- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase spending on active travel in Edinburgh.
Answer
Spending on active travel will increase throughout Scotland as we realise the Programme for Government commitment to increase the active travel budget to at least £320 million or 10% of the transport budget from 2024-25 onwards. The detail of how that significant increase in investment will apply in different local authority areas is still to be determined.
The Scottish Government supports all local authorities to deliver active travel through a variety of programmes including several run by third sector partners which local authorities can bid into and two direct funds – a LA resource fund of £2 million and a capital fund of £35 million (Cycling Walking and Safer Streets) both distributed pro rata this year across all 32 local authorities.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it plans to spend on active travel projects in Edinburgh over the next four years.
Answer
Scottish Government funding for active travel in Edinburgh and other local authority areas is channelled through a number of programmes overseen by Transport Scotland. The single biggest programme is the Places for Everyone (PfE) programme, run by Sustrans with grant funding from Transport Scotland. From PfE, City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has an indicative amount of £52,129,410 allocated to active travel projects over the next four years.
In addition, CEC receives £3,378,467 of Cycling Walking and Safer routes funding directly from Transport Scotland from a £35 million annual pot distributed pro rata to all 32 local authorities in Scotland. There are also various other partner delivered programmes which CEC can bid into for active travel projects, including the Smarter Choices Smarter Places fund for behaviour change projects, run by Paths for All.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the value engineering exercise will have on the proposed Roseburn to Union Canal Path Link.
Answer
As the programme managers and project owners, the details of any such exercises lie with Sustrans and City of Edinburgh Council (CEC). We understand that a value engineering exercise was undertaken by CEC and Sustrans in view of escalating cost pressures and timescales for several Places for Everyone projects. Places for Everyone is an active travel infrastructure programme run and programme managed by Sustrans with grant funding from Transport Scotland.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 26 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects the referral to the Supreme Court of whether the question for a referendum on Scottish independence contained in the proposed referendum Bill relates to reserved matters to cost.
Answer
Litigation is ongoing and external costs will be published on a regular basis. We will publish initial data on spending in September, and on a quarterly basis thereafter, until the conclusion of the litigation.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on establishing a Scottish City of Refuge.
Answer
Work to develop the establishment of Scottish Cities of Refuge will start later in this Parliamentary term.
The development of Cities of Refuge will align with the approach of our New Scots refugee integration strategy, which sets out the vision of a welcoming Scotland, where people seeking protection are supported to rebuild their lives from the day they arrive.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to any environmental impact of hill tracks
constructed on peatland under permitted development rights, in light of Policy
33 in the draft fourth National Planning Framework.
Answer
The current permitted development rights for agricultural and forestry private ways (sometimes referred to as hill tracks) are subject to a prior notification and approval process, through which the planning authority can require changes to the design, manner of construction and route of a proposed private way to minimise potentially harmful impacts, including on peatland. It is for the relevant planning authority to consider each prior notification application on its individual merits.
It is open to the planning authority to refuse prior approval if they consider such impacts cannot be satisfactorily mitigated. Furthermore, if the proposed development would require an environmental impact assessment, the permitted development rights do not apply.
The Scottish Government is currently carrying out a review of permitted development rights in Scotland. We have committed to consider the permitted development rights for private ways as part of the review programme and we will consult on proposals for change in due course.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the introduction in 2014 of the prior notification process for
hill tracks constructed for agriculture or forestry succeeded in preventing
harmful environmental impacts.
Answer
The prior notification and approval process introduced in 2014 enables planning authorities to consider the impacts of agricultural and forestry private ways (sometimes referred to as hill tracks) on the environment and local amenity. Through this process, the planning authority can require changes to the design, manner of construction and route of a proposed private way to minimise potentially harmful impacts. It is for the relevant planning authority to consider each prior notification application on its individual merits.
It is open to the planning authority to refuse prior approval if they consider such impacts cannot be satisfactorily mitigated. Furthermore, if the proposed development would require an environmental impact assessment, the permitted development rights do not apply.
The Scottish Government is currently carrying out a review of permitted development rights in Scotland. We have committed to consider the permitted development rights for private ways as part of the review programme and we will consult on proposals for change in due course.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Regan on 30 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not yet drafted the Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies, following the Justice Committee’s inquiry in 2013 and the Scottish Government’s response to it.
Answer
The Scottish Government has prepared a draft Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.
To ensure that the draft Code is fair and workable for all users we will seek views from consumer facing bodies and land owning land maintenance companies before we progress to publication.
Plans for engaging are underway.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how its cross-government Covid Recovery policies will take account of the recommendations of its COVID-19 Ventilation Short-Life Working Group.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many times and (b) on what dates it has been represented at meetings of the specialised committees established under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, also broken down by which committees it was represented at, and what information it has regarding how this compares with the overall (i) number and (ii) dates of meetings of these bodies.
Answer
There have been two Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) specialised committee meetings so far this year:
- The Specialised Committee on Energy, on 30 March 2022
- The Specialised Committee on Fisheries, on 27 April 2022
Scottish Government officials accepted invitations as observers to these meetings from the UK delegation.
In 2021 Scottish Government officials accepted invitations, from the UK delegation, as observers to 18 TCA specialised committee meetings:
- Social Security Coordination, on 6t July
- Fisheries, on 20 July
- Energy, on 14 July
- Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, on 22-23 September
- Customs Cooperation and Rules of Origin, on 7 October
- Trade in Goods, on 8 October
- Services, Investment and Digital Trade, on 11 October
- Level Playing Field for Open and Fair Competition and Sustainable Development, on 12 October
- Regulatory Cooperation, on 13 October
- Air Transport, on 14 October
- Technical Barriers to Trade, on 15 October
- Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation, on 19 October
- Fisheries, on 27 October
- Trade Partnership Committee, on 15 November
- Aviation Safety, on 23 November
- Road Transport, on 24 November
- VAT and Recovery of Taxes and Duties, on 15 December
- Participation in Union Programmes, on 21 December
There were a further two TCA specialised committee meetings during 2021 that Scottish Government officials did not observe:
- Public Procurement, on 12 October
- Intellectual Property, on 13 October
