that occurred on public transport (both on the mode of transport and at stations/stops). This information is also available in Table 11 of the report, which breaks down hate crimes by types of location. The equivalent data on public transport-based hate crimes with police officers as victims cannot be estimated due to the very low number found within the study.

A second study into the characteristics of hate crime recorded by Police Scotland is due to be published later this year. This will provide the same type of disaggregated data and information for the year 2020-21.

Table 1: The number of hate crime offences recorded on railway Network in Scotland by crime, 2017-18 to 2021-22 a

The following table gives spend to date for the 30 local authorities who have received Spaces for People funding; other statutory bodies have also received funding.

Many local authorities have yet to claim their full agreed grant. We do not have details of the split between installation and removal of schemes; this information is held at local authority level.

These projects are all being funded from the Scottish Government’s £254 million investment in the North East, which is in addition to the £125 million committed to the Aberdeen City Region Deal in 2016.

Option selection for rail improvements, towards which £200 million has been allocated, is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2022.

Following the publication of Draft Orders, Transport Scotland is currently dealing with objections to the Laurencekirk junction, towards which £24 million has been allocated.

Digital projects, towards which £10 million has been allocated, are progressing as expected. The City Network Extension project, connecting 57 Aberdeen City corporate sites to full fibre was completed in November 2021. The full fibre project in Aberdeenshire is due to be completed by the end of March 2022.

To date, no eligible projects have been submitted for housing infrastructure projects, towards which £20 million has been allocated. Scottish Government officials have been in discussions with officials from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils to identify suitable projects following the launch of the Housing Infrastructure Fund (Round 2) in October 2021.

We expect the consultation on proposals for introducing regulations on minimum standards of energy efficiency for private housing will take place during 2022. I will work closely with officials to ensure an optimum and effective launch date.

In line with consultation best practice, the duration of the consultation period will last for a minimum of 12 weeks, and may possibly run longer depending on the launch date to ensure a strong response. Details on timelines for the analysis and results of the consultation will be provided in due course.

The Scottish Government is committed to working closely with all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities to address the climate emergency. Scottish Ministers frequently meet with local authorities to discuss a wide variety of topics encompassing the climate emergency: such as Programme for Government; budgetary matters; a just transition; and biodiversity. It is therefore not possible to give an exact number on how many ministerial meetings since April 2019 contained discussions of local authorities climate emergency planning.

In addition, Climate Change Officials meet with COSLA on a regular basis to discuss a range of shared interests related to the climate emergency. Cabinet Secretary NETZET is due to meet representatives of Dundee City Council and Highland Council to discuss plans to respond to the climate emergency in the coming weeks.