Chamber and committees

I am glad that the Labour Party supports the measures that the Scottish Government brought to Parliament, which have not been replicated by any Government in any other part of the UK.

The member is well aware that emergency legislation must, by definition, be temporary and that its on-going necessity must be reviewed to ensure that the provisions remain proportionate to the situation. For that reason, the measures will initially apply for a six-month period. However, the act also includes powers to extend the measures for two further six-month periods, subject to parliamentary approval, if circumstances show that to be necessary. The act also includes provisions to temporarily change the rent adjudication process if that is necessary to support the transition away from the emergency measures.

Those measures, alongside the direct support that I mentioned in my first answer and the Scottish Government’s strong track record on providing social housing, demonstrate that the Scottish Government has the best track record of any Government in any part of the UK in supporting tenants in these difficult times.

Our area-based schemes provide funding to councils so that they can directly target fuel-poor areas and provide energy efficiency measures to a large number of households to reduce fuel poverty. Glasgow City Council intends to use our investment this year to target 10 areas, with projects focusing on external wall insulation. The council is directing that support to areas of the city with the greatest concentration of fuel poverty and the least energy-efficient housing. Since the start of our area-based schemes, we have funded energy efficiency upgrades for more than 10,330 fuel-poor households in Glasgow.

Mr Dornan is right that the measure needs to achieve both those objectives. We are already providing significant support for households to mitigate the impact of the cost crisis. By the end of March 2023, we will have invested around £3 billion in a range of measures for households, which include support for energy bills and childcare, health and travel costs, as well as social security payments that are not available anywhere else in the United Kingdom—or are more generous than those elsewhere—such as the Scottish child payment and the bridging payment.

The Scottish child payment has been further expanded to eligible six to 15-year-olds—around 400,000 children are now eligible—and has been increased in value to £25 per week per child. That is in addition to our national fuel poverty scheme, warmer homes Scotland, which is designed to help people who live in, or are at risk of, fuel poverty.

We are doing all that with hands tied behind our backs. We cannot borrow to meet short-term challenges, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer has refused to inflation-proof the Scottish budget to support our investment in services, direct support or increases in public sector pay. We should all be conscious of how much more we could do with full powers on social security, pay and regulation of the energy market.

Tenant grant fund spend data to the end of January 2022, broken down by local authority, was published in March 2022. Since then, all local authorities have been asked to provide up-to-date reports covering quarter 4 of financial year 2021-22, as well as for the first two quarters of this year. That information is being collated and quality assured and will be published by the end of the year.

As per the programme for government, local authorities will be able to use any unspent funds to support people who have built up more recent arrears, and guidance will shortly be issued to local authorities.

I welcome Neil Bibby’s support for the move, even if it was short lived, given that he seemed to not welcome it by the end of his question.

The fund was set up to support tenants during Covid and it was announced that we would extend eligibility in the way that Mr Bibby explained.

Before considering applications that relate to more recent years, local authorities have to consider outstanding applications that relate to arrears that were accrued during the Covid pandemic. That will be made clear in updated communications to local authorities and in the guidance.

However, none of us has to look far to find areas of the Scottish budget into which we would all like to put more money. I hope that Labour colleagues will join us in calling on the UK Government to inflation-proof the Scottish budget to enable us to do that.

We have asked local authorities to ensure that the private rented sector is able to benefit from the tenant grant fund, as well as from the other support that we make available. The information and data that are currently being collected by local authorities will be collated and published later this year, and that will show us whether that emphasis has had the desired impact.

I hope that we all recognise that the Scottish Government is putting substantial funding into supporting tenants in all parts of the rented sector during these difficult times.

I read about the incident that affected Ms Mackenzie. First and foremost, I extend to her my good wishes for a speedy recovery and a return to record-breaking ways.

I make it very clear that involvement in a hit-and-run incident such as the one that affected Ms Mackenzie is a serious offence. It is in all road users’ interests that those responsible are held to account for that crime and that they face the consequences of their actions.

Road Safety Scotland has developed a significant number of social marketing campaigns to address those behaviours that cause the most harm on our roads. We also invest £400,000 a year in the give me cycle space campaign, which raises awareness among drivers of the need to give at least 1.5m when overtaking people on bikes. The campaign, which runs on television, radio, social media and physical advertising, recorded more than 140 million impressions last year. Post-campaign analysis shows that awareness of the issues raised has increased significantly, with more than 90 per cent of respondents agreeing with the overall message.

The Government is committed to the vision and aspirations of the road safety framework to 2030. Fundamental to that is the adoption of the safe system approach. One of the five pillars of that system is safe road users.

Recognising that road safety is also a life skill, the Scottish Government, through Road Safety Scotland, has invested in a suite of online learning resources for young people.

The Government is investing up to £9.9 million in active travel routes in the Stirling area through the places for everyone programme and investment in the national cycle network. Projects at Manor Powis and between Doune and Callander have committed funding totalling £170,000. Additionally, in the current financial year, more than £600,000 has been awarded directly to Stirling Council through the cycling, walking and safer routes grant.

As many members have done, I begin by expressing my sympathies to everyone who has been affected either by the loss of a loved one or by injury on our roads over this year.

As the Minister for Transport said, the accidents on the trunk roads, in particular, that members have been discussing are deeply tragic for everyone. Our road safety framework to 2030 sets out ambitious targets to reduce the number of accidents, and we are absolutely determined to deliver on those. That will require us to address the recent upturn in the number of accidents on the A9 while we continue to invest in the safety of our wider network and promote safety for everyone who uses it, the communities that it serves, and the businesses, services and individuals who rely on it.

That will require on-going investment to support a wide range of outcomes—reducing death and injury on our roads, of course, but also improving safety for communities and reducing the terrible loss that families, friends and individuals suffer whenever a loved one is lost, whether they are a driver, a pedestrian, a cyclist or anyone else.

Road safety, every bit as much as the climate emergency, demands of us a change in approach to transport after decades of rising road traffic volumes, with all the additional risk and the environmental damage that comes as a direct result.