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The Scottish Government welcomed the Committee’s thorough and wide-ranging report and we are committed to working with local government to deliver our shared climate change goals.

Following the Committee’s Inquiry, COSLA and the Scottish Government is working collaboratively to develop a Climate Delivery Framework to agree shared approaches to delivering action on climate change. As recommended by the Committee, we have also established a Scottish Climate Intelligence Service (SCIS) jointly funded with local government, which will help build the capacity of local authorities to reduce area wide emissions. A single data platform, currently being procured, will enable consistency of approach and adoption of best practice methodologies across local authorities and their delivery partners. This will provide all 32 local authorities with data-informed evidence, insights and intelligence they need for continuous improvement of their climate action plans.

The Scottish Government does not fund Moray Mental Health directly from its mental health programme budget, therefore no objectives have been set.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the types or numbers of funeral services in Scotland and does not make an assessment of trends in funeral choices.

Unattended funerals are most often direct cremations where there is no funeral service at a crematorium. Sometimes these are arranged as a preference by the deceased or by their relatives who might arrange a separate wake or celebration of the deceased’s life.

According to the recent Sunlife Cost of Dying report published in January 2024, the cost of a basic funeral rose from £3,953 in 2022 to £4,141 in 2023, an increase of 4.7%. The report shows there has been an increase in direct cremations over the past five years with 3% of funerals described as a direct cremation in 2019, rising to 20% in 2023. Direct cremations are often seen as a more affordable option but according to the Sunlife report there are various other reasons for choosing this option; this is often requested by the deceased or chosen because it is simpler to organise.

Issues relating to pricing and consumer protection are reserved to the UK Government. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publish an annual review of market outcomes in the UK funerals sector and the most recent is available at: Review of funerals sector - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Officials continue to engage with the CMA as required in relation to their Funeral Markets Investigation and the upcoming regulations for inspection of the funeral industry and licensing of funeral directors being made under the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

Health Boards are responsible for delivering abortion services as part of their overall budgets, in a similar way to most other health services. Therefore the Scottish Government does not determine how much is allocated to the provision of abortion services. Health Boards will decide appropriate levels of funding for their requirements within their overall funding.

In addition to the range of incentives the Scottish Government have put in place in the Highland area to support NHS dental provision; since August 2023, NHS Highland have:

• Increased capacity for patients within their evening PDS clinics through the recruitment of a new PDS Dental Officer in Dunoon.
• A new practice opening later this year, secured with the use of the Scottish Dental Access Initiative scheme in Inverness.
• Procured funding and resource for a mobile dental unit which is expected to be in operation by summer of 2024.

Simple procedure is a court process designed to provide a speedy, inexpensive and informal way to resolve disputes. A claim is made in the sheriff court with the final decision in a claim made by a sheriff or a summary sheriff. Claimants do not need to use a solicitor to use the simple procedure, but they can do so if they wish.

The following table provides the number of simple procedure claims, and breaks the disposals between those which were successful and unsuccessful. It then gives the average monetary value of the successful claims for each financial year where data is available.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) continue to undertake operational intelligence gathering on such premises and work alongside key partners to ensure that an effective operational response is provided. While clearly this is an operational matter, SFRS will respond to all reports of fire which are received and have the ability to deploy a range of standard and specialist resources as determined by the needs of the incident.

Fire safety measures should be built into such sites during the development that include detection and suppression systems to inhibit the growth and spread of any fire should an incident occur. This is in line with the NFCC Guidance Document .

To ask the Scottish Government what the current fire safety regulations are for the development of battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. A range of legislation makes up the regulatory framework for the safety of grid scale battery energy storage systems (BESS). Health and safety is a reserved matter with applicable UK legislation including: the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002; the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989; and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s regulator in this regard, and their remit includes health and safety in the workplace as well as public assurance on safety matters.

To date, four out of six key measures provided for within the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 have been implemented, these are:

• A prohibition on providing or making available fireworks or pyrotechnic articles to children;
• A new statutory aggravation for courts sentencing offenders where fireworks were used to attack emergency workers;
• New discretionary powers for local authorities to designate firework control zones; and
• New offences of possession of pyrotechnics in public places and at designated venues and events.

After careful consideration and assessment of the significant financial pressures the Scottish Government is facing following the UK Government’s budget settlement, the Government has decided to extend the timeframe for delivery and implementation of the firework licensing requirement (Part 2 of the Act) to 2026. A pause to the implementation of restrictions to the days of supply and use of fireworks (within Part 3 of the Act), was outlined to the Criminal Justice Committee in March 2023. I am writing to the Convener of the Criminal Justice Committee to provide further details about this decision.

I instructed the appointment of an independent researcher to make enquiries in respect of Fornethy House in August last year. Those enquiries have now concluded and the findings of the research report were shared with Parliament yesterday.

I have also shared the report with the Fornethy Survivors Group and invited them to meet with me to discuss it further, having previously met with them along with the First Minister.

I will attend an evidence session with the Public Petitions Committee on 20 March to discuss this matter further.