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The Scottish Government has not commissioned a formal evaluation of the play park renewal programme. The Scottish Government will provide a report on the play park renewal programme once all renewals have been completed by Local Authority partners.

Following receipt of the Climate Change Committee (CCC)’s report, work is ongoing to consider the advice carefully and at pace. My intention is to lay regulations to set Scottish carbon budgets in legislation as soon as possible following Scottish Ministers’ consideration of both the CCC’s advice and the target-setting criteria contained in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. On the same day as laying the regulations, I will publish an accompanying statement providing further detail on the proposed carbon budgets and the Scottish Government’s position.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37973 on 12 June 2025. 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.

Any changes, including transferring the licence or modifying its scope, must be agreed upon in writing with NatureScot.

The current years red squirrel licence granted to Forestry and Land Scotland contains a condition (i.e. four) stating that, this licence can only be used by agents if prior permission has been granted by a FLS Decision Maker.

The current beaver licence states in condition seven that, the licence holder may permit agents or assistants to work under the terms of this licence.

The research licence states in condition two that, this licence only covers work carried out for FLS, by FLS employees and registered volunteers.

We are working with Planning Aid Scotland (PAS) to strengthen local elected member training, addressing the housing emergency by building capacity and improve decision-making within the planning system. The Scottish Government supported PAS in producing a high-level training route map for elected member training. The recommendations have been considered and we expect the next stage to involve formulating and testing pilot training.

The Scottish Government supported Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to take forward work on a set of standard templates for common planning conditions, good practice on Section 75 agreements and aligning consents. HOPS will share outputs with authorities once complete.

Our work with partners on stalled housing sites to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. A progress report has been prepared and is available by contacting DirectorPAR@gov.scot.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution of the SME sector to the delivery of the right homes in the right places and their role in tackling the Housing Emergency.

The planning appeal and local review fee structure is designed to correspond with the different scales of planning applications. The fees operate under the same general principle i.e. the smaller the development, the lower the fee. The appeal fees are approximately 60% lower than those which are payable for planning applications.

It is important to note that in recent years, over 92% of planning applications have been approved and so the number of appeals arising is relatively low.

A business and regulatory impact assessment was carried out in relation to the new fees regulations. This considered the potential impacts of the regulations on businesses of all sizes.

We will monitor the implementation of the fees regulations and their impact, including on the performance of the appeals system. This will help us to identify, and in the future address, if necessary, any unintended consequences.

We are making good progress delivering across the 23 actions outlined in our Planning and the Housing Emergency Delivery Plan. Our National Planning Hub is now operational and on 22 May a Chief Planner letter was issued inviting authorities to identify areas for surge capacity, particularly on priority areas including housing.

Our work with key partners to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. We are committed to providing stakeholders regular updates on the Delivery Plan and on 30 April, myself and Chief Planner issued a letter detailing progress across all four themes of policy, delivery, capacity and efficiency.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.

The Scottish Government set out its response to the Just Transition Commission Report A Just Transition for Aberdeen and the North East in a statement to parliament on 3 June. This confirmed that we accept the headline recommendations in principle and will take time to consider the report in detail before providing a full response.

Before we can undertake some of the planning that the sector needs, we need clarity from the UK Government in several key reserved areas, including the future regulatory and fiscal regimes for North Sea oil and gas.

The Scottish Government will also continue to provide support to the region and energy workforces within our devolved competence. This support includes the new £8.5 million round of the Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray and our £125 million investment in the Aberdeen City Region Deal.

The application, claim and repayment processes for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme are currently administered by Energy Saving Trust (EST) via a competitively tendered contract. EST report their performance to the Scottish Government monthly against set Key Performance Indicators, which is monitored closely.

The Scottish Government is working to collate new data which will provide more detailed analysis of average application and claim processing timescales to assess the impact of recent and future streamlining improvements. This will be published in the longer term once it has been assured for accuracy.

Applicants to the scheme are able to track their journey and progress at any point through the application and claims portal.

Employment and taxation, including false and deceptive declarations by self-employed workers, are reserved matters.

The Scottish Government introduced eLearning in December 2024 which complements existing practical guidance to support the application of Fair Work First in procurement and to discourage ‘disguised employment’, including bogus self-employment.