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The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 allows Scottish Ministers to appoint verifiers on such terms or limitations as they feel appropriate. It also allows any appointment to be made, varied or terminated at any time. Local authorities are appointed as verifiers until end the end of April 2017. I am currently reviewing the appointment process for verifiers from May 2017 onwards, however there are no plans for wider consultation on the matter.

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

I welcomed the publication of the report in March 2016 and have noted its findings. The conclusions drawn from the report are presently being considered in relation to the next appointment of verifiers.

Scottish Government has not made such an assessment but knows that delays may be due to local authority processing, the quality of the submitted plans, or delays in applicants submitted revised details. We are aware that Local Authority Building Standards Scotland who represent local authority building standards services in Scotland have examined this issue and provided the following information:

More than 330 housing development applications were submitted immediately before the October 2015 change in energy standards. As of 1 Dec 2017, 41% of these applications remain unapproved and are sitting with the housebuilder for action.

For the time taken to gain approval for housing applications, the verifier typically works on the application for 30% of the time; the remaining 70% of the time is down to the housebuilder producing essential information to allow approval.

Independent research undertaken for Scottish Government by Pye Tait Consulting and published in March 2016 concluded that:

“In summary, whilst there has been substantial progress and investment in delivering a high quality and customer-focused building standards service since the last re-appointment of local authorities in 2011, there is still work to do to create the conditions for strong performance across all 32 Councils”.

Verifiers are subject to regular monitoring under a performance framework introduced in May 2012. Local authorities are committed to the verification performance framework and information on the framework can be found at:

The responsibility for the maintenance of electric vehicle charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network rests with the charge point host. We do not hold historic information on charge points that are out of order. However, as part of a new system, we receive snapshots of the status of the network. As of 6 December 2016, 93 per cent of the charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network were operating, and of the around 150 rapid charge points, 95 per cent were operating.

We are working closely with partners to improve the reliability of the network, in areas such as communications, and we have recently appointed a new Operator for the ChargePlace Scotland network to improve the network further. They will also be undertaking a full audit and branding exercise of the network.

The Scottish Government is committed to the ChargePlace Scotland network which now comprises over 1,200 charging bays (equating to over 600 charge points) across Scotland. Usage has doubled from August 2015 to August 2016.

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Rural Priorities Scheme applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013:

The amounts above show the value of the commitments contained on Rural Priorities contracts.

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Land Managers Options applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013.

Since September, the overall performance for the Borders Railway (as measured by the moving annual average PPM) has steadily improved, with latest figures showing an increase of 0.4% (now up to 85.8% PPM moving annual average).

Borders Railway specific performance improvement plan initiatives are currently underway with the plan to further bolster performance.

The Profit Threshold at which Abellio ScotRail Limited is required to pay back 50% of its profits is thirty million pounds.

The concept of a profit cap was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2008, a UK first for Rail Franchises, and was tightened considerably - by £9 million when the new Abellio franchise was let.