Chamber and committees

It is not the case that one category of project, under INTOG, may create additional cumulative impact while another may not. All offshore wind projects have the potential to contribute to cumulative impact on our natural environment and other sea users. The INTOG planning process has outlined spatial limitations for the entire INTOG planning process. This includes limitations on where Targeted Oil and Gas projects can be located, and where Innovation projects will be considered. It also includes areas of exclusion to help manage, at the plan level, the potential for negative impact.

The amount of time spent on the physical works for each building retrofit can vary and depends on a range of factors. Some of the factors which influence the time taken are: the building type; the types of work needed to improve the energy efficiency of the building; and the type of zero emissions heating installed.

Our workforce assessment, currently underway, will give insight into the drivers of the range of retrofit times and related workforce and skills needs across relevant sectors. In addition, working with industry, we will co-produce a Heat in Buildings supply chain action plan focussed on ensuring industry can deliver at the pace and scale needed.

The Scottish Government publishes figures relating to Local Authority New Build Completions in the ‘Local Authority Starts and Completions’ table found on our website here; https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/

Some of these homes will have been supported by Scottish Government funding and some will have been financed through other routes.

Retailers are entitled to claim a reasonable handling fee and be reimbursed for the deposit for each processed in-scope container. The Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL), will provide retailers with appropriate guidance which will aid retailers in identifying such containers and therefore limit the chances of ineligible containers being returned.

As Scheme Administrator, CSL will verify collected containers prior to payment to ensure no ineligible containers have a deposit or handling fee paid.

Under the producer responsibility principle, these costs will be borne by industry.

The function of Scottish Water is to treat and supply high quality drinking water as well as to collect, treat and safely dispose of wastewater for those customers who are connected to the public water and/or wastewater network. To this end, Scottish Water has delivered significant levels of investment since its creation in 2002 and local authorities would not be funding and undertaking work which falls under the specific functions of Scottish Water. Local authorities have separate responsibilities in relation to private water supplies, any private water and waste water pipes which fall under their responsibility, some roads drainage and also for flood risk management. In areas where there are inter-linking responsibilities, some partnerships have been established between Scottish Water and local authorities, such as the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership and the Edinburgh and Lothians Drainage Partnership. In addition to this, Scottish Water has partnerships with local authorities, where appropriate, where there is an opportunity to develop and deliver innovative solutions, such as the Stirling district heating scheme and work being delivered through Clyde Gateway, among others.

Scottish Water would be happy to further discuss its partnership work with Local Authorities if the member would find that helpful.

During Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2022, we welcomed the training offer that Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, has developed to ensure that our future workforce feels confident to support anyone who comes forward with concerns about disordered eating. We are pleased to see that all our medical schools in Scotland are in discussions with Beat to deliver eating disorder training, or are already delivering it.

We were also pleased to announce additional funding for Beat which includes Beyond the Symptoms Training for GPs and healthcare professionals, which will support them to identify when a patient has an eating disorder, and confidently intervene early. This training will be available from April.

Our guidance to local authorities is clear that the £150 cost of living payment should not be applied to historic council tax debt or arrears. Households who have difficulty in meeting their council tax liability should contact their council to establish if they are eligible for a council tax reduction. This scheme currently reduces the council tax liabilities of over 470,000 households according to their circumstances and ability to pay and applications can be backdated by up to six months.

On rare occasions, where patients require very specialist treatment that cannot be provided in Scotland, cross border transfers are used to facilitate care and treatment in other parts of the UK. Decisions about cross border transfers to specialist centres in other parts of the UK are a clinical decision that needs to be discussed and agreed with the involvement of the patient and their family, taking into account a range of factors.

Under the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries are already exempt from rating where they are used for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power, where the power is mainly or exclusively ‘for distribution for sale to consumers’.

The Scottish Government delivers the most generous non-domestic rates relief for renewable generators that offer community benefit, as well as to all small scale hydro generators. Responding to the climate crisis, we are also expanding eligibility for the Business Growth Accelerator to include the installation of solar panels as a qualifying property improvement. The Business Growth Accelerator provides relief for 12 months on the rateable value increase associated with a qualifying improvement that has been made to a property.

We await the outcome of the UK Government’s Business Rates Review: Technical Consultation with interest.

The Scottish Government is currently, as part of its programme of planning reform, undertaking a review of permitted development rights (PDR) including those associated with energy generation.

As part of the phased programme for review of PDR we will review the current provisions relating to various types of energy generation, including solar panels and other approaches such as ground and air source heat pumps, to consider whether these remain fit for purpose and whether amending them could help to achieve Scottish Government’s ambitions for renewable energy and achieving net-zero emissions by 2045.