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The Scottish Government supports the installation of solar panels on new buildings.

The Scottish Government provides funding to homeowners, including new-builds and self-builders, through the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme.

Building regulations are not prescriptive in the technologies they require a new buildings to install. However, they do set overall emissions targets which new buildings must meet. These targets are set, in most cases, by a ‘notional building’ specification for domestic and non-domestic properties which includes PV, recognising the benefit this provides in offsetting energy demand. Following a recent review, these standards will be improved from 1 February 2023. They maintain the previous approach but include a large element of solar PV in target setting. Additionally, the new standards also identify the portion of generation which can be used at the building and exclude the benefit from power exported to the electricity grid.

Local councils are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of their staff. This includes providing a complement of teachers which best meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils within the resources available.

During the pandemic, the Scottish Government provided an additional £240m to local authorities to support the recruitment of additional teachers and support staff. We have since committed further permanent funding of £145.5m a year to further support education staffing.

The Scottish Government will not be represented at the World Cup in Qatar .

To support the installation of solar panels on existing domestic and commercial premises, the Scottish Government has a number of funding schemes.

For domestic properties, Home Energy Scotland provides advice and funding for solar installations of up to £5,000 in interest-free loans. Warmer Homes Scotland, the Scottish Government’s national fuel poverty scheme, provides funding for solar projects for homeowners or private tenants with consenting landlords.

Local authorities can obtain Scottish Government funding for solar installations through our Area Based Scheme. The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund also considers funding applications for solar PV within the zero emission heat solutions category.

For communities, our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) supports solar renewable projects through advice and loan and grant funding to community groups. Our SME Loan Scheme offers eligible businesses access to interest free loans of up to £100,000 towards the installation of solar PV, as well as free energy efficiency evaluation and advice on potential installations.

A national oversight group responsible for a review of AHP Education and Workforce has recently concluded its work. The collaborative group involving a wide range of AHP stakeholders including professional bodies, HEIs and NHS Boards is due to report their recommendations to the Scottish Government. I will not pre-empt the recommendations of that group but look forward to receiving the suite of recommendations the group has put forward regarding the future of training and development of AHP staff.

Territorial NHS Boards’ 2022-23 funding from the long COVID Support Fund has been split into two tranches. The first tranche (70%) was provided to NHS Boards in June. The second tranche (30%) will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

This is a well-established practice for the allocation of health board funding to account for any slippage in programme delivery, and is used across a range of policy areas.

The following table shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 21 November 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

Due to Adult Disability Payment being in the early stages of delivery, we have not commenced publication of statistics relating to clients’ specific disabilities or conditions. This information will be included in future statistical publications.

As of July 2022, the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment in Scotland for which COVID-19 or Long COVID is recorded as the client’s primary disability or condition was 307.

The Education Leaders’ Forum was paused in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It last met in April 2019. The Scottish Government decided not to re-establish the Education Leaders’ Forum due to the expanded membership of the re-established Scottish Education Council and on the basis that wider stakeholders can continue to engage with Ministers and Scottish Government officials on specific issues, as and when required.

We are taking the capacity issues at Dargavel Primary School very seriously.

We are aware that Renfrewshire Council is currently working on a long-term solution for the school, and has committed to engaging with parents and carers on proposals. My officials will continue to engage with the Council throughout that process. To date, the Council has not requested any assistance from the Scottish Government.