Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

The valuation of non-domestic properties is a matter for Scottish assessors who are independent of central and local government. The tone date for the 2023 revaluation was 1 April 2022, therefore values for the revaluation will be based on the economic circumstances and evidence available at this date. The current rates of inflation do not have a bearing on values for the 2023 revaluation.

The Scottish Budget 2023-24 was published on 15 December 2022 and confirmed that the poundage will be frozen at 49.8p. A Revaluation Transitional Relief will also be introduced to cap increases in rates bills for those seeing the most significant increases in their rateable values as a result of the revaluation, ensuring that the gross bills of an estimated 84,000 properties will be lower in 2023-24 than they otherwise would have been.

Draft values for the 2023 revaluation were published on 30 November 2022, and final values will come into force on 1 April 2023. A revaluation summary report is expected to be published in 2023-24 once final values for the revaluation have been made available.

The Advisory Council for Economic Transformation was established in July 2021 to help shape the 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). The Council met 4 times in July 2021, August 2021, September 2021 and October 2021 ahead of the publication of the strategy in March 2022. In addition, a number of sub group meetings were held to help inform the strategy’s programmes and actions. Following its publication, the NSET Delivery Board was created to oversee the successful implementation of the strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12943 on 20 December 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

In 2016, the then Education Secretary’s Good Governance Task Group reported back on the lessons learned at Glasgow Clyde, North Glasgow and Coatbridge Colleges. The Task Group made a series of recommendations to improve governance in Scotland’s colleges.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, work on taking forward recommendations made by the Good Governance Task Group was put on hold. The Scottish Government has restarted the work around the Task Group’s recommendations and is currently consulting on proposals to introduce trade union nominees onto College Boards. This work will sit within a wider package of transformation and change within the tertiary education and skills sector, as the Scottish Government progresses recommendations from the SFC Review of Coherence and Sustainability 2021.

The Scottish Government works with stakeholders through the Good Governance Steering Group, where work around governance reforms in the college sector is discussed; at present work to implement the recommendation of adding trade unions nominees on boards is underway, along with work to refresh the Ministerial Guidance. No decision has yet been taken on the timeframe for implementing other recommendations made by the Good Governance Task Group.

At present, the Scottish Government has no plans to consult on measures to remove college board members.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12954 on 20 December 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx '.

Given Bisphenol A is not currently required to be monitored in drinking water, there are no recorded incidents. However, it has been introduced as a new parameter to be monitored from the 1 January 2023 as part of the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. Monitoring information will be published by Scottish Water in line with the requirements of the Regulations. As part of the phased introduction of the recast Drinking Water Directive, forthcoming legislation will cover requirements in relation to the protection of drinking water catchments and remedial measures.

At present, the Scottish Government has no immediate plans to develop a national governance portal, however, Scottish Government officials will work with the SFC, Colleges Scotland, regional strategic boards, trade unions, student associations, and the College Development network through the Good Governance Steering Group to implement changes to college governance in the best possible way.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12954 on 20 December. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx' .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12970 on 20 December 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

We are confident in local authorities’ ability to deliver unpaid work and other community orders but we recognise the huge impact which the pandemic had on justice social work and the ongoing efforts to ensure an effective and sustainable recovery.

We continue to work with key partners including Social Work Scotland, COSLA, and Community Justice Scotland to monitor recovery work, including measuring the level of outstanding unpaid work hours regularly and exploring any issues arising.

At present, management information indicates that the number of outstanding unpaid work hours across Scotland is close to pre-pandemic levels, at around 720,000 hours in November 2022 compared to around 690,000 hours in April 2020. Having some outstanding hours in the system is normal, as it takes time for individuals to undertake the unpaid work they have been sentenced to.

The ongoing recovery work is also supported through the draft budget for 2023-24, which maintains the additional funding of £15m provided in 2022-23 for justice social work services.