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Energy pricing and the powers to create local tariffs are reserved to the UK Government. However, we will continue to engage with BEIS about its Energy Price Guarantee review for April 2024 and the consideration of social tariffs for domestic consumers, especially for those in or at risk of fuel poverty.

The First Minister has also chaired two energy summits since August. These have discussed the impact of UK Government measures in response to the energy crisis and agreed that these should be more support targeted towards vulnerable households and businesses, including those living in rural communities.

I continue to discuss the Properties in Care, and their management, with Historic Environment Scotland. I can confirm that Historic Environment Scotland has been continuing to focus on managing the national High Level Masonry inspection programme, and undertaking repairs wherever possible.

We are consulting more broadly on a refreshed strategy for Scotland’s historic environment. This seeks to prioritise activity that supports economic recovery and renewal, focuses on creating a more resilient and sustainable historic environment, and helps to communicate the contribution that the historic environment makes to the nation.

The consultation will run until 20 February 2023 and is designed to gather views to make sure the strategy sets appropriate ambitions for the historic environment sector for the next 5 years. The consultation can be found at: https://haveyoursay.historicenvironment.scot/development-partnership/our-place-in-time-refresh-consultation/

I am advised by my officials in Transport Scotland that the finalisation of the Single Option is being revised by Network Rail to ensure alignment with wider improvements proposed for the Aberdeen-Central Belt route, including future electrification. I expect an update from Transport Scotland on this matter imminently.

The Scottish Government is committed to decarbonising Scotland’s passenger railway by 2035. In line with the Decarbonisation Action Plan, the intention is to decarbonise the Aberdeen to Central Belt route by 2030.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (the Act) sets a default position that no carbon credits purchased by Scottish Ministers can be used to meet any of Scotland’s statutory greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and the Scottish Government currently has no plans to change this by regulation using powers under the Act.

The Scottish Government does not hold all of this information. However, a question added to the Scottish Housing Condition Survey in 2016 to allow for more accurate fuel bill estimation means that we are able to provide figures from 2016 in the following table.

Due to enforced changes in response to Covid-19 restrictions the 2020 SHCS was not completed and it was not possible to collect this data as part of the 2021 SHCS. This data is being collected as part of the 2022 SHCS which we expect to publish in late 2023 / early 2024.

The member is right to focus on how we are driving sustainable, inclusive economic growth in Scotland by requiring grant recipients to pay at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective voice. This will take further the conditionality that we have already applied to £4bn of public funding since 2019.

As long as they act lawfully it is up to each council to manages day to day business, allocate resources. Scottish Ministers have no general powers to direct a council how to use its funding. Councils are best placed to determine how Fair Work conditionality can be applied to local priorities, with delivery monitored within their normal funding and contract management arrangements.

Although local government funding is provided through grant in aid rather than direct grant, and will not be subject to Bute House conditionality, the Scottish Government asks local government to build on the shared commitment made in June 2021 by local authority Chief Officers to adopting Fair Work First. As such, we have asked COSLA and local government to consider how the new real Living Wage and effective voice conditionality can be applied to grants they award, and take action to initiate this.

Ministers have engaged regularly with COSLA, setting out the Scottish Government’s expectation that councils, alongside the wider public sector, lead the way on Fair Work. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and Cabinet Secretary for Finance wrote to COSLA in September 2021 making clear that pay and effective voice are cornerstones of Fair Work. My officials have had regular discussions with COSLA representatives on Fair Work, and in November 2022, I met with COSLA’s resources spokesperson to discuss Fair Work and highlight this new conditionality. I also wrote to COSLA and local authority leaders on 9 December to outline the new conditionality measures being introduced to Fair Work First from July 2023, and and to reiterate the important role for the public sector in making Scotland a leading Fair Work nation.

The safety of patients and staff within our A&E Departments is paramount. This is why the Scottish Government is providing Boards facing the greatest challenges, including University Hospital Monklands and Forth Valley Royal Hospital, with enhanced support over the winter period. The level of delayed discharge is driving up A&E long waits, which is why we are working jointly with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to ensure people leave hospital without delay, freeing up vital beds for those who need them most.

Since the beginning of 2021, HIS has been carrying out COVID-19 focused inspections of acute hospitals, using methodology adapted from their previous ‘safe and clean’ inspections. As at November 2022, HIS have carried out nine Safe Delivery of Care acute hospital inspections.

Through our £600 million winter plan we are recruiting 1,000 new NHS staff. Additionally our £50 million Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative looks to drive down A&E waits by improving the systems and processes to deliver better communications and robust escalation. This approach also aims to reduce unnecessary attendances through redesign of urgent care which signposts people to more appropriate care, avoiding admission where possible through Hospital at Home and our Out-patient Antimicrobial Therapy service which allows patients to be treated at home or in the community, ensuring people are discharged as soon as fit and ready.

Our Right Care Right Place media campaign aims to help the public to better understand the healthcare services available to them so they can make more informed choices about the right care in the right place for their specific health care needs which is not always emergency care.

Beds data by NHS board and hospital are already published by Public Health Scotland. The most recent quarterly publication is ‘ Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Quarter ending 30 June 2022 ’, which was published on 29 November 2022. This is the latest available data that can be released as we are now within 12 weeks of the next scheduled publication in February 2023.

The beds data can be found on the Data files page by scrolling down to the heading “Hospital beds to June 2022”, where there is a link to the following Excel file:

• Beds by NHS board of treatment and specialty (csv | 4.5Mb).

This is quarterly data for the five year period up to and including April – June 2022.

Below is an excerpt from this file that contains the latest values for Highland hospitals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12950 on 21 December 2022. 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
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