Chamber and committees

Details of the £10 million grant fund scheme - announced by the Deputy First Minister on 22 June to help tenants who have been financially impacted by the pandemic and are facing homelessness - are being developed at pace and we will provide further information on the delivery and applications process for the fund in due course.

Fishing associations with members who are hand-dive operators regularly attend the SSSWG. Our national Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) network is also strongly represented at the SSSWG and we continue to welcome the involvement of the hand-dive sector through this network or the fishers’ relevant association.

The full-time equivalent of teachers in temporary posts in each year since 2006 is shown in the following table.

I refer the member to the question S6W-01692 on 16 August 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 following tables provide a breakdown of the funding distributed to each project from the main (a) Rural Housing Fund and (b) Islands Housing Fund in each full year since the funds were launched in 2016-17, broken down by local authority area.

(a) Rural Housing Fund

I refer the member to the question S6W-02013 on 22 August 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 .

I refer the member to the question S6W-01692 on 16 August 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 .

I refer the member to the question S6W-02013 on 22 August 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 .

We continue to support community-led climate action in a variety of ways. We have committed £3.4 million in 2021-22 to 46 ongoing CCF (Climate Challenge Fund) projects. The developing network of climate action hubs will empower communities to identify the actions that are most appropriate to their needs, and the Climate Action Towns initiative focuses on small towns with little historical engagement on climate action.

Communities can receive advice and funding through a number of Scottish Government initiatives such as:

• Our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) provides free advice and funding, with up to £5.25 million available this financial year, to support community groups develop renewable energy projects, or their engagement in wider local energy projects.
• Spend on active travel increased to £115.5 million in 2021-22 to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday journeys .
• The Energy Savings Trust deliver a number of initiatives on our behalf that help community transport groups switch to the use of low-carbon vehicles. Details of schemes are as follows:
• Plugged-in Communities (PiC) programme : This programme aims to provide access to electric vehicles and the associated infrastructure to low-income communities in the form of shared-use electric vehicle car clubs and is available to housing associations as well as third sector organisations. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for funding through the ChargePlace Scotland programme which is also administered by Energy Savings Trust to cover the cost of charge point installation as part of their application.
• The E-bike Grant Fund : This programme supports local authorities, public sector agencies, education institutions, active travel hubs and community groups to adopt e-bikes and cargo bikes as more sustainable alternatives to car journeys through providing grants of up to £200,000.

Our new website – netzeronation.scot – launched as part of our Let’s Do Net Zero campaign, aims to help the public understand how they can play their part in tackling the global climate emergency, provide resources for community action, and become an online hub for Scotland's collective response to the climate emergency. The website also signposts to further practical and financial support available to communities.

In addition, Scotland’s Climate Week (13-19 September) will be an opportunity for organisations to join the climate conversation ahead of COP26 in November, and tools will be available to support this on the website in the coming weeks.

Supporting communities to be climate ready is a key part of our just transition to net zero and we continue to review options for future support.

Scotland’s councils have been allocated an additional £1.5 billion in direct support through the local government finance settlement.

Furthermore in 2020-21, the Scottish Government replaced £972 million of Non-Domestic Rates Income for the cost of COVID-19 reliefs with additional General Revenue Grant of the same amount, effectively protecting this important income stream for local government and at the same time providing rates relief for businesses. In 2021-22 the Scottish Government replaced a further £726 million of Non-Domestic Rates Income with additional General Revenue Grant of the same amount for the same reason.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. Local authorities must use their resources as efficiently as possible and deliver services effectively to ensure the best possible value. Decisions on the level of reserves and how reserves are used, are also rightly the responsibility of individual councils. In light of this, how much of this additional funding local authorities have allocated and to which services is not yet available and similarly how much remains within local authority reserves is not held by the Scottish Government. All of this information will be provided in the annual Local Financial Returns (LFRs) which individual local authorities complete and return to the Scottish Government. The summary of these returns is subsequently published on the Scottish Government's website.