Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has initiated a range of discussions with the UK Department for International Trade about Scotland’s role in the development of future UK trade arrangements, as set out in our paper of that name published in August 2018. We have also used these meetings to outline Scotland’s economic and other interests in future trade agreements. We have provided the UK Government with detailed analysis of our interests to inform trade negotiations with Australia, New Zealand and other countries. However, the Scottish Government does not receive full information about, and is excluded from the process of developing, the UK negotiating mandate across all areas of potential trade agreements. The recent exclusion from the process of developing the UK Government’s market access offers to Australia, despite the potentially devastating impact of this on the Scottish rural economy, highlights the deficiencies in the current engagement process. The Scottish Government should be involved in all stages of the negotiation process across all areas of trade agreements.

General practice has continued to provide services to patients throughout the pandemic. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic some routine disease management has needed to be paused but only in those instances where it is safe to do so.

General practices are following Public Health Scotland’s advice to reserve face to face appointments in primary care settings for those consultations where the GP decides it is clinically necessary. This is not just to prevent the general transmission of the coronavirus but to protect general practices as medical spaces for patients who have a clinical reason for face to face attendance.

Public Health Scotland's advice is not tied to the levels Scottish local authorities are in. General practices will remain open regardless but will continue to manage face to face appointments consistent with this advice. At present all patients are still able to get an appointment by telephone or video call.

How to treat ear wax is a clinical decision for GPs; ear syringing is no longer the preferred procedure and many GPs did not routinely provide it before the pandemic led to GPs reducing face to face appointments where possible.

We remain on target to decarbonise rail passenger services in Scotland by 2035 as set out in the Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan published July 2020.

Good progress is already being made to decarbonise the East Kilbride and Barrhead routes, Borders line and Fife Circle (providing services to Leven) as a first phase of delivery. Development work is also progressing on the wider decarbonisation plan including decarbonisation/electrification infrastructure and electric, battery and hydrogen rolling stock.

Updates on progress will be published as the strategy develops, key elements of which will also form part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2, with phase 1 having been published in February 2021.

Regarding part (b) of the question, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00852 on 1 July 2021. 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 .

Further to the answer provided to S6W-00200 on 3 June 2021, Scottish Ministers considered all options for the future operation of ScotRail services after the current contract, which is expected to expire in March 2022. We have to work within current UK rail legislation, principally the Railways Act 1993, which neither the Scottish Ministers nor the Scottish Parliament have powers to change.

Having regard to the framework set out in the 1993 Act, the Scottish Ministers’ revised Franchising Policy Statement, the continuing uncertainty arising from the Covid 19 pandemic and the delay in publication of the UK Government’s White Paper on rail, the Scottish Ministers considered that it would not be appropriate to award a franchise agreement to any party at this time. We are therefore undertaking mobilisation arrangements for a wholly owned company of the Scottish Government (ScotRail Trains Ltd.) to provide ScotRail services when the current franchise expires. This is in line with our duty under section 30 of the 1993 Act to provide or secure the provision of passenger rail services where a franchise agreement comes to an end and no further franchise agreement has been entered into in respect of the services.

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 .

The UK government`s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is responsible for the delivery of driving tests in Scotland, however the Scottish government works closely with the DVSA to ensure that waiting times to access a driving test are minimised as much as possible to the benefit of people in all parts of Scotland, including our rural communities. Working in collaboration with the DVSA we secured delegated authority earlier this year for some transport operators and the emergency services to undertake driving tests for their own staff, thereby reducing the numbers of people awaiting tests at DVSA test centres. In advance of driving tests resuming when Scotland moved to Protection Level 3 on 26 April 2021, we engaged with the DVSA on their remobilisation plans and the development of communications materials to ensure that candidates were “test ready” when they presented for a test. We continue to meet regularly with the DVSA to discuss ways in which we can expedite access to driving tests and are currently engaging with them on their plans to immediately increase the number of driving theory tests being offered when the rules on physical distancing within public indoor settings change.

Chargepoints on the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network are installed and owned by the respective hosts. As set out in the grant award terms and conditions, it is the hosts’ responsibility to ensure that the charge points are maintained and in a serviceable condition.

The CPS service centre, commonly referred to as the ‘back-office’ and currently operated by BP Pulse, proactively monitors the network for faults and also receives information directly from drivers to the customer services team. The initial action is to attempt to remedy the issue remotely.

If that isn’t possible, the back office will notify the charge point owner and log the fault with the charge point supplier who will send an engineer to investigate and resolve the issue on-site.

Similarly, when a fault is reported to them by drivers, a fault ticket is logged with the respective owner and engineer if it cannot be remedied remotely by the back-office.

The CPS back-office aim to log all faults with owners and suppliers within 48 hours. There is no target timescale for resolving the fault as that is a contractual agreement between the owner and the charge point supplier and therefore outside of CPS’ direct control. However, the CPS back-office actively monitors those charge points awaiting a fix, and will prompt hosts and suppliers for progress updates on a regular basis as appropriate.

There are a number of private network operator who also provide chargepoints in Scotland. Scottish Ministers have no role in monitoring these.

The Scottish Government through the Energy Savings Trust (EST) deliver the Domestic Charge Point Fund to assist with costs associated with installation of a home charger, this provides enhanced support to the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV’s) Electric Vehicle Home charge Scheme (EVHS).

As part of EVHS, OZEV currently offers applicants £350 towards the cost of a home charge point and EST will provide up to £250 further funding on top of this, with an additional £100 available for those in the most remote parts of Scotland where the cost of installing charge points has historically been higher.

The installation of domestic charge points is carried out by accredited installers approved by OZEV and EST, currently there are 491 installers able to install charepoints across Scotland a map of these installers can be found on the EST website https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/grants-and-loans/domestic-charge-point-funding/ . The map displays the installers main office, the location of these offices doesn’t not affect their ability to install a charge point as some companies will employ engineers working remotely.

To date Scottish Government has provided grant funding to install over 8,849 domestic charge points across Scotland which further supports Electric Vehicle (EV) uptake.

In addition to governance arrangements for the entire EST programme, which includes a detailed annual work plan setting out agreed outcomes and deliverables, accountable governance owners within TS and EST, quarterly Board meetings alongside progress, risk and financial management controls, officials monitor the provision of domestic charge points at monthly intervals with EST, and evaluate the performance of the scheme annually.

The Scottish Government publishes summaries of the latest key economic statistics and analysis on the Scottish Economy in its Monthly Economic Brief, available at:

https://www.gov.scot/collections/monthly-economic-briefs/

The Scottish Government’s last outlook for the economy was published in the December 2020 edition, before the furlough scheme was extended to September. However, the latest analysis from the Bank of England is for unemployment to peak at 5.5% in 2021 as the furlough scheme ends, broadly in range with the latest forecasts from other independent forecasters.

The next set of forecasts for the Scottish economy will be published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission on Thursday 26 August.

Reflecting on the success of the vaccination programme, our revised strategic intent is to work “to suppress the virus to a level consistent with alleviating its harms while we recover and rebuild for a better future.” Deciding when to remove COVID-19 restrictions will be informed by conditions based on clinical advice. These conditions will ensure that the virus remains sufficiently under control in Scotland and that enough people are protected by two doses of the vaccination. At present, our current analysis of the state of the epidemic indicates that the lifting of Level 0 restrictions should not happen until at least all adults over 40 years of age have been protected by two doses of the vaccine. We expect this to happen by 9 August. However, in order to maintain the progress we have made in returning to more normality, it will be important that people continue to stick to a set of baseline measures to stop the virus resurging and to protect those who do not have protection from vaccination.

I want us to get to a position where we do not have to think about Covid in our day-to-day lives in any respect. However, if we want to continue our progression towards that time, we might all have to accept baseline protective measures for a longer period, and we will work with stakeholders on what these should be.

But ultimately, we are dealing with an unpredictable virus, and we have to respond to what the data is telling us at the time.

Travellers returning to Scotland from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace.

NHS Scotland has no role in setting the price of the kits. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so our ability to reduce costs unilaterally is limited.