Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government meets with the UK Government and devolved governments regularly on a 4-nations basis to discuss tobacco control, including vaping policy. Discussions have included the marketing, availability (including flavourings) and packaging of vaping and e-cigarette products.

All Ministerial engagements, including visits to police stations, fire stations, courts and prisons, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as responsibility for the maintenance of Police vehicles sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that they hold a stock of replacement dash cameras which can be fitted to their vehicles should one develop a fault; dependant on the locality of the vehicle, type of equipment fitted and the type of fault, this can be done on the same day.

I have asked Police Scotland to write to the member with this information.

We agree that agroforestry and hedgerows can be incorporated throughout agriculturally productive land, offering carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits. We support this through grants and the initiatives such as the Integrating Trees Network. The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) is the Scottish Government’s mechanism for providing targeted support to land managers to undertake specific actions on environmental management. Inclusive of contracts issued through the 2022 round of AECS, to date the scheme will have committed over £14.5 million to support the planting or replanting of over 678,000 metres of hedgerows.

In the Climate Change Plan update (CCPu), we committed to ambitious targets for tree planting, rising to 18,000 hectares per year by 2024-25. A range of different types of tree planting, including agroforestry and farm woodlands, contribute to this target which has reporting arrangements in place through the CCPu.

We are aiming to introduce a Natural Environment Bill in year three of this parliamentary session which will contain provisions to put in place statutory targets for nature restoration and a framework for setting, monitoring, enforcing and reporting on those targets.

As at 23 January 2023, the Office of the Public Guardian are processing the following Power of Attorney applications:

• Electronic (EPOAR) submissions received on 25 May 2022
• Postal submissions received around 10 June 22

An expedited service is available for Power of Attorney applications that are to be processed urgently. Urgent applications will usually be processed within five working days.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13059 on 9 January 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

Data from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number and percentage of households with no central heating at a local authority level by averaging three years of data. The most recently available local authority data is for the 2017-19 period and is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Number and percentage of households with no central heating by local authority, 2017-2019.

There are currently 22 trainee doctors undertaking specialty training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 is a key part of the Scottish Government’s help for tenants facing the impact of the cost crisis. The Act introduced a temporary rent cap and moratorium on the enforcement of evictions, along with increased damages for unlawful evictions – until at least 31 March 2023.

The Scottish Government has made clear it will retain and use the provisions in the Act only where they remain necessary and proportionate in connection with the cost of living crisis. This is demonstrated in regulations laid before the Parliament on 19 January which:

• expire the rent cap provisions for the social sector on 26 February, so that it allows landlords to implement changes from the end of March; and also
• suspend the rent cap provision for purpose-built student accommodation, recognising that new tenancies in academic year 2023-24 would not be covered by the Act as it stands in any case.

I also announced on that date - in light of the differences in how the social and private rented sectors operate and the clear economic evidence demonstrating the continued pressure being placed on private rented households due to the ongoing cost crisis - that the Scottish Government will bring forward regulations to extend the remaining provisions in Part 1 of the Act for a further 6 months to 30 September 2023, provided it remains necessary and proportionate.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Amendment of Expiry Dates and Rent Cap Modification) Regulations 2023 were laid on 27 January 2023 and, subject to the approval of Parliament, will mean that the rent cap for the private rented sector will continue, along with the moratorium on enforcing evictions - which will continue to apply across all sectors.

In order to ensure the provisions are proportionate, the Act gives power to vary the level of the rent cap. And whilst the focus of the emergency measures continues to be on protecting tenants, the Scottish Government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the cost crisis may also be experienced by some landlords.

The Scottish Government is of the view that it would be proportionate to raise the rent cap in the private rented sector to allow within-tenancy rent increases of up to 3%. Alternatively, landlords will continue to be able to apply for an additional rent increase based on an increase in prescribed property costs within a defined period and the maximum increase on this basis will be raised to 6% of overall rent in these specific and limited circumstances. The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Amendment of Expiry Dates and Rent Cap Modification) Regulations 2023 reflect this proposal.

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

The decision as to whether a member of staff discloses that they have attended hospital is one for the individual member of staff, and there is no requirement for this information to be shared. SPS has a focus on supporting staff who may have been injured, and ensuring that any reasonable preventative measures can be put in place to ensure that the likelihood of a similar incident occurring is mitigated as much as possible.

At this time, there are no plans to change the current methods of recording, however SPS will always look at ways which we can ensure we provide the right support to our staff.

The facilities in place at the 357 fire stations in Scotland are an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are 14 stations that have been identified with defective roofing material requiring remedial action that are located in Crewe, Cumbernauld, Dalkeith, Galashiels, Hawick, Helensburgh, Huntly, Liberton, Livingston, Marionville, Milngavie, Portree, Stewarton and Tranent.

It is worth noting that the listed stations above were inherited legacy buildings which contribute to the Services capital backlog investment requirement.