Seòmar agus comataidhean

The emissions reduction targets set in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, as amended by the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, constitute the most ambitious framework of emissions reduction in the world.

The extremely stretching statutory framework set by all parties in the Scottish Parliament places specific duties on Scottish Ministers in the case that emissions reduction targets are missed. In particular, triggers a duty on Ministers to bring forward – as soon as reasonably practicable after such a target outcome has been reported - additional policies and proposals to compensate in future years for the excess emissions arising from the missed target.

This approach ensures that the total amount of Scottish emissions over the lifetime of the targets in the Act will remain no greater than would have been the case if all of the annual targets had been exactly met.

The way in which land is owned, managed and used is centrally important to many of our national priorities, especially in meeting the twin challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises and supporting thriving communities and a green recovery. Everyone has a stake in Scotland’s land and everyone should benefit from Scotland’s land.

Community ownership has long been a key focus for land reform, and the Scottish Government continues to support communities to take ownership of land and assets. In the last parliament, we implemented legislation to extend community rights to buy to include a right to buy land to further sustainable development. Communities in Scotland now have more options than ever before to take ownership of land and assets, including several distinct rights to buy, and they can now choose which route to community ownership best suits their aspirations.

The Ayrshire Growth Deal, signed in November 2019, includes a commitment from the Scottish Government of £103 million investment over the next 10 years ensuring the long term inclusive growth for Ayrshire. The UK Government will match this funding, and regional partners will contribute £45.5 million to a total Deal worth £251.5 million.

Hunterston Port and Resource Centre (PARC) will receive £18m investment from UK Government as part of the Deal. The Sottish Government are not contributing to the funding of this project, which has been selected by regional partners.

Scottish Enterprise have been working with Peel Ports to examine the opportunities at Hunterston PARC, focussing on Oil and Gas Decommissioning, Offshore Wind and Liquified Natural Gas. Following an assessment of these opportunities, Scottish Enterprise approved a contribution of £10 million towards a £30 million project to reconstruct the dry dock cassion gates and develop a new quayside serving the marine yard.

Information about number of school clothing grants issued by local authorities has been recorded centrally through the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics returns since the 2017-18 financial year. Information about the number of school clothing grants paid by local authorities prior to 2017-18 is not held centrally.

The number of school clothing grants issued in each local authority since 2017-18 is contained within the following table:

I am pleased to confirm that the procurement exercise for mesh removal services outside of the NHS has now concluded and I can today announce that there have been two contracts awarded: one to Spire Healthcare in Bristol and the other to Mercy Hospital in St Louis, Missouri. The contracts are expected to start later this Summer and are subject to agreement of, and compliance with, the terms specified by NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS).

These additional services will complement the Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service already established in NHS Scotland and, alongside the option of referral to NHS England Centres, are intended to allow everyone affected by transvaginal mesh complications choice over where their treatment and care is delivered.

The procurement exercise has been undertaken in line with NHS NSS’s standard commissioning procedures, with quality of care and patient safety of paramount importance.

The Scottish Government is absolutely determined to do everything in its power to help those impacted by mesh complications and I hope that today’s announcement will be welcome news to those so badly affected.

The Scottish Government have worked closely with the Scottish FA, with Glasgow City Council, Police Scotland and other partners on the operations of the EURO 2020 Fan Zone at Glasgow Green. The situation with the Fanzone in being continually reviewed during the EUROS and as part of that ongoing work Scottish Ministers set up a review team, comprising of the government, city council and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Public Health, to provide advice on the ability of the Fan Zone to operate safely.

The fan zone provides an outdoor, highly regulated space for fans to watch the tournament. Although there are up to 3000 people in attendance per session, this is in a large, outdoor space with normal capacity for up to 80,000 people. Necessary physical distancing and hygiene measures are of course in place. In addition, there is comprehensive stewarding, cleaning and contact tracing provisions in place. Rapid lateral flow test kits have been mailed to all visitors to the Glasgow Fan Zone as part of a series of measures to help reduce the risk of transmission before and after the event.

The Scottish Government welcomes the study, which was carried out to support Scotland’s response to climate change and will help identify the rivers most at risk from water shortages and prioritise the development of resilience.

Scotland is a water rich nation but we need to use water wisely and build resilience to the impacts of climate change including drought and water scarcity. We are working with key business sectors, SEPA, Scottish Water, local authorities, and other stakeholders to make sure water is used efficiently; the first line of defence against droughts and climate change.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has just consulted on a Water Resources Management Plan, which highlights the risk of climate change and the need to work in collaboration to develop a series of practical actions to deliver a more sustainable and resilient use of water. This builds on the approach taken under the National Water Scarcity Plan, which focuses on making early information available to allow water users to manage supplies during prolonged dry periods without harming the environment.

The Scottish Government is taking action across the board to reduce marine litter including via preventative as well as removal initiatives, legislation and policies under our Marine Litter Strategy.

Preventative measures to reduce plastic pollution sources have included introducing bans on rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads in 2018, and on plastic-stemmed cotton buds in 2019. We have also drafted regulations to restrict many other problematic single-use plastic items such as expanded polystyrene cups and containers, cutlery, plates, stirrers, straws, balloon sticks and all oxo-degradable products. Legislation is expected to be introduced at the end of 2021.

Many behaviour change initiatives have also been supported to reduce marine litter sources. In May 2020, regulations were passed by parliament for our ambitious Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), covering drinks in glass, PET plastic, and metal containers. We are the first UK administration to develop a Deposit Return Scheme and we believe that DRS will help raise recycling rates, cut emissions, and reduce littering.

In addition, we supported the Trial Period Campaign in 2019 promoting reusable sanitary products over single-use items. We have also supported behaviour change within industry to reduce the second largest direct source of microplastic pollution which is in the form of plastic pellets, powders and flakes, commonly known as nurdles. This has been achieved with the development of a Publicly Available Specification with the British Standards Institution to prevent loss at sites handling or managing pellets and will be published in July 2021. Future work includes building on pellet loss prevention measures and improving waste management in our fishing industry to reduce this source of litter and increase recycling rates.

To support removal, we have funded KIMO’s Fishing for Litter project which helps fishers to responsibly dispose of waste passively caught during fishing operations. We have funded the annual bulk removal of waste at Arrochar, a marine litter sink case study area where the local shore area is subject to a disproportionate level of plastic pollution. To target riverine litter which contributes to the marine plastic pollution problem, we also fund Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project. The Scottish Government also recognises the important role of volunteers in removing beach litter before it is washed back to sea, and funds Local Coastal Partnerships to support local communities in organising beach cleans. The refreshed Marine Litter Strategy will increase focus on marine litter removal and target rivers which are major pathways for plastics into our seas.

The Scottish Government, working with Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and other partners, developed a vision and action plan to support sustainable, green datacentres, terrestrial digital connectivity and international subsea fibre connectivity in Scotland.

Scotland’s Vision and Action Plan for Green Datacentres & Digital Connectivity was agreed by Ministers on 09 March 2021 and launched by Mr Wheelhouse at the Rural, Economy and Connectivity (REC) Committee on 17 March 2021: Green datacentres and digital connectivity: vision and action plan for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

This provides a roadmap for this important sector – considering the supply and demand for data hosting facilities across the country and in support of Scotland’s wider digital ambition.

We are in the process of setting up a Cluster Management Organisation (CMO) which will look at supporting the growth of Scottish Datacentres - enhancing links with other existing and emerging cluster groups in Scotland, for example: Scotland’s Data Cluster, Scotland’s Cyber Cluster, Technology Scotland etc.