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This information is not held centrally; it is a matter for the individual territorial and national Health Boards that make up NHS Scotland.

Our New Build Heat Standard will apply to all new buildings seeking building warrant approval from 1 April 2024, as well as major conversions of existing buildings where certain criteria are met. The criteria will be outlined in due course, drawing from the consultations we have hosted on the New Build Heat Standard.

The Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland (HES) grants offers funding for homeowners and self-builders across Scotland to invest in energy efficiency improvements, zero emissions heating, micro-renewables and battery storage.

The Scottish Government currently provides significant support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through Business Energy Scotland (BES). BES can provide advice on installation of energy efficient and low carbon technologies including zero-direct emissions heating systems for businesses who are off the gas grid.

BES is also responsible for signposting businesses to the SME Loan and Cashback Scheme and for producing the assessment reports that are a prerequisite for application.

The successor to the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme will launch on 3 July 2023 and will last for a minimum of 5 years. It will provide eligible homeowners with access to a fully supported scheme from survey to installation to service visit, it will follow the PAS 2035 process and deliver whole house retrofit of heating and energy efficiency measures. Some design elements of the scheme are still being agreed, however it will take a zero emissions heating first approach to the measures offered to households.

Off-gas-grid homeowners and businesses may also be suitable for heat networks or communal heating systems. The £300 million Scotland’s Heat Network Fund offers capital grant funding for the rollout of new zero emission heat networks and communal heating systems, as well as the expansion and decarbonisation of existing heat networks across Scotland. The Fund will support both networks suited to urban environments as well as small, rural and community-led projects.

This September we launched the Heat Network Support Unit. Working primarily with public sector organisations, the Unit offers advice and grant funding for pre-capital stages of heat network projects.

The statement that Scotland has over 40GW of potential offshore wind developments in the pipeline, subject to planning and consenting decisions, and finding a route to market, does not include (a) currently operational offshore wind projects and does include (b) estimated capacity for potential Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonisation (INTOG) leasing round offshore wind developments.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS is committed to continuous development of its employees to provide high-quality services through a skilled workforce and to meet its strategic goals. As part of this commitment, SPS aims to develop new recruits through the Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks provided by Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

The following table shows the actual number of apprenticeships being started in the SPS each year since 2016.

A national marketing campaign for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was launched in autumn 2022. This has helped to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme and encouraged more young people to apply. PR and marketing activity was also undertaken during COP26 between October and December 2021 to promote the scheme ahead of its launch.

The following table provides the spend as at 15 November 2022 (inclusive of VAT where applicable) for the two campaigns.

In addition, stakeholder communications to over 300 public, transport, private and third sector organisations has been undertaken throughout 2022 at no additional cost.

Ayr Station Hotel is owned by an absentee landlord who has remained unresponsive to any approach regarding the future of the Station Hotel building. Network Rail’s sole responsibility, due to the proximity of the railway to the hotel building and the rail infrastructure, is to ensure the safety of the rail infrastructure.

Transport Scotland continues to engage with ScotRail, Network Rail and South Ayrshire Council through the Ayr Station Strategic Governance Group, to review the long-term options for the Station Hotel building. The Group last met on 14 November 2022.

Transport Scotland has provided significant investment to this project including fully funding the erection of the scaffolding and encapsulation, and the ongoing maintenance costs up to March 2020. Transport Scotland continued to fund 50% of the ongoing maintenance costs from April 2020 until May 2022 and has also fully funded the feasibility study and subsequent options review.

The Ayr Station Strategic Governance Group continues to lead the preparation and publication of the Ayr Station Hotel Option Review under the leadership of South Ayrshire Council. I met with the Leader of and Chief Executive South Ayrshire Council in May 2022.

I had expected this report would have been published by the new administration before now. I am advised that it is now expected to be published before the end of the year. While I of course recognise the good progress made; it has been 6 months since my last meeting with South Ayrshire Council and I would urge the Strategic Governance group to work together bring this process to the earliest possible conclusion.

The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the reason(s) for the addition of a property to, or removal from, the Valuation Roll. The valuation of all non-domestic properties is a matter for the Scottish Assessors, who are independent of central and local government.

To note in addition, as there are more than 70 days left until the end of the financial year, properties which have not yet met the criteria set out in the Council Tax (Dwellings and Part Residential Subjects) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 may still do so before the end of the financial year.

The following tables show the percentage of pupils by school condition for each local authority from 2018 to 2022 as reported in the School Estate Statistics.

The Fisheries Act 2020 outlines that sustainable fishing means environmental, economic, and social considerations are appropriately balanced when managing our fisheries to benefit present and future generations. To ensure we are achieving this balance, we will take management decisions and negotiation positions that are informed by the best available evidence. The recently published Joint Fisheries Statement further outlines that we consider both the short-term and the long-term impacts of decisions on fish stocks and the fishing industry before taking action. This aligns with the sustainability, precautionary, scientific evidence, and ecosystem Objectives in the Act as well as wider international treaties, such as UNCLOS.

The Scottish Government’s approach to negotiations on Total Allowable Catch (TAC) limits is underpinned by the best available scientific information, usually the advice from ICES, and we fully support following the headline scientific advice and setting fishing opportunities that are consistent with the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) approach wherever appropriate. However, setting an MSY-based TAC is not always possible, and it is sometimes more appropriate, for the stock and for fishing industries, to set a TAC above or below the headline scientific advice. There are a number of stocks where MSY based reference points are not available, for instance due to the data being limited. These stocks include North Sea and West of Scotland ling, North Sea and West of Scotland tusk, North Sea blue ling, and Rockall Cod. In the absence of better evidence being available, we believe following other models recommended by ICES should also be considered as being sustainable.

NHS Scotland provides expectant mothers with all clinically recommended scans during the course of their pregnancy.

Anyone choosing to have scans elsewhere, for any purpose, should choose a provider regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and satisfy themselves that the sonographer is a suitably qualified and registered healthcare practitioner.