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The requested information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. Number 64646.

Electricity regulation, generation, transmission and distribution are reserved to the UK Government. This means that mandating financial benefits for communities through the consents process is beyond the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. However we have pressed the UK Government to take action in this area on many occasions, in terms of transmission and generation infrastructure.

While we welcome the UK Government’s announcements on providing energy bill discounts and wider community benefit from upgrades to the electricity transmission network, Scottish Ministers will continue to press the UK Government to explore making such benefits for transmission and generation mandatory, subject to full consultation. I have written to the UK Secretary of State this week to urge the UK Government to ensure there is meaningful engagement with the Scottish Government as these proposals are developed.

Despite the powers to mandate being reserved, community benefits are well-established in Scotland with our national Community Benefits Register indicating that over £25 million worth of community benefits were committed from renewable energy projects in the last 12 months. We continue to explore different avenues within devolved powers that will build on the successes of our Good Practice Principles, the Onshore Wind Sector Deal, and work to develop a solar deployment ambition.

The Scottish Government has a robust process in place for creating, updating and withdrawing COVID-19 guidance. The health and safety of health and social care workers continues to be at the forefront of our approach in developing policies and guidance. However, it is important to note that the extended use of facemask guidance was never mandatory, and NHS Boards have responsibility for Health and Safety assessments in the workplace in an operational context.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body announced on 23 November that it will undertake an investigation in line with its duties under the MSP code of conduct.

As stated then, in the interests of fairness to all, and to avoid prejudicing our investigation, the Corporate Body will not comment on any matters that could have a bearing on the process. It is important to stress, however, that the Corporate Body remains wholly committed to openness and transparency and will release all material that it can, when it can, in line with its legal obligations.

Imprints are a way of stating who is responsible for publishing campaigning or promotional political material and who they are promoting it for.  This point is reflected in the Electoral Commission’s recent statutory guidance on digital imprints under the Elections Act 2022. 

The functions of the SPCB are laid out in the Scotland Act and require the SPCB to provide the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  In principle, the SPCB does not include imprints on its material as it is publishing material for the purpose of these statutory functions and not political campaigning or promoting.   

The SPCB provides support to Members through the Reimbursement of Members Expenses Scheme to produce and distribute parliamentary funded publications to inform constituents of the work of the Member in their electoral area or in Parliament or about the work of the Parliament itself.

As SPCB resources are applied for the Parliament’s purposes, in accordance with the SPCB’s statutory functions, Members must abide by the rules in the SPCB Policy on Members’ Publications where costs are met from the Members’ Expenses Scheme.

The Policy restricts members from including material promoting the political views of any person, political party, the government or other organisation involved in political campaigning in parliamentary funded publications.  The Policy also prohibits the issue of parliamentary funded publications in the immediate run up to elections and referendums. For its purposes, the Policy requires the inclusion of a statement in relation to how the costs were met for such a publication and a header which must include the Parliament’s Corporate Identity, alongside the Member’s name and their area of representation, whether the publication is online or in hard copy.

The Quarantine mailbox provides a holding area for email messages that are automatically identified as potentially harmful (e.g., potential phishing and malware messages). 

The IT Helpdesk initially sent out emails to all users to raise awareness of the Junk and Quarantine storage areas when it was introduced and most recently in 2020.  Since then, the screens at the BIT Engagement desk at Holyrood have been used to remind Members about the existence of the Quarantine area, and staff have been available to offer advice and assistance on accessing the folder.

Staff in the BIT Office are currently investigating a means of more actively alerting Members and other users of the email system to any quarantined email messages.  The alerts will take the form of a weekly roundup email reminding users to release or delete items as appropriate.

Scottish Government wrote to local authorities on 12 September confirming the strategic objective, distribution methodology and individual allocations of the £30 million fund. The distribution methodology, agreed with local authority leaders, is based 50% on the number of displaced people from Ukraine in each local authority area and 50% on the adjusted Strategic Housing Investment Framework (SHIF) indicator formula that is used for distributing homelessness prevention funding.

While there is an expectation that this funding will help councils support displaced Ukrainians into longer-term accommodation and reduce the risk of homelessness, the funding is not ring-fenced, and local authorities are able to exercise full discretion locally to support other groups. This is in line with the Verity House Agreement and recognises that local authorities are best placed to allocate their resources to meet competing demands for their services.

The letter has been published and is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-resettlement-letter-to-local-authorities-about-funding/

Scottish Government guidance is reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that information for the public and workplaces aligns to current policy. Policy is driven by the latest data, evidence and expert advice and is reflected in the communication of guidance. Throughout the pandemic public health advice on a range of complementary protective measures - including good hand hygiene, physical distancing, social mixing and improved ventilation – has been consistently deployed in response to the stage of the pandemic, to reduce risk from all transmission routes and support infection resilience to COVID-19.

The total number of FTE staff (rounded to the nearest whole number) employed in the public sector, within the Peatland Action programme, to undertake peatland restoration work – as of November 2023 – is as follows:

Scotland’s National Parks support the communities living and working within them. They work with a wide range of local partners – including farmers, local businesses, third sector organisations, landowners and managers – to support a thriving local economy and maximise benefits for the environment, climate, economy and people. They can play a role in generating investment, creating new employment opportunities and bringing farmers, land managers and communities together.

Any nomination for a new National Park should be founded upon local community demand. We are asking groups to demonstrate evidence of local support and engagement with local communities and stakeholders in the development of their proposals.

To ensure the nomination and appraisal process for selecting a new National Park is open, fair and transparent, we consulted on an appraisal framework with broad criteria that will help us select the area or areas to be taken forward as a National Park proposal. In order to meet these criteria, nominating groups should demonstrate how designating their area as a National Park will help to meet the special needs of the area, including the social and economic needs. Groups also need to provide evidence of local community engagement and participation in the development of the proposal and they should provide details of support from local interest groups and communities. We have also asked groups to set out how their proposal will bring wider benefits to Scotland as a whole, for example by promoting nature-friendly farming and responsible investment in natural capital which will support the local economy.

Following the appraisal process, subject to at least one nomination being selected to proceed as a National Park proposal, we expect to appoint a reporter to undertake a more detailed investigation and report on the proposal. The reporter investigation will include extensive consultation and engagement with local communities, businesses, relevant local authorities and other interested parties – including those from the agricultural sector and farming and crofting community. The report and the outcome of these consultations will inform our final decision on Scotland’s next National Park.

In addition to these consultations, we are undertaking a range of impact assessments in order to assess the likely impacts of our policy to designate at least one new National Park by 2026. This will include a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.