Chamber and committees

Hydrogen fuel cell buses in Aberdeen supported by grant funding from the Scottish Government were not manufactured in Scotland. State aid and subsequent subsidy control rules mean that grant conditions could not specify which vehicle supplier the bus operator should use.

Since taking up post last year, I have met regularly with Councillor Jane Meagher, the City of Edinburgh Council Housing Convener, with our last meeting taking place on 18 April. The housing emergency has been raised in my discussions with other Housing Convenors and housing and homelessness partners as follows:

• Members of the Cross-Party Group on Housing on 27 February
• Councillor Allan Casey and Councillor Kenny McLean, Glasgow City Council on 13 March
• Jenni Minto MSP, Argyll and Bute Council officials and Argyll and Bute registered social landlords and community trusts on 4 April
• Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland on 16 April
• Members of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group on 16 April
• Strategic Homeless Action Partnership in Edinburgh on 1 May
• Sally Thomas and Carolyn Lochhead, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations on 15 May
• Councillor Davie McLachlan, South Lanarkshire Council on 16 May
• Councillor Maureen Chalmers, COSLA on 21 May
• Councillor Judy Hamilton, Fife Council on 5 June

There have also been discussions at official level over recent months with other partners, including the Scottish Housing Regulator, ALACHO, COSLA and Homes for Scotland.

These meetings are used to discuss the homelessness pressures and housing supply matters in Edinburgh and other areas across Scotland, including the decisions by councils to declare a housing emergency. Within these discussions, a range of issues are covered, which have their basis in the proposals developed by local authorities in response to the pressures they are facing. Various financial and planning issues and potential regulatory changes have been discussed at these meetings in the context of reducing the use of temporary accommodation and improving housing outcomes for residents.

The waste hierarchy already has provision for different types of thermal treatment technology. For example, while incineration without energy recovery is classed as disposal, energy from waste processes (producing usable electricity and/or heat) can be classed as recovery of energy.

Moreover, there is scope within the waste hierarchy for technologies that produce products to be classed as recycling if appropriate. For example, where the Anaerobic Digestion of food waste is undertaken to appropriate standards to produce a usable product, this is already classified as recycling in the Official Statistics published by SEPA.

We, therefore, are not considering making additional provisions through the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) regulations 2012 (“the PPC regulations”).

The National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group (NCMAG) will review the use of Anastrozole, Tamoxifen and Raloxifene as a preventative treatments for post-menopausal women at a moderate or high risk of breast cancer at a rescheduled meeting in Autumn 2024.

In anticipation of potential NCMAG advice, Scottish Government is considering how these drugs may fit in to a chemoprevention care pathway within NHS Scotland, including patient identification and monitoring.

The Scottish Government participates in the UK Hydrogen Propulsion Manufacturing Taskforce. The taskforce works to develop recommendations on how government and industry can maximise investment opportunities for the UK manufacturing of hydrogen propulsion systems. This has included reference to the opportunities for hydrogen fuel cell buses. The taskforce has been paused during the pre-election period for the UK general election.

As set out in our Hydrogen Action Plan, hydrogen in the transport sector could act as a complementary energy alongside battery electrification, providing an option to parts of the transport sector such as heavy duty vehicles, when battery electrification is challenging. However, it is up to individual bus operating companies to determine what type of zero emission vehicles best suits their particular circumstances, and for manufacturers to respond to that demand in the way that they think is most appropriate.

Scottish Forestry maintains very close working relationships with the relevant Local Authority and timber businesses in this region. Whilst we are aware of the closure of the Aboyne Bridge, and there have been discussions with local forest businesses around the implications of further deterioration on the adjacent Dinnet Bridge, Scottish Forestry has not received a request from the Local Authority for support towards reopening the Aboyne Bridge currently.

Scottish Forestry recently awarded £101,000 from the Strategic Timber Transport Fund to support £202,000 of improvements to the nearby B976 Birsemore to Dinnet Bridge Road through collaboration with Aberdeenshire Council.

Permitting is a matter for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), who make this information available in the public domain here: Find an Authorisation Document | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) .

Between 28 December 2023 and 7 March 2024, the Scottish Government, along with the UK, Welsh and Northern Irish governments, held a consultation on reforming the producer responsibility system for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). This consultation sought views on a number of policy reforms, including the introduction of a producer financed household collection system for small and large items of WEEE, enhancing retailer obligations to provide a free collection on delivery service for large appliances, extending obligations to online marketplaces, creating a category for vapes to ensure that treatment and collection costs are borne by vapes producers, and establishing a new WEEE scheme administrator.

While we do not have Scotland-specific data on the scale of e-waste, it was calculated as part of our impact assessments that an estimated 155kt of WEEE is disposed of in household residual waste collections in the UK annually, which is then sent to landfill and energy from waste. This is equivalent to 5.3kg per household per year.

While the Scottish Government recognises the need to ensure that we have effective infrastructure and technologies to enable the increased recovery of critical minerals, we acknowledge the complexities of critical mineral markets. Data is often not readily available, markets can be volatile, and supply chains are fraught with environmental, social and governance issues.

Better data availability is in all our interests to support well-functioning markets and responsible, traceable supply chains, to help de-risk investments and development of new projects. We are working with the UK, Welsh and Northern Irish governments and regulators to implement a UK-wide mandatory digital waste tracking service. The digital waste tracking service will improve the quality of waste data and make it easier to identify opportunities to keep materials in use for as long as possible and ensure nothing is wasted.

There are currently 10 suppliers who are registered to deliver services through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme that may be able to provide a service within the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area, which includes the Mid Galloway and Wigtown West council ward. These are suppliers who have existing commercial customers within Dumfries and Galloway.

Anyone can search for a supplier by local authority or the technology that they offer using the filters available here:

Find a supplier | Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband