Chamber and committees

Our forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will set out a series of measures the Scottish Government will take to support new and existing workers take advantage of the job opportunities of the net zero transition, and how we will work with industry, trade unions, educational providers and others going forward.

Hydrogen officials are engaging closely with Skills Development Scotland who are working with the energy sector to plan for a multi-skilled workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system. This includes enabling skilled offshore workers in the oil and gas sector to carry their experience and expertise into different roles such as hydrogen and renewables as our energy sector evolves.

Various research has been carried out to map out the hydrogen skills landscape and understand the likely skills gaps. This includes ClimateXChange’s Mapping the current and forecasted hydrogen skills landscape for Scotland which was published last year, as well as Aberdeen City Council and BP’s Hydrogen in Scotland Skills and Qualifications Gap Analysis .

The Scottish Government has ongoing engagement with the UK Government in relation to international hydrogen engagement and the development of the export opportunity.

The Scottish Government has provided the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) with £38,713 to fund project work in support of this Stroke Improvement Plan commitment. This funding will support a project aiming to assess the feasibility and acceptability of video assisted assessment of patients with hyperacute stroke in Scotland. This will involve an appropriately trained clinician holding a live video call with the patient during the time that the ambulance is travelling to the patient. SAS aim to interview for staff to support the project in late May. The project start date is currently June 2024 and the project work is scheduled to conclude by December 2024.

The Scottish Government is a member of the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) Partnership. The partnership’s actions to tackle inequalities that affect outcomes after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are laid out in the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021 to 2026 .

Work to date includes:

• SALFS development of vest-with-breast attachments for use on CPR mannequins which can be used by those delivering training sessions to address some of the barriers to CPR intervention in women.
• Targeted work by delivery partners in communities affected by inequalities in OHCA outcomes across Scotland to promote awareness of cardiac arrest and provide CPR and defibrillator training.
• Delivery of the 'Play you Part' campaign and the development of accessible CPR training resources

As set out in our Hydrogen Action Plan, hydrogen in the transport sector could act as a complementary energy source alongside electrification, providing an option to parts of the transport sector such as heavy-duty vehicles, when full electrification is challenging. We support the rollout of infrastructure needed for hydrogen vehicles to operate in Scotland: Aberdeen City has two hydrogen refuelling stations.

The Scottish Government is funding the Hydrogen Business Development service, delivered through the Energy Technology Partnership, to accelerate knowledge exchange between academia and enterprises to stimulate innovation in the hydrogen sector.

Further work is being undertaken to consider the range of views from our consultation on potential restrictions to alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland.

We remain committed to progressing proposals to reduce children and young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing whilst also recognising the importance of balancing any potential impacts on business and industry.

We are continuing to engage with public health stakeholders and business organisations with an interest in alcohol marketing to ensure the Scottish Government strikes the right balance in achieving its public health aims.

The Scottish Government continue to meet with COSLA and individual local authorities on a regular basis to discuss the issues affecting local government. Moreover, we have increased funding to local government by £574.6 million - or 4.3% - in 2024-25.

However, health and safety regulations are not devolved to the Scottish Government, and the Health and Safety Executive has UK wide responsibility for enforcement of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

Gillian Martin MSP, Minister for Climate Action, is leading on the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill for the portfolio. As Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, I remain the member with oversight.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) announced a ‘.. review of how best to significantly increase the number of social enterprises, employee-owned businesses and co-operatives in Scotland, supporting regional regeneration and the wealth of local communities’.

The independent review is nearing completion and is anticipated to complete, with findings and recommendations published, prior to summer recess 2024.