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ChargePlace Scotland’s charging assets are owned by over 400 separate organisations across the public, private and third sectors and therefore are not all in public ownership. These organisations are responsible for procurement, maintenance and commercial decisions relating to their own charge point assets.

ChargePlace Scotland is a charge point management service paid for by the Scottish Government under a Framework Agreement to provide back-office, frontline call-handling and fault management functions on behalf of the charge point owners. The current contract to operate the back-office service runs until at least 2025.

On 20 June 2023 the Scottish Government’s vision for the future of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network was published. This new vision places people and businesses first and outlines the accessible, affordable and reliable public network required for the future.

Our vision emphasises the need to attract greater private investment to deliver infrastructure at scale and pace across the whole of Scotland, as the public sector cannot deliver this alone. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment may be less viable, such as in our rural and island areas.

Through our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund we are supporting Local Authorities to develop public electric vehicle charging strategies and expansion plans, encompassing their urban, rural and island areas.

The Scottish Government has undertaken an Island Communities Impact Assessment for the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill. The findings from our assessment are published in the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: island communities impact assessment on 25 May 2023.

Yes, the Scottish Government has received complaints and concerns regarding private first aid companies operating at events. Where appropriate, officials have followed this up with relevant organisations.

Scottish Government officials are currently undertaking further work and engagement with stakeholders to scope the potential extent of issues raised by unregulated private first aid companies and consider the most appropriate and proportionate next steps.

Transport Scotland’s joint report with Scottish Futures Trust published in July 2021 highlighted the opportunities to leverage the investment, skills and resources of the private sector to grow Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network at the scale and pace required. This report also recognised the opportunities for partnership working between Scotland’s local authorities and private charge point operators, as well as the potential for existing ChargePlace Scotland assets to form part of future partnering arrangements.

Through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, Transport Scotland is supporting local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and infrastructure expansion plans, to identify and take forward the opportunities to work with the private sector to grow Scotland’s public charging network.

There is an established and growing number of well-capitalised private charge point operators across the UK. Transport Scotland’s joint report published with Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021 indicated that investment costs in growing Scotland’s public charging network could reach £100 million per annum by 2030. It is encouraging, therefore, to hear the recent pledge from industry body Charge UK that its members will invest £6 billion in public charging infrastructure across the UK by 2030. Our focus is on encouraging that investment to spread across all of Scotland. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment is less viable.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance which sets out steps an employer should take to ensure the training their first aiders receive is adequate and appropriate.

The recommendations outlined in Volume 1 of the Manchester Arena Inquiry falls to the UK Government for consideration as this is a reserved matter. The UK Government have published a draft Bill – The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) (previously referred to as Martyn’s law) for pre-legislative scrutiny on 2 nd May, ahead of a full Bill being introduced to UK Parliament in the next UK parliamentary session.

Scottish Government is working closely with the UK Government in the development and progression of this Bill, which aims to enhance public safety at Publicly Accessible Locations and Events across the UK, including Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not prescribe approaches to items of practice on matters such as providing homework to children and young people.

In April 2023, Education Scotland published an update on ‘Engaging Parents and Families: A toolkit for practitioners’, which is available on the National Improvement Hub along with case study examples of learning at home. This resource, which includes a short review of the evidence surrounding homework, also provides schools and practitioners with good practice examples of effective approaches to learning at home.

Accordingly, decisions on providing homework are a matter of broader policy and approach that schools and headteachers are empowered to make decisions on. This is in line with other such decisions that headteachers make at a local level on learning and teaching practice, including the curriculum design, the vision, aims and rationale of the school or setting.

Hydrogen will be a key part of the net zero journey. Complementary alongside electricity, hydrogen will potentially play a role in heating some homes and buildings, this role depends upon strategic decisions by the UK Government and we continue to urge the UK Government to accelerate decisions on the role of 100% hydrogen in the gas grid. These decisions will be supported by testing and demonstration.

The Scottish Government has helped fund a number of key hydrogen demonstration projects over the past few years. These investments have been critical in gaining an understanding of hydrogen production and hydrogen system integration into wider energy systems. Projects such as SGN’s H100 Fife project, with aims to fit 100% hydrogen boilers into 300 homes in Leven, will help to understand the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network and the Kirkwall Airport project, which demonstrates the potential for a renewable hydrogen combustion engine to support the decarbonisation of the Highlands and Islands Airport Limited (HIAL) locations.

The Scottish Government has an ambition of at least 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 and 25GW by 2025. The Hydrogen Policy Statement (2020) and the Hydrogen Action Plan (2022) set out how we will work collaboratively with the energy sector to drive progress over the course of this Parliament.

The Hydrogen Action Plan is supported by a programme of capital funding, designed to accelerate and maximise the production of renewable hydrogen in Scotland.

Funding to date includes:

• over £7m in grants offered via the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme to 32 projects that will drive innovation in renewable hydrogen production, storage, and distribution;
• over £6m awarded via the Just Transition Fund to HydroGlen, a green hydrogen farming pilot;
• and £15m awarded via the Energy Transition Fund to accelerate Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub.

The next tranche of the hydrogen investment programme, the Green Hydrogen Fund, will launch later this year. This fund will focus on supporting renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources, seeking to give Scotland first-mover advantage.

The Scottish Government is fully aware of the impact that high energy prices are having upon many Scottish consumers. We estimate that from July to September 2023 there will be around 850,000 fuel poor households in Scotland which equates to 34% of all households.

While energy markets policy remain reserved to the UK Government, there are severe limits on the actions that we can take to help those facing the most serious impacts. However, we are taking measures where we can.

For example, we have tripled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30 million for this year and replaced DWP’s Cold Weather Payment with our new Winter Heating Payment, which will help around 400,000 low-income individuals.

I will also be chairing three working groups over the summer to discuss the impact of high energy prices on Scottish energy consumers. These will focus on the challenges facing those living in vulnerable circumstances, in the more rural areas of Scotland, and non-domestic consumers. The groups will identify collaborative action that we and our partners can continue to take, as well as maintaining a consensus on those areas where the UK Government must bring its reserved powers to bear.

I recently met the UK Government Minister for Energy Consumers and Affordability and repeated our call for further action to support and protect those who have been most affected by the ending of the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

The fact that the energy price cap from July to September is lower than the Energy Price Guarantee means that the UK Government now has greater scope to support those most in need. This includes introducing a much needed social tariff for vulnerable consumers, which should be funded through taxing significant windfall gains rather than passing the cost on to taxpayers.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-19074 on 23 June 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 .