Chamber and committees

The UK Digital Economy Bill covers a wide range of areas. With a few exceptions, the Bill extends to Scotland. It mainly relates to reserved matters but the Scottish Government, after extensive discussion on the detail of the devolved provisions in the Bill, has now lodged a Legislative Consent Memorandum: http://www.parliament.scot/SPLCM-S05-8.pdf The draft Motion seeks consent from the Scottish Parliament for the UK Parliament to legislate for Scotland in relation to devolved matters and matters which alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government welcomes moves to update the Electronic Communications Code but understands the concerns being raised by landowners and others about the changes being made to the level of consideration paid to landowners – including public sector bodies – under the new Code. The level of consideration paid under the Code is reserved. We also welcome moves to prevent access by persons under the age of 18 to internet pornography and amendments to the Bill to prevent or restrict the use of communication devices, such as mobile phones, for drug dealing. We also welcome amendments to the Bill to improve access for disabled people to on-demand programme services.

On data sharing to improve public service delivery, to reduce debt owed to the public sector and to tackle fraud against the public sector, the Scottish Minsters will consider very carefully, assuming the Bill is passed, where we can make regulations to allow data sharing by devolved bodies to tackle these areas. Any such regulations made by the Scottish Ministers are subject to the affirmative procedure in the Scottish Parliament. We welcome the provisions in the Bill on data sharing for research and statistical purposes as these will streamline and strengthen the sharing of data for research purposes and enhance analytical work carried out by the Scottish Government.

On the BBC, the Scottish Government welcomes the new regulatory regime as set out in the new Charter and Agreement regarding the BBC and will continue to engage with both the BBC and Ofcom regarding implementation. The Scottish Government continues to oppose the imposition of welfare policy, in terms of the funding of the licence fee for the over 75s, to the BBC.

Aviation security is reserved to the UK Parliament. Following an in-depth review of the security measures at airports in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, passenger screening at airports at Campbeltown and Tiree has been streamlined for customers flying to Glasgow airport. No changes have been introduced at Barra. Passengers transferring to other flights at Glasgow will be subject to the same security process as all other passengers departing Glasgow.

The stability of the Eurozone is important to the Scottish and wider global economy for the maintenance and development of international trade and investment links.

In 2015, Scotland’s exports to Eurozone countries were estimated at £10.1 billion, accounting for 82% of Scottish exports to the EU and 35% of Scottish total international exports.

Countries within the Eurozone are also the source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Scottish economy. Based on EY's Global Investment Monitor, France and Germany accounted for 18.5% of FDI projects into Scotland in 2015.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06333 on 1 February 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The scheme will be delivered by ScotRail in mid-2017. Further details will be announced in sufficient time to allow passengers to benefit from the free week (and other initiatives) in mid-2017. This initiative will not impact on
projects that have been identified and planned for delivery (e.g. those committed through the ScotRail SQUIRE scheme).

The Scottish Government’s alcohol strategy, Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action, is well regarded internationally and contains over 40 measures to tackle alcohol misuse. The Framework has been shown to have a positive impact including 2.6 per cent reduction in consumption due to the multi-buy discount ban; increased delivery of Alcohol Brief Interventions; legislation to ban irresponsible promotions and the introduction of a lower drink drive limit. However, given the link between affordability and harm, we remain committed to minimum unit pricing which is the most effective pricing measure to tackle the high strength, low cost alcohol that causes so much damage to our communities. We are in the process of refreshing our Framework and will consider what further action to take to reduce alcohol-related harm.

The USA continues to be Scotland’s top international trading partner, with exports to the US worth £4.6 billion in 2015. In addition, the USA is Scotland’s top source of inward investment, providing 43 of Scotland’s 119 inward investment projects secured in 2015.

The extent to which any UK trade deal could enhance Scotland’s economy will depend entirely on the scope and scale of any such agreement. The Scottish Government will do everything possible to ensure that Scotland’s interests are properly represented in any future trade negotiations between the UK and US, which can only take place once the UK has formally left the EU.

The Scottish Government is clear on the importance of broadening Scotland’s export base and growing our exports and we are working closely with SDI and our enterprise agencies to deliver the actions contained in our Trade and Investment Strategy, including the recently announced that is why we have created a Trade Board, which will provide advice on to boost the number of exporters, to help join up services and support and increase the number of exports to new markets.

The latest statistics from the Exports Statistics Scotland publication estimate Scottish exports to the rest of the UK at £49.8 billion; Scottish exports to the EU at £12.3 billion; and Scottish exports to the US at £4.6 billion. The USA continues to be Scotland’s top international trading country, while the EU remains the largest single market for Scotland’s international exports.

We are therefore well aware of the importance of these markets to the Scottish economy. Our Trade and Investment Strategy published in March last year set out a comprehensive action plan to boost Scotland’s export activity in these markets and beyond. The recently announced Trade board will support the delivery of these actions.

Before the Scottish Government brings into effect changes to require additional vehicles to be licensed under taxis and private hire car licensing, it will undertake work to evaluate the impact on operators.

The Scottish Government remain determined to hit the target of 90% of people seen within 18 weeks from referral to treatment for Psychological Therapies. We will continue to work with boards, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran to make sure that happens right across Scotland.

As part of the £54.1 million package of support announced by the First Minister in January 2016, £4.8 million has been awarded to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to establish a Mental Health Access Improvement Support Team. This team will provide support to boards to improve access to psychological therapies for all ages, including for children and young people.

The Improvement Programme will be delivered by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, with support from NHS Education for Scotland to enhance the supply and training of the workforce, further supported by £24.6 million Scottish Government funding. Following a series of commissioning visits, in June 2016 NES wrote to all boards setting out an individual, tailored offer of funding and workforce development. A significant proportion of the funding from NES is for service posts, intended to support service delivery by providing training, coaching and supervision in evidence-based interventions.

This package of funding includes £24.7 million to be provided to NHS boards to improve their capacity to see more people more quickly, with NHS Ayrshire and Arran receiving a funding awardee a total of £1,813,900.

Improving the competiveness of Scotland’s economy is a central aim of Scotland’s Economic Strategy (SES). Our approach is based on the twin objectives of boosting competitiveness and tackling inequality.

The SES sets out 4 priority areas for supporting Scotland’s economic growth: Internationalisation, Investment, Innovation and Inclusive Growth. We are taking action under these 4 areas. We have established a Board of Trade, and are creating permanent trade representation in Berlin to add to our Innovation and Investment Hubs in Dublin, London and Brussels. The Scottish Growth Scheme will help to support investment in Scotland. We’re taking forward a number of actions to improve our innovation performance. We’re also equipping our young people for the future by increasing the number of Modern Apprenticeship opportunities to 30,000 per year by 2020.

Our Enterprise and Skills Review will bring even greater integration and focus to the delivery of our enterprise and skills support, to help ensure we maximise the contribution our agencies make to improving Scotland’s economic performance.