Chamber and committees

We are developing an approval process for medical exemptions. It is important to say that the number of people for whom vaccination cannot be safely completed with the right support will be very small. Reasons for exemptions would be medical contraindications that might include severe anaphylactic reaction across the range of vaccines and those receiving end of life care. The detail of how this will work will be finalised and published before implementation.

The National Partnership for Culture established a Measuring Change Group in August 2020. The Group has met on several occasions since then, most recently in August 2021.

Certification provides a targeted and proportionate means to reduce risk while maximising our ability to keep open certain settings and events where transmission is a higher risk. If the choice is between sectors and settings being closed and a limited certification scheme being used to keep them open, we believe that it is right to make a choice in favour of a limited certification scheme. We are working closely and at pace with sectors to finalise a proportionate, effective and robust scheme for each setting before implementation. There are a number of operational and logistical issues which we are working through together. All software, apps and paper copies of certificates will be free to use. Businesses will be able to use an app free of charge to scan the codes used on all certificates and there will be options for venues to integrate the verifier functionality into their own systems, as the source code is open source. Relevant impact assessments, including a BRIA (Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment), will be published when we lay the regulations.

Modernisation and investment in Air Traffic Control is essential if we are to ensure safe, reliable and sustainable air services for the future in the Highlands and Islands. Ongoing implementation of the Air Traffic Management 2030 Strategy, including potential mitigation measures arising from consideration of the Islands Communities Impact Assessment, remains an operational matter for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd.

We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.

The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.

We will work collaboratively with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward the ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The delivery of the Fund will exemplify our co-design and co-delivery approach that will be supported by a programme of broad engagement in the area. This Fund is a new commitment which will require detailed policy design work and implementation planning. We will provide further information on the process in due course.

The Just Transition Fund will support and accelerate energy transition, create good, green jobs and maximise the region’s future economic potential. We are determined to tackle climate emergency and mitigate the impacts of the transition on communities across Scotland, and we will work at pace to deliver our sectoral plans for a just transition.

The Scottish Government is carrying out an extensive mapping of good practices relating to climate change and islands both from within the UK and overseas.

The Green Jobs Fund is not a skills or training fund. Over the next 5 years, the £100m Fund will provide businesses with capital investment towards improved green products and services and related research and development. All individual funding applications are subject to a detailed appraisal process that includes an equality impact assessment and evaluation of fair work practices. We will also ensure that future larger consortia projects produce plans which help diversify their sectors and will use appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure successful companies and their net zero supply chains provide positive economic and employment impacts that raise skill levels and close skills gaps.

This year, we have also established a Green Jobs Workforce Academy which will help people to get the skills they need to move into new, greener jobs. Training opportunities will be supported by our investment in apprenticeships, our Young Person’s Guarantee, the National Transition Training Fund and £15m North East Economic Recovery Fund which will all take account, in their delivery, of how they can support people from protected and underrepresented groups.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government allocated £11.7 billion to authorities and it is the responsibility of individual councils to manage their own budgets and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The resourcing and performance of the planning system remain key priorities, and we are aware that authorities across the country are under financial pressure, and that this has impacted on planning departments. That is why in 2019 we published a consultation which proposed making changes to the planning fee regime to increase the financial resources available to authorities. That work was paused during the pandemic but has recently been recommenced and we will work with the High Level Group on Planning Performance to take it forward.

The performance of the system is not the sole responsibility of planning authorities and everyone involved in planning must play their part in ensuring that the system functions effectively and efficiently.

Some planning applications will have longer decision times due to their scale and complexity. Planning decision timescales have also inevitably been affected by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020-21, despite these impacts, authorities determined 4,293 planning applications for housing.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council meet regularly to discuss a range of matters, including equalities issues.

Universities, as autonomous institutions, are aware of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Many are actively and presently consulting within their diverse communities and stakeholder interests on the definition, with three (University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh and Abertay University) having adopted it to date. Universities UK is working with the Union of Jewish Students to raise awareness and understanding of antisemitism and to share best practice in tackling and eliminating it.

The Scottish Government continues to work with universities and the Scottish Funding Council to tackle racism and antisemitism.