Chamber and committees

Councils must give due regard to the statutory guidance published by the Scottish Government in contracting for retrofit and energy efficiency projects. We would expect councils to apply relevant and proportionate selection criteria to establish the suitability of bidders as part of their procurement. These are the minimum standards or requirements that bidders must meet in order to progress. For example by establishing their suitability; financial standing; and their technical and professional ability to undertake the necessary works.

Councils must clearly target fuel poor areas as part of projects funded through our Area Based Schemes (ABS). For example by showing that a project is located in one of the most deprived 25% of areas by SIMD classification. Councils are expected to obtain the necessary information to confirm that relevant households and properties are also eligible for grant-in-aid based upon the guidance provided by the Scottish Government.

When applying for support through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund projects are required to provide a variety of information including a financial model, a feasibility study, project programme and risk register.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out the Scottish Government’s proposed approach to introducing energy performance standards for all existing buildings. It confirms our intention to introduce regulations from 2025 for private housing to reach a minimum energy performance standard equivalent to EPC C at respective trigger points, where technically feasible and cost-effective to do so - with backstops of 2028 (for the private rented sector) and by 2033 (for owner occupiers).

For mixed-tenure and mixed-use buildings, including tenements, we intend to introduce regulations from 2025 onwards, with an expectation that all of these buildings should meet the standard of a good level of energy efficiency, equivalent to EPC C rating by 2040-45.

For non-domestic buildings, we intend to consult on the regulatory approach in 2022 and introduce regulations by 2025 to require owners to reduce demand for heat through energy efficiency improvements where feasible.

To support the introduction of these proposed regulations, we have set out proposals to reform the metrics underpinning Energy Performance Certificates. As set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we plan to consult on our proposals for regulations during 2022.

The Scottish Government meets with health boards on a regular basis to discuss the vaccination programme. Ensuring it is as accessible as possible for everyone is a key priority. As individual requirements are different, anyone who has concerns about access arrangements should contact their local health board to discuss any additional support needs they have so that adjustments can be made to accommodate them.

The NHS Inform website provides a breakdown of support available by local health board, including help finding transport to your vaccination appointment.

The Scottish Government already provides grant funding support for SME businesses to replace fossil fuel heating systems with zero emissions systems. Since 2020, the SME loan/cashback scheme has been offering interest-free loans of up to £100,000 with a 75% cashback grant of up to £10,000 towards the costs of a renewables heating system and a further 30% cashback grant up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures.

We have committed to continuing our SME loan and cashback (or grant replacement) schemes until at least 2023.

The Scottish Government used a range of sources of evidence when determining the latest isolation policy changes including data on various key aspects of the pandemic including vaccination rates; clinical advice from senior clinicians including the Chief Medical Officer, PHS public health clinicians, the National Incident Management Team and UKHSA analysis.

In addition, the Scottish Government considered the effects on key workforces and service, including health and social care, of retaining the same isolation policy.

We recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our NHS including diabetes services. We took the opportunity to reflect on these challenges as we determined the priorities for our Diabetes Improvement Plan refresh, which was published in February 2021.

On 25 August 2021 we launched our NHS Recovery Plan which is backed by more than £1bn of investment over the next five years. The plan takes forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% as quickly as possible in order to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs for people across the country.

Operation Wingspan, a Police Scotland led partnership operation which ran from October 2020 – October 2021, was a year-long commitment to raising awareness of wildlife crime priorities, including hare coursing. Police Scotland also contributed to Operation Galileo in 2021, a UK wide hare coursing operation.

In the summer and autumn months of 2021, Police Scotland wildlife crime operations focused on hare coursing and poaching. This included a social media campaign, work with key stakeholders and awareness raising with local police stations.

Police Scotland is providing relevant training to 60 existing police officers which will enable them to undertake Wildlife Crime Officer duties on a part-time basis, ancillary to their core role.

A number of actions were taken in the Mid Scotland and Fife region including information on hare coursing being distributed to the farming community encouraging members to report incidents of hare coursing and advising them how to note key evidence in a safe manner. Wildlife crime officers and roads policing officers also conducted intelligence-led stops of vehicles and proactive patrols of hare coursing hot spots.

The Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) already measures quality of care of Stroke Services in Scotland against the Scottish Stroke Care Standards. Health Boards are provided with reports on a monthly basis. Performance is monitored locally and nationally and actions agreed to improve delivery of stroke care in Scotland. The most recent annual report can be found here: Scottish stroke improvement programme 2021 national report - Scottish stroke improvement programme - Publications - Public Health Scotland

This is similar to the aims of the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) which measures the quality and organisation of stroke care in the NHS across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines on stroke have been withdrawn due to being over 10 years old. SIGN therefore recommend that healthcare professionals look to other up-to-date evidence-based guidelines to inform practice. A good source is the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evidence search that includes trusted sources from a wide range of organisations: https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/

It has been agreed that a four nations approach will be taken to update the Royal College of Physicians Guidelines for Stroke (2016). SIGN is involved in the development process so that the revised guideline will be a collaborative national guideline which will be applicable for use in Scotland.