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The Scottish Government has today published its Draft Heat Networks Delivery Plan for consultation. The Consultation will run until 15 December and can be accessed at https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/heat-networks-delivery-plan

This consultation document fulfils the requirement of the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 to consult with relevant persons in preparing the heat networks delivery plan (Part 1). It outlines in draft how the provisions of the 2021 Act, and any other supporting policies, will contribute to increasing the use of heat networks in Scotland. It sets out the proposed approach that the Scottish Ministers intend to take to increase the use of heat networks in Scotland and how the statutory targets will be met. In addition, it outlines how progress will be measured and the expected contribution that heat networks will make toward meeting the emission reduction targets.

Over this parliamentary term we are investing at least £1.8 billion in heat and energy efficiency in buildings, including investing £400 million to support the development of large-scale heat infrastructure, such as heat networks.

The consultation document also seeks views on policy proposals relating to aspects of the emerging regulatory regime.

I have also written to the Conveners of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. The Government looks forward to engaging with interested parties on this issue.

Scotland was the first country in the UK to achieve 100% Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation in Maternity and Community and Neonatal services. Scottish Government has invested in the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) across NHS Scotland to provide support planning for sustainability. This initiative includes best practice standards for health professionals and services to support women to successfully establish and continue breastfeeding.

We have also provided more than £800k funding to our Third Sector partners over the past three years. This investment is being used to develop their breastfeeding peer support programmes as part of a tiered service of support, including face-to-face contacts.

It is for each NHS Board to plan services to meet the needs of its population including how best to utilise funding, facilities and staff to deliver these services.

The Scottish Government have, and continue to, provide support to former Rolls-Royce employees through our PACE initiative for responding to redundancy situations. This provides affected individuals with the necessary skills and employability support to get back into work as quickly as possible. This includes utilising the National Training Transition Fund to help people take advantage of jobs available in growth areas of the economy, such as digital and green technologies.

In addition, Skills Development Scotland undertook the “Aerospace Workforce Survey” using both online and telephone questionnaires in May and June of this year with a response rate of 65% (195 responses from 298 contacts). More than half of those surveyed had found work in another sector in Scotland, and one in eight had found alternative work in the Scottish Aerospace sector. Those with higher level qualifications were most likely to have found another aerospace job.

A further 14% had found aerospace related work in England. Those who had left the aerospace sector were most likely to have gone into the Medical or Defence sectors, with others going into Manufacturing, Marine Engineering, Renewables and Scientific Instruments.

Just under one in ten of those responding were currently unemployed and looking for work and a further 3% were retraining. Those with lower level qualifications were much more likely to be unemployed, or retraining to improve their employment prospects. Those who were able to find another aerospace job were more likely to be working at a similar or higher level to their previous position. Those who had changed sector were much more likely to be working at a lower level; with lower earnings or less responsibility.

At the time of leaving employment all employees were invited to participate in PACE Redundancy support seminars and ,as a follow up to the survey, individuals received follow up contact from SDS Careers Advisors and opportunities continue to be promoted to those consenting to further contact.

APD is currently set by the UK Government, with introduction of ADT in Scotland deferred to allow the issues raised in relation to the Highlands and Islands exemption to be resolved.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a frequent-flier levy. This option was ruled out in the context of a consultation on Air Departure Tax (ADT), on the grounds that it would be disproportionately resource-intensive to administer. The same issues remain now.

The current system of Air Passenger Duty (APD) has the effect of charging tax for each flight purchased, but without the need for recording the number of flights an individual has taken.

The sustainable procurement duty in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies to consider how their procurement activity can be used to contribute to social, economic and environmental well-being and to act in a way to secure this. To demonstrate progress and compliance, public bodies are required to outline in their Annual Procurement Strategy how procurement will deliver local environmental impacts and, report progress in their Annual Procurement Reports.

Scottish Government provides funding to a wide range of organisations to install electric vehicle charge points under Section 70 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001. The majority of funding to develop the ChargePlace Scotland electric vehicle charging network has been awarded to public bodies. Many local authorities and public bodies carry out procurement using frameworks established by organisations such as Scotland Excel. These frameworks are also covered by the Sustainable Procurement Duty and therefore consider the wider social, economic and environmental aims of procurement in a consistent manner as required by the sustainable procurement duty under the Act.

Grant funding awarded to other types of organisations would be to individuals or to small and medium-sized enterprises with a base in Scotland. There is no obligation for these organisations to comply with the Act.

As set out in our 2021-22 Programme for Government, this year we will make our first investments from the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund. This will support local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure and help with aligning recycling collections to the Code of Practice under the Household Recycling Charter and maximise the quality and quantity of recycling.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-00181 on  22 September 2021, when I said that The Programme for Government outlines our commitment to introducing a Circular Economy Bill this Parliamentary session. Legislative plans will be set out in future Programmes for Government.

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 .

We have provided over £33 million of grant funding directly to local authorities since 2014 to enable procurement of zero and ultra-low emission vehicles and associated charging and refuelling infrastructure. The following table provides the detail of funding awarded to each local authority in each year from 2014.

As referenced in the answer to question S6W-01360, we had invested £47M since 2014 to assist with the decarbonisation of public fleet vehicles. We have continued to support public sector fleet decarbonisation and the value of support provided is now over £50 million, enabling innovation and trialling of harder to reach vehicles.

A breakdown of this funding (in response to point a) can be seen in the following table.

Public bodies and local authorities will use a combination of vehicle purchase and lease for fleet operations. Vehicle fleets also go through replacement cycles and periods of rationalisation. It’s not possible to determine how many vehicles funded are still in service.