Chamber and committees

Scottish Government support for film production since 2007 has been included in grant-in-aid channelled, and not disaggregated, through Creative Scotland and, prior to the establishment of Creative Scotland in 2011, through one of its predecessor bodies, Scottish Screen. Creative Scotland includes the dedicated screen partnership, Screen Scotland, since it was launched in August 2018. Creative Scotland operates on an arms-length principle whereby Ministers do not intervene in individual funding decisions. Since Scottish Government does not hold the detailed information requested I asked Creative Scotland to provide me with the detail required for me to respond fully.

Screen Scotland currently supports the production in Scotland of films intended for theatrical release through two funds, the Film Development and Production Fund and the Production Growth Fund. Funding awarded via Screen Scotland through these funds comes from both the Scottish Government and National Lottery funding

The Film Development and Production Fund aims to support the production of distinctive and high-quality feature films that promote Scotland’s culture, creativity and diversity, and that have the potential to engage and entertain audiences in Scotland, the UK and internationally”. It offers development and production funding for feature length films and documentaries being made by filmmakers based in Scotland. Its 2021/22 budget is £4 million.

The Production Growth Fund aims to help grow Scotland’s screen production sector, creating employment opportunities for Scottish crews, encouraging the use of production facilities, providing significant opportunities for the professional development of producers and freelance crew based in Scotland and delivering a direct and significant economic benefit to Scotland. It seeks to do this by attracting large scale productions into the country, and maximising spend in Scotland. Its 2021/22 budget is £2 million.

As almost all films produced in the UK are produced via a “special project vehicle” or SPV, a company formed in the UK as the legal entity responsible for the film’s production, including the making of applications to Screen Scotland, the most efficient way to distinguish between domestic UK productions and those made for international production companies in Scotland is to look at the two distinct funding routes.

The Production Growth Fund awards funding to high-end TV productions as well as film production companies. The fund has been running since 2015 and £9.9 million in total has been awarded, which is estimated to have generated an economic benefit to Scotland of more than £140 million. Of the total awarded, £5.8 million has been to film production companies with an estimated economic benefit to Scotland in excess of £75 million.

Since 2012, the Film Development and Production Fund, together with its precursors operated by Creative Scotland, has awarded £37 million in aggregate towards the development and production of feature films (including feature length documentaries) by production companies and filmmakers based in Scotland. Before 2012, the systems used were those of Creative Scotland's predecessor bodies Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council and data regarding the origin of applicants is not currently available. However, £19.4 million was awarded via equivalent production and content funding routes between 2007 and 2011.

Screen Scotland’s Screen Commission also offers specialist support to a wider range of international productions than those that secure funding, for instance with recce funding, which helps projects understand the quality and range of locations, infrastructure and crew available in Scotland.

The draft Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out that the Scottish Government will legislate to require the installation of zero emissions heating systems in existing buildings, subject to the Scottish Parliament having devolved competence to do so.

The draft Strategy proposes that such legislation would begin to take effect from 2025, with the intention that all building owners are regulated to meet the requirement for zero emissions heating by 2045.

The exact phasing and operation of the proposed regulations is still to be determined, but as set out in the draft Strategy, and where within competence , could include requiring certain buildings to install zero emissions heating systems earlier than 2045. This may include those buildings using high emissions fuels (which are more prevalent in off-gas grid areas), or those buildings which reach a natural trigger point (such as the replacement of an existing fossil fuel heating system).

The Scottish Government plans to consult on detailed proposals on this issue in 2022.

The current ScotWind Leasing Round (the first to be administered by Crown Estate Scotland) is targeting 10GW of further offshore wind capacity, and offers significant inward investment opportunities in Scotland’s domestic supply chain, alongside the creation of new high value, high skilled jobs. Applicants to the Leasing Round are required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) that sets out the anticipated level and location of supply chain impact, and the provision of jobs throughout the lifetime of the project. Crucially, those who do not comply with the commitments laid out in their SCDS can expect to face consequences ranging from financial penalties to an inability to progress to a seabed lease. The introduction of Supply Chain Development Statements demonstrates that the Scottish Government is serious about holding developers accountable if they do not honour their supply chain commitments and we fully expect developers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to be engaging with the domestic supply chain from the outset to ensure that those commitments come to fruition. We have also been calling for, and welcome, the additional conditionality required by the UK Government for supply chain commitments in future Contracts for Difference (CfD) rounds.

Details of the grants awarded by Scottish Government through the Forestry Grant Scheme is shown in the following table:

Transport Scotland has recently attended a meeting with Glasgow City Council on 26 May to discuss the maintenance and financing of the repairs for the Clyde Tunnel. At this meeting, the structural integrity and planned strengthening works to the A739 Shieldhall overpass were discussed. My officials are willing to continue to engage with the Council on this matter in order to aid them in trying to find a solution, however maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities.

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Glasgow City Council will receive a total funding package of almost £1.5 billion in 2021-22 to support local services, which includes an extra £29.8 million to support vital day to day services, equivalent to an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to 2020-21.

To date, the council has been allocated an additional £221.7 million to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, through the local government settlement - over and above their regular grant payments.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by
‎ 2031-32, 70% of which will be for social rent.

Local authorities have a statutory function to assess local housing requirements and to set out in their Local Housing Strategy (LHS) how this will be met.

Priorities and outcomes identified in the LHS inform local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) which are prepared annually and which set out affordable housing investment priorities over a five year period. These are expected to be publicly available.

On 2 July 2021 Scottish Government officials met with two representatives of the Society of Independent Brewers to discuss Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). We will consider their views alongside the findings of the Gateway Review into DRS.

The seafarers on both MV Helliar and MV Hildasay have worked their usual 6 week on/6 week off rotation since March 2020.

The Scottish Government accepts in full the Air Quality Expert Group's (AQEG) conclusions and recommendations in this report. The AQEG report concludes that the most effective approaches for reducing NEE are to reduce the overall volume of traffic, lower speeds on trunk roads and motorways, and promote driving behaviours which reduce braking and high speed cornering.

The Government's new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone', which was published on 15 July 2021, sets out how we intend to address non-exhaust emissions (NEE) from road traffic. Actions include exploring opportunities across traffic management, behaviours and legislation/standards to reduce NEE, and contributing to research into developing a consistent method for measuring NEE.

Other actions in the new air quality strategy, which links closely to the National Transport Strategy, for example further investment in and promotion of active travel and reducing motor vehicle kilometres by 20% by 2030, will also contribute to NEE reductions.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered a range of initiatives on the Scottish Government's behalf and has been allocated the following funding since 2016 to enable it to do so:

2016-17 £11,147,463

2017-18 £11,152,455

2018-19 £11,131,472

2019-20 £8,642,939

2020-21 £10,054,598

To date £1,555,145 has been awarded to KSB for initiatives to be delivered in this financial year