Chamber and committees

We are all shocked by the devastating effects of the floods in Pakistan, with children reported to be the most vulnerable; UNICEF has reported that some 17,566 schools nationwide have been damaged or destroyed. The Scottish Government has made £500,000 in funds available to be split between the Disasters Emergency Committee and the Humanitarian Emergency Fund. This is a clear example of loss and damage caused by climate change, speaking to the importance of Scotland’s leadership in this area. It is important that we stand in solidarity with Pakistan, its people, and the diaspora community during this crisis. I met with the Pakistan Consul General in Glasgow on 7 September to hear first-hand the situation on the ground, and to offer Scotland’s support. We are working with the Pakistani community to ensure that we provide consistent messaging on how they might best assist the people of Pakistan during this time.

We have set out Scottish Government’s and COSLA’s commitment to implementing the key recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation report, which are essential to achieving our aim to significantly reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for adults with learning disabilities and complex care needs by March 2024.

Scottish Government are committed to working with local Health and Social Care Partnerships to achieving this aim and work to develop the Dynamic Support Register is underway and it will be established as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill to ensure that the rights of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people are respected and protected.

Informal consultation has already begun with 30 events involving 18 different organisations taking place as part of the scoping work undertaken between May and July 2022.

Final decisions on the exact timing of a formal public consultation will be taken and announced in due course.

The Active Scotland Delivery Group last met on 21 July 2021, with partners rightly focussing on Covid management and recovery in the interim period. Meetings have recently been undertaken with individual partners with a view to reconvening the group by the end of the year and refreshing the Active Scotland Delivery plan post Covid.

The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly developed and published the response to the independent report ‘A New future for Scotland’s Town Centres’. The ‘Town Centre Action Plan Review – Joint response from Scottish Government and COSLA’ sets out a new vision for town centres that ‘Towns and town centres are for the wellbeing of people, planet and economy’. The response outlines actions directed to better embed a ‘Town Centre First approach’ to ensure the economic, social and environmental health of town centres is at the heart of investment decision making. The response was agreed by all Council Leaders.

In addition, we have established the Place-Based Investment Programme to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. Investments are also expected to contribute to net zero, inclusive economic development, wellbeing, tackling inequality, and community involvement and ownership. Local government is a key partner in delivering this Programme and receive a funding allocation. All Council Leaders agreed to support the aims and objectives of the Programme.

We have set out Scottish Government’s and COSLA’s commitment to implementing the key recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation report, which are essential to achieving our aim to significantly reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for adults with learning disabilities and complex care needs by March 2024.

Scottish Government are committed to working with local Health and Social Care Partnerships to achieving this aim and the National Support Panel will be established as soon as possible.

Work to develop an Islands Energy Strategy was delayed during the pandemic. In the interim period there have been significant changes to the policy landscape, including the commitments to take forward an Energy Strategy Just Transition Plan for Scotland and the Carbon Neutral Islands Project. An Islands Energy Strategy will follow and build on these pieces of work in 2023 allowing alignment with Scotland's national plans. Stakeholder engagement is ongoing.

The consultation document puts forward the following criteria for the purpose of defining a landholding as 'large-scale':

a. A fixed threshold of 3000 hectares

b. Land that accounts for more than a fixed percentage of a data zone (or adjacent data zones) or local authority ward(s) designated as an Accessible Rural Area or Remote Rural Area, through our six-fold urban/rural classification scheme (please refer to: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-urban-rural-classification-2016/pages/2/

c. Land that accounts for more than a specified minimum proportion of a permanently inhabited island.

The proposal to set the fixed threshold at 3000 hectares for the purpose of defining a landholding as 'large-scale' reflects a suggestion made by the Scottish Land Commission that the 'aim should be to establish a threshold that would ensure that family farms and small businesses would not fall in scope, but that modest estates that could pose risks [of harm to the public interest] would'.

Consultation on our proposals for the next Land Reform Bill is ongoing. We will form a view on measures to include in legislation, and what definitions might be required, in the light of the responses we receive.

£25m digital inclusion funding was made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21 for local authorities to use to support learners, in line with their own local needs. This funding supported the provision of 14,000 internet connections and 72,000 tablets or laptops for learners across all local authorities.

A number of local authorities have also invested their own funding in technology and have distributed connections and devices to learners in line with their own digital strategies.

We continue to work with local authorities on plans to ensure every school-aged child has access to a device and connectivity by the end of this parliamentary term.

The Scottish Government published an update to the housing and regeneration outcomes indicators on 16 June 2020. The `Sources, Thresholds & Updates` tab of the master spreadsheet details dates that each indicator was last updated. This spreadsheet also shows each indicator that is used by the Scottish Government.

Work is underway to update indicators with the latest available data where available, and will be published before 9 November 2022. However, some data sources do not have available data for more recent years to allow for the associated indicators to be updated. This is for a number of reasons, including the impact from coronavirus and resulting restrictions, and other changes on data collection. Affected indicators will be detailed in the publication.