Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is engaging with local authorities and other key stakeholders to identify an early adopter low-emission zone location for Scotland’s first low-emission zone in 2018. A number of local authorities have already expressed an interest in their Local Air Quality Management 2016 report to explore the feasibility of a low-emission zone.

The low-emission zone would seek to restrict certain vehicles that did not meet the low-emission zone standards, and issue a penalty charge if those vehicles then entered a low-emission zone. Petrol and diesel vehicles which meet the low-emission zone standards would be allowed to enter the low-emission zone.

The Scottish Government, as part of meeting Climate Change targets, is committed to freeing Scotland’s towns, cities and communities from the damaging emissions of petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles by 2050 and to phasing out half of all fossil fuelled vehicles from urban environments across Scotland by 2030. We have no current plans to phase out petrol or diesel vehicles by 2025.

The Scottish Government is currently developing a programme of activity around the implementation of the recommendations, as well as engaging with stakeholders. We will set out progress and next steps in the spring.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with the Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Development International, Skills Development Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise to discuss a range of matters, including the Enterprise and Skills Review.

The Review is overseen by the Ministerial Review Group, comprising a wide range of key stakeholders including all enterprise and skills agencies, to ensure that the Review is robust, produces sound and evidence-based recommendations, and is driven forward with energy and creativity.

The Ministerial Review Group has met on seven occasions since being formed in July 2016, with the next meeting taking place on 23 February 2017. Notes of previous meetings are available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Economy/EntandSkillsreview/docsfrommeetings

In addition to this, there have been a further nine meetings with all agencies represented at which the Review was discussed. Notes of these meetings are not published.

Any suicide is a tragedy and we express sincere condolences to the families of any person who has died by suicide. Nearly three-quarters of suicides in Scotland are by men. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) OECD reports that death rates from suicide are much higher for men than for women across the EU.

The Scottish population suicide rate fell by 18% between the periods 2001-2005 and 2011-2015. In the last 20 years rates of suicide have fallen for males of all ages in Scotland.

The Suicide Prevention Strategy 2013-16 (published 2013) focuses on key areas which the Scottish Government believes will continue the downward trend in suicides. Further commitments on suicide prevention will be developed in a new Suicide Prevention Strategy or Action Plan to be published in late 2017 or early 2018.

On family law, the Scottish Government intends to review the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to ensure the interests of children and their need to form and maintain relationships with key adults in their lives – parents, step-parents, grandparents and other family members – are at the heart of any new statutory measures. The Scottish Government also intends to publish a Family Justice Modernisation Strategy on improving how family cases are dealt with in the courts and on how the voice of the child is best heard.

The Scottish Civil Justice Council recently consulted on new rules for Fatal Accident Inquiries. The consultation closed on 23 January and the responses to that consultation are currently being considered.

Secondary legislation will be brought forward in conjunction with the rules.

The Scottish Government recognises the health impacts of exposure to transport generated air pollution, especially on the very young and old and those with existing respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. Scotland’s air quality is generally good, but hotspots of poor air quality remain in some urban areas.

To address this, the Government is committed – through the Cleaner Air For Scotland Strategy (CAFS) - to deliver improvements in air quality and will establish Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone by 2018, as set out in the Programme for Government.

In 2016, we introduced into Scottish legislation the World Health Organisation guideline value for fine particulate matter known as PM_2.5, making us the first country in Europe to take this step. The Scottish objective for fine particulate matter known as PM₁₀ is more than twice as stringent as the equivalent UK and EU targets.

I can confirm that the deadline for the HEEPS loan – with 25% Cashback has been extended. Provided they have submitted their application and secured an offer by 31 March 2017, applicants will now be given a loan offer which is valid for 6 months, during which time they will need to complete works and claim. The new deadline is being promoted by the Home Energy Scotland advice centres through events, communications and social media, as well as through calls into the advice centres.

Our Switched On Fleets initiative commenced in 2014 and offered free, evidence-based analysis of public sector fleets, identifying new opportunities for the cost effective deployment of electric vehicles.

Through Switched On Fleets, we’ve provided over £3.7 million to local authorities and their partners to support the purchase or lease of electric vehicles. This will result in around 350 new electric vehicles entering the Scottish public sector fleet by spring 2017.

Building on Switched On Fleets, and as set out in the draft Climate Change Plan, published on 19 January 2017, we propose to work with Scotland Excel, COSLA and other partners to determine whether a new procurement policy could be developed, which introduces a presumption that all new vehicles purchased by public sector organisations in Scotland are ultra-low emission. We will publish our findings by the end of 2017.

An e-cosse event was held on the topic of ‘Electric Vehicle – Local Incentives’ on 17 December 2015. All speaker presentations from the event can be found at http://urbanforesight.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/11th-E-cosse-Forum-Presentations-Merged.compressed.pdf

Transport Scotland officials were also invited to present on the topic of local electric vehicle incentives at the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) Business Meeting on 19 August 2016.

Following discussions between Transport Scotland officials and COSLA, a paper was tabled and agreed at the COSLA Development, Economy & Sustainability Executive Group meeting on 9 December 2016.

The outputs of these discussions are reflected in the ‘National Framework of Local Incentives for Electric Vehicles’, developed by Urban Foresight on behalf of Transport Scotland and SCOTS and published on 4 November 2016 http://urbanforesight.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/REP-1409-TS-A-National-Framework-for-Local-Incentives.pdf.

We have no current plans to introduce a vehicle scrappage scheme in Scotland.