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Any large infrastructure organisation that provides an essential service requires significant access to cash to maintain its activities and to respond to unforeseen events. Scottish Water’s cash balances each year are largely a function of when the business borrows from the Scottish Government relative to when capital investments are made; unlike similar infrastructure businesses, Scottish Water does not have access to any other credit facilities. Some of that capital investment will be on projects not delivered in the preceding regulatory period. Furthermore, at any point in time Scottish Water has on-going investment projects and hence has contractual commitments with its delivery partners and it must ensure it has sufficient funds to meet those contractual commitments. At 31 March 2022 Scottish Water had contractual capital commitments of £455.6m and at 31 March 2021 this figure was £541.4m, hence my comments in the Scottish Parliament on 18 May 2022 that Scottish Water's cash balance is ''substantially allocated at any time to investment projects''.

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 set legally binding targets for the public sector to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, with interim targets requiring a 75% reduction by 2030, and 90% by 2040. The Scottish Government is installing energy saving infrastructure across estate including LED energy lighting projects and solar panel installation at some of our buildings to reduce our energy use and operation costs.

A full list of electricity and gas costs for each building within the Scottish Government estate from 2019 to 2022 with projected costs in 2023 can be found using SPICe reference 63647.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to amend the current National Health Service ((Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009. The Scottish Government is committed to review the current contractual arrangements in line with the recommendations set out in the Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care strategy.

The former Lord Advocate, James Wolffe KC, and the former Solicitor General, Alison di Rollo KC, had sight of the note submitted to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry by John Halley on 1 April 2019.

Financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements. Health boards are responsible for reimbursing patient travel expenses, in line with Scottish Government guidance, and payments will continue as normal until the review of the guidance is completed.

Where travel is necessary, Boards are expected to support patients to identify and access support available, taking account individual circumstances and ensuring patient care is at the centre of all decisions.

The impact of the unprecedented global pandemic has been felt all across the health service, and while we regret that the planned review had to be paused it will be taken forward as soon as possible, and requires prioritisation alongside our ongoing response to Covid and recovery of services.

The Scottish Government does not hold any data on vehicles that have been recorded entering the Low Emission Zones declared in May 2022.

Local Authorities in the LEZ cities are responsible for data gathering.

As the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras have not yet been installed in the LEZ cities, data on vehicles recorded entering these zones is not yet available.

Section 34 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 is now in force, providing wider powers for local transport authorities to run their own buses. Additionally, secondary legislation to enable bus franchising and partnership options will be introduced before the end of 2023. These powers will complement and continue to build on the service improvements supported through the Bus Partnership Fund.

We recognise that not every local authority will want to run their own bus services, but the new powers enable them to determine what is best for their local areas. We will continue to work with local authorities as they explore the full range of options set out in the 2019 Act, including local authority-run bus services. Work is currently ongoing with local authorities and COSLA to determine how best to allocate funding in light of the emergency budget review.

Corporate Travel Management (CTM) won the contract for the Provision of Displaced Persons Crisis Travel Management 2, through fair and open competition. Due to the urgency of the requirement, the Scottish Government utilised the Crown Commercial Services framework to allow for accommodation, travel, venue and ancillary booking services to be provided in support of the response to crisis management in relation to Displaced Persons. The Framework was awarded by Crown Commercial Services who published an Invitation to Tender to invite bids. This was a single supplier framework and the Service Provider, CTM, waived their management fee due to the humanitarian nature of the requirement.

Over the past decade the Scottish Government has invested more than £55 million in electrical vehicle charging. ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), a publicly available network, now consists of over 2,300 charge points across Scotland.

Scotland benefits from the most public charging points outside of London, and the most rapid charge points anywhere in the UK. We now want to see greater private sector investment and involvement in line with our vision for Scotland’s public EV charging network – delivering more infrastructure faster and in way that is more accessible than ever before.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much each Local Authority has spent on installing electric vehicle charging points, we can only advise how much funding they have received from us.

In the last three years, we have invested over £30m across all local authorities, as shown in the table. Investment has been awarded through a range of initiatives, including innovation projects such as the £5.3m Project Pace in North and South Lanarkshire.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10043 on 24 August 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .