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Feasibility studies have been conducted on all buildings owned by the Scottish Government to look at options for installing renewable energy and to improve the buildings fabric in line with net zero standards.

An individual business case, including socio-economic analysis, is prepared for each route being considered for decarbonisation. These business cases include technical and economic examinations of the case for of different types of rail traction including electric, bi-mode diesel-electric, battery-electric and other independently powered traction technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells have been considered.

The current value of the fleet, as at 31 December 2024, is £2,381,991.

The Scottish Government operates a Shared Services approach to IT. 52 Agencies and Public Bodies out with the core Scottish Government take IT services from a centralised IT Service called SCOTSConnect.

The large customer base of over 21,000 staff and shared network brings a high level of standardisation, meaning we can drive economies of scale with better buying power for software and deliver exceptional value for money without compromising the provision of high quality services.

As explained in the answer to questions S6W-33501 and S6W-33502 on 28 January 2025 , decisions on professional memberships are made by Directorates, Divisions and Departments. Professional memberships are, by their nature, used to develop individuals in a professional capacity. We are not aware of any professional memberships that can be shared between individuals or Departments.

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.

A breakdown of the fleet by total purchase cost by model is provided in the following table.

2020 – 2 buildings £4,874,534

2021 – 5 buildings £6,605,939

2022 – 1 building £929,705

2023 – 1 building £290,018

2024 – 0 buildings £0

No energy efficiency projects were implemented in 2024 due to emergency budget controls.

The Scottish Government has committed to conduct any future new build or major refurbishment projects following the Net Zero Public Buildings Standard and will ensure its buildings comply with changes to energy efficiency standards where applicable.

6% of buildings owned by the Scottish Government meet an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or B.

Feasibility studies have been conducted to look at options to improve the lower performing buildings.

While no formal post-legislative review has yet to be undertaken, my officials have been informally monitoring the use of Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs) by local authorities. Given the initial low uptake of ETROs following the legislative changes made it was felt that no formal review was required at that time.

Officials have advised that the scope of a review is currently being considered and that we plan to write to all local authorities to gather their views on the ETRO procedures within the next 4 months. It should be stressed that this review is often undertaken post-legislative change and would look at the numbers of ETROs brought in under the new legislation and any common issues local authorities are facing to help inform any further legislative change in the future. The review will not impact on the operation of existing ETROs or of TROs that are subsequently made under the current legislation.

Officials have also had a number of informal discussions with a number of local authorities who were in the initial stages of considering if an ETRO was suitable for various schemes. No specific record has been made of these conversations given that they are standard discussions between Transport Scotland and local authority officials

The Scottish Government regularly publishes a register of orders submitted to the Scottish Ministers for confirmation since 2012: https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-order-register/. The current register, published in December, includes compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) received up to the end of October 2024. The register includes information on the time taken between receipt of a CPO by the Scottish Government and the decision as to whether the order is confirmed.

A number of steps typically precede a CPO being submitted for confirmation, including negotiation with affected landowners and preparation of the relevant documentation. These are matters for the relevant acquiring authority and are not included in the CPO register.