Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Council act in an advisory capacity to inform our National Strategy for Economic Transformation, which the Scottish Government will publish in late Autumn.

The Advisory Council includes representatives from industry, trade unions and academia, and has been appointed to provide expert advice and insight to the Scottish Government, drawing on their extensive experience and networks. Alongside an extensive programme of engagement with business organisations, the third sector and wider public, this will help shape the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to deliver a stronger, greener, fairer and more inclusive wellbeing economy for Scotland.

Telephone and video consultations have and continue to play an important role in ensuring that care and support for new mothers and babies, children, young people and their families continues across Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are many examples of continued, innovative and high quality service provision by universal community health services; maximising opportunities to utilise IT, flexing telehealth capacity, with professional judgement remaining the main driver in determining an individual's level of support. Where face-to-face contacts are necessary NHS Boards are ensuring that they can be carried out safely.

As outlined in the NHS Recovery Plan, published on 25 August 2021, technology enabled care will continue to play an important part in the delivery of care as part of the mix of service provision. NHS Boards should aim to return to normal service provision with increased numbers of face-to-face health visitor contacts and this should be planned for and built into NHS Boards' overall COVID-19 recovery response.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to provide financial support for HVO. However, we already offer a comprehensive support package for domestic heat and energy efficiency measures through our Home Energy Scotland service.

Our Heat in Buildings Strategy, which will be published in due course, outlines four key no and low regrets areas strategic technologies for the transition, including energy efficiency, heat pumps in on and off gas grid areas and low and zero emissions heat networks. It also highlights that here may be a small number of buildings for which bioenergy, including HVO among others, may play a role for home heating if displacing fossil fuels in off-gas-grid areas where electric heating or heat pumps are unsuitable.

We wish to see bioenergy used where it has the greatest value in reducing emissions, however this decision is also dependent on which sectors will make the best use of the bioenergy feedstocks that we can grow sustainably or produce domestically in comparison with those we may need to import. For this reason we have assembled a Scottish Government working group which will develop a strategic framework for bioenergy, taking into consideration the competing demands on land for feedstock production, sustainability, technical capabilities and opportunities of a just transition to net-zero. This will help to inform a more detailed Bioenergy Action Plan by 2023 which will urgently tackle these challenging issues as we begin the next stage of decarbonisation in Scotland.

We have also published a Bioenergy Update paper where we outline how we intend to move forward over the next 18 months to understand the most appropriate and sustainable use of bioenergy resources in Scotland.

As we deliver our Heat in Buildings programme following the publication of the Strategy our delivery programmes and support mechanisms will support the mass move from fossil fuel reliant systems to low and zero emissions heating in tandem with achieving a good standard of energy efficiency across all buildings in line with our strategic priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03232 on‎ 4 October 2021 which is 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 .

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as this is an operational matter for the independent Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). I have therefore asked SEPA’s Chief Executive to write to the Member to provide details.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03232 on‎ 4 October 2021 which is 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 .

The Scottish Government is engaging with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) a market-led, UN supported, international initiative, which builds on the model developed by the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and aims to create a framework for how organisations can address environmental risks and opportunities. We are supportive of the objectives of this work, and will ensure that there is effective coordination with Scottish Government policies.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing the impact of Scotland’s consumption on nature and societies, including our impacts in other countries. This is an outcome sought by our Environment Strategy, and our progress was discussed in the 2020 report Scotland and the sustainable development goals: a national review to drive action. Reducing the impact of our consumption on the natural environment is an important driver of our work to create a more circular economy. The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners and through our own policies and legislative proposals to reduce the impacts on and risks to nature from consumption in Scotland.

All projects, including the A96 Programme, are subject to detailed review and assessment work to ensure we deliver the right schemes and keep impacts on the environment to the absolute minimum. The decision to commit to a review forms part of a wide range of transport commitments set out in the cooperation agreement with the Scottish Green Party.

As per the answer to question S5W-33510 on 2 December 2020, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Full Business Case ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-full-business-case-stage-1/ ) was developed on the basis of glass being collected whole under Scotland’s DRS. Glass collected whole is suitable for re-melt, subject to minimal handling losses.

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

Delivery of any section of the programme can only commence if approved under the relevant statutory procedures and thereafter a timetable for progress can be set in line with available budgets.