Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government’s Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB) is awarding £62 million to support bus operators to acquire 276 new zero emission buses and associated infrastructure. Bus operators are free to choose which manufacturer they purchase from and we do not seek to influence this, in order to ensure a level playing field.

Level playing field provisions in trade agreements ensure that competition is open and fair, and that businesses from one trading partner to not gain an unfair advantage and undercut rivals from others. The success of the bus manufacturing industry in Scotland and the UK requires that the industry makes available high-quality products for bus operators at competitive prices and which can compete in the international market.

ADL will manufacture their buses in Falkirk, Wrightbus, Switch and Orion manufacture elsewhere in the UK (with Orion chassis being manufactured in Italy, Poland and Turkey), EVM manufacture in the Republic of Ireland (with the chassis manufactured in Germany) and Yutong manufacture in China. In total, 137 buses will be manufactured in Scotland, 23 in the rest of the UK, and 116 in China.

The following table shows how many buses from which manufacturer ScotZEB is supporting operators to acquire:

The management of asbestos in buildings is a reserved matter for the UK Government and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has UK wide responsibility for enforcement of the legislation and regulations.

My officials asked the HSE for information on current activities to collect data on the number of premises containing asbestos either publicly or privately-owned. There is no requirement on any authority to collect data, and in recent evidence to the UK Parliament Work and Pensions Committee, HSE confirmed that the exact number of business premises in Great Britain containing asbestos is not known. There is however a duty on owners of any premises to know whether their building contains asbestos and to manage it in accordance with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

HSE is currently carrying out a statutory, five yearly, review of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Part of the cost benefit analysis for the report which is due to be published in the summer will include estimates about the number of premises containing asbestos. HSE has also given a commitment that future research will address the number of business premises containing asbestos.

Questions included in the census are intended to provide a snapshot of the population on census day, 20 March 2022.

The online census questionnaire allows you to change your previous answers right up until you submit your questionnaire. Further changes cannot be made after a person submits a response.

Paper questionnaires can be amended by blocking out incorrect answers using black ink. A correct answer can then be written in the rest of the boxes. Once a paper questionnaire has been sent, changes cannot be made.

The Scottish Government has committed to invest £10 million over this parliamentary term in our Programme for Government. As part of our commitment to increasing opportunities for disabled people, this funding will increase the number of changing places toilets across the country and support mobile changing places to allow people easier access to outdoor venues and events across Scotland.

Funding will commence in FY 2022-2023 and will be delivered in phases over the course of the parliamentary term. The first phase of work, currently being undertaken, is to develop the plans for the Changing Places Toilets Fund to ensure that the toilets which are built are fit-for-purpose. Further information will be available in due course.

Ash dieback is impacting rural and urban landscapes and ecosystems. Current evidence indicates that at least 50% – 75% of Scotland’s approximately 11 million mature ash trees could be lost to this disease over the next two decades.

a) Environmental impacts: Ash trees play an important role in Scottish ecosystems, and support many other species such as invertebrates, birds and lichens. Ecosystem continuity is a key concern for the long-term recovery of affected landscapes.

b) Financial impacts: Current estimates suggest that ash dieback could potentially cost Scotland in the range of £4 million - £20 million per annum as the disease progresses.

c) Other impacts: The safety of arboricultural and forestry professionals as well as the public is a central emerging issue, as ash dieback and associated secondary pathogens can lead to tree brittleness, potential branch shedding and root weakness. Priority needs to be given to ash trees showing significant health issues in higher risk locations such as near public roads, paths, railways and utilities infrastructure.

i) Action Scottish Government is taking:

Scottish Forestry convened the Ash Dieback Risk Group in January 2020. The group, which brings together expertise from local authorities and sectors such as forestry, transport, utilities and nature conservation, was formed to provide a forum for sharing experience and coordinating actions, and to help advise the Scottish Government on policy development relating to the management of ash dieback.

ii) Support the Scottish Government has offered to relevant stakeholders, including local authorities, to deal with ash dieback:

Scottish Forestry has worked with The Tree Council to produce a Scottish Toolkit for Ash Dieback Action Plans to help Scottish local authorities, public bodies and other large-scale land owners and managers to prepare their own Ash Dieback Action Plans in response to the inevitable safety and environmental issues that affected trees will create.

The Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 makes provision in two areas relating to protection for people at risk of domestic abuse.

Part 1 of the Act will provide additional protection for people who are at risk of domestic abuse by providing the police and courts with new powers to remove a suspected perpetrator of domestic abuse from the home of a person at risk through a scheme of domestic abuse protection notices and orders.

An implementation group including Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Women's Aid is continuing to consider how to progress the necessary elements to allow for commencement of Part 1 of the Act.

The group is overseeing the development of training and operating procedures, legal aid issues, court rules and associated processes for courts’ consideration of applications for protective orders; including how input of views of relevant children can be provided to inform the court’s consideration of applications within the short timescales set by the Act, support for people for whose protection an order is made, any guidance that may be needed for those using the legislation and steps needed to monitor and evaluate the use of the legislation once in effect. It is also considering the impact on court programming of the new powers including the likely significant financial costs arising. Within this context the group is giving consideration to the timetable for when this Part of the Act can be commenced.

Part 2 of the Act makes it easier for a local authority or registered social landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim of domestic abuse. This aspect of the Act is not directly linked to Part 1 of the Act. The steps necessary for implementation are being taken forward and include secondary legislation, changes to court procedures, forms and model tenancy agreements as well as working with stakeholders to develop statutory guidance. Commencement of the provisions and publication of the guidance on the social tenancy provisions is scheduled for the end of 2022.

National Records of Scotland consulted a range of groups and organisations across Scotland to help decide what topics to cover and what questions to ask in Scotland’s Census 2022.

In order to be considered for inclusion topics must meet a significant and clearly-demonstrated user need. More information about the question development process can be found here . The question set was agreed as appropriate by the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s Census 2022 has also benefitted from an extensive programme of internal and independent assurance activity, including independent assessment of Statistical standards, through the UK Office of Statistics Regulation. This is to ensure that Census statistics will meet the high quality bar of being “official statistics.” Information on the Statistical Quality Assurance process can be found here .

The aim for the census is to deliver a set of questions and associated guidance that enables all of Scotland’s people to access, understand and complete the census. Whilst every household in Scotland has a legal obligation to complete a census return either online or by paper, we have ensured that people are supported to do so.

The Scottish Government will invest £60 million to renew play parks in Scotland, so children have access to high-quality outdoor play in their own communities. This funding is for public, free-to-access parks and will be distributed to local authorities over the course of this parliamentary term.

The renewal of play parks builds on our commitment to improve outdoor play opportunities for all children and families and to realise our ambition to make Scotland the best place to grow up.

Local authorities have an existing responsibility to maintain play parks that serve their communities and this investment provides a boost in funding to accelerate local plans and improve play experiences for all children in Scotland. We have already committed £10 million since May 2021 with a further £50 million to come in this parliamentary term.

South Lanarkshire Council received £298,000 funding in 2021-22 and will receive £296,000 in 2022-23. We have worked constructively with COSLA on the first two years of funding and will continue that work to agree the allocation of the remainder of the funding.

Over the course of this parliament, we are working to increase overall residential rehabilitation capacity by 50%, which is an increase from 425 beds to 650 beds. We aim to increase the number of publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements by more than 300 per cent so that, by 2026, at least 1,000 people every year are publicly funded for their rehab placement.

In addition to a £13.5 million uplift to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP), we have provided £18 million so far over the next five years to support the development of several new residential rehab projects through the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme. We recognise that there are structural differences around funding and availability of residential services in different parts of the country, but we are working to address this by exploring options around regional and national commissioning of residential rehabilitation placements.

While it is the role and responsibility of local ADPs to assess and allocate placements we are committed to increasing transparency and accountability for these services. This is why we have tasked Public Health Scotland with producing a quarterly report on funded placements. The next report will be published April 2022 and will cover the period of October to December 2021.

We recently published a suite of reports on the current pathways into, through and out of residential rehabilitation. We will be working closely with ADPs to aid the development of clear pathways into residential rehabilitation, which will facilitate an increase to publicly funded placements across the country.

Stock keeping arrangements related to Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are a matter for industry to determine; our Regulations do not mandate a separate Scottish label or barcode for in-scope containers.