Chamber and committees

We have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over 5 years, to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre revitalisation and community led regeneration. This programme will include support for repurposing of land and buildings, creating new space for local enterprises, facilities and services and support the resilience and wellbeing of communities across Scotland.

We have also launched a £10 million multi-year Scotland Loves Local Fund to support local people, businesses and community partnerships to bring new ideas and activity to towns and neighbourhoods to support local economic recovery and resilience.

The Town Centre Action Plan and our UK-leading town centre first approach provide a framework for those working to revitalise town and neighbourhood centres so that they can become more diverse, sustainable and thriving places for communities to live, work and enjoy. An independent review which considered the impact and lessons from the Town Centre Action Plan and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was published in February 2021. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and partners to respond to the review.

We support Scotland's Towns Partnership to work with local authorities, communities and businesses to provide information, support and services which contribute to the vibrancy, viability and diversity of our town centres and neighbourhoods, and to support the development of Business Improvement Districts.

To support the small businesses that will be vital to the recovery of our towns and high streets, we will maintain the Small Business Bonus Scheme for the lifetime of the Parliament - ensuring that 100,000 business properties pay no rates and that the majority of ratepayers continue to pay a lower poundage than elsewhere in the UK.

Our City Centre Recovery Task Force is working to identify innovative actions aimed at assisting city centres through their economic recovery. To kick-start the Task Force, we invested £2 million in a City Centres Recovery Fund. This has supported innovative actions with a focus on inclusive and sustainable growth to aid the recovery of our city centres.

In our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan we committed to considering and addressing the causes of mental health inequality at a structural and individual level, particularly the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of minority ethnic groups. We have established a Mental Health Equality and Human Rights Stakeholder Forum, with representation from organisations representing Race equality, to provide advice on the implementation of the Plan and wider equalities work within mental health policy. The Forum first met in February and we continue to consult with the group as we implement the Plan.

We recognise that there is a need to improve data collection to help us understand any barriers faced by people from minority ethnic communities accessing mental health support, as has been recommended by the Expert Reference Group on Covid and Ethnicity and the Mental Welfare Commission in its recent publication on Racial Inequality and Mental Health in Scotland.

As part of the Scottish Government’s Equality Data Improvement Programme, government analysts are assessing evidence, including on ethnicity/race, across the health and social care portfolio and are committed to developing an action plan to improve equality data. Scoping of requirements for initial research on mental health and ethnicity will take place over the coming months.

The Scottish Government’s message to those experiencing domestic abuse is very clear– you are not alone, you do not have to wait and you should not hesitate to come forward and get support.

Equally Safe is Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls including domestic abuse. Our Equally Safe strategy continues to have a decisive focus on preventing gender based violence and tackling the underlying attitudes that perpetuate it. A refresh of our Equally Safe Delivery Plan and Strategy is underway. This will build on the many achievements of the previous iteration.

We are providing direct support for specialist services to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse, and driving improvements in the justice sector’s response. As announced in the Programme for Government, we will invest £100 million to support frontline services and focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards. We will also invest in services which support male survivors of rape and domestic abuse.

Within the first 100 days of this government, new funding totalling £5M went to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to cut waiting lists. It comprised approximately £4.5 million split between Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland, and a total of £500,000 for 12 other specialist support services and organisations. We created a new Delivering Equally Safe Fund (£19m per annum) and have recently confirmed allocations to 121 projects from 112 organisations working to provide services and prevent gender-based violence and abuse. Last year we allocated an additional £5.75 million to frontline services to support rapid redesign and enable them to respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse attributed to the pandemic.

The Equally Safe strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/equally-safe-scotlands-strategy-prevent-eradicate-violence-against-women-girls/

The Equally Safe Delivery Plan final report can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/equally-safe-final-report/

The Caledonian System provides rehabilitation services to male perpetrators of domestic violence to address and challenge their harmful behaviours. We plan to increase our investment in it to £10 million over the next two years and to support the national rollout of the system with the aim of making it available to all 32 Scottish local authorities by the end of the parliamentary term.

In 2016 the Scottish Government committed to invest up to £125 million in the Aberdeen City Region Deal, matched by the UK Government. Alongside the Deal, the Scottish Government announced an additional £254 million of investment in the North East’s Infrastructure.

This includes £200 million to help improve journey times and increase capacity on key rail links between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, and £24m for a new grade separated junction at the Laurencekirk A90/A937 south junction. The rail improvement project is on course to conclude option selection by early next year and we expect to complete the project by the end of 2026. We also continue to push forward with the statutory authorisation stage for the A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme. Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory procedures, at which point a timetable for the construction phase can be set.

In addition, up to £10 million was committed to help extend digital infrastructure across the City Deal region and the City Network Extension project, which is delivering full fibre connectivity to a number of public sector sites across the city of Aberdeen, is expected to complete later this year while the Full Fibre Project in Aberdeenshire is expected to complete next year.

To date no eligible housing infrastructure projects have been submitted as part of the £20m indicative allocation referred to in the 2016 agreement.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02823 on 24 September 2021. 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 .

The Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity portfolio underspend reported in the portfolio outturn statement in the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2020 of £232 million forms part of the overall Scottish Government outturn, with underspends carried forward in the Scotland Reserve to support the delivery of the Government’s outcomes, meaning there is no loss of spending power to Scotland. Overall changes to the Scottish Budget are set out in full at budget revisions.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee on the Climate Emergency is currently being established. Once finalised, the remit of the new Sub-committee, including its membership and operating arrangements will be subject to approval by the First Minister. It is however envisaged that the first meeting will take place during October 2021.

Future transport investment decisions, such as the reopening of the former station at Finnieston, are being considered within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). As concluded in the Initial Appraisal: Case for Change for the Glasgow City Region, the re-opening of disused rail lines and associated stations within Glasgow City Centre was one of the interventions recommended for the next stage of appraisal, together with wider proposals for a Glasgow Metro.

The appraisal process for STPR2 is considering the performance of all options against the transport outcomes we are seeking, the Transport Planning Objectives, which are aligned to our National Transport Strategy priorities and outcomes. The interventions will seek to contribute to our vision of a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Therefore, we need to consider the social and economic benefits and impacts based on performance against these objectives and the five Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance criteria, to determine the overall Value for Money. This also takes into account risks, uncertainties and other factors such as affordability, deliverability and the wider acceptability of options. This will be an important consideration given pressures on current and future public finances.

Also underpinning STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy where we will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to Infrastructure Investment Plan. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

The Transport Scotland budget underspends form part of the Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity portfolio underspend reported in the portfolio outturn statement in the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2020 of £232 million, which in turn forms part of the overall Scottish Government outturn, with underspends carried forward in the Scotland Reserve to support the delivery of the Government’s outcomes, meaning there is no loss of spending power to Scotland and no underspend remains unallocated. Overall changes to the Scottish Budget are set out in full at budget revisions.

The Scottish Government has already given a point by point response [on 24 March 2021] to all recommendations from the four Committees that scrutinised our update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan.

As stated in that response, the Committees’ advice will be considered and incorporated as part of the wider approach to keeping our package of policies on climate change under review, with a view to outlining further policy action where appropriate in sector strategies or plans, as well as in the next statutory Climate Change Plan.