Chamber and committees

The decision to freeze the non-domestic poundage rate at 49.8p is expected to save ratepayers £308 million in 2023-24, compared to uprating the poundage in line with September’s measure of CPI which would have resulted in a poundage rate of 54.8p in 2023-24. This figure is broken down in Table 1 by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

These tables are based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and are therefore subject to change. Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Table 1: Gross savings to ratepayers of poundage freeze compared with maintaining real terms income, by property class

Table 1 presents the estimated gross savings to ratepayers due to the increase in the rateable value threshold for the Higher Property Rate (HPR) to £100,000. This table does not take into account any reliefs, including Transitional Relief. This is broken down by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

These tables are based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and are therefore subject to change.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Table 1: Gross savings to properties removed from HPR in 2023-24 due to the threshold increase, by property class

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are unable to confirm when it will be possible to resume publishing the Migration Statistics Quarterly Summary for Scotland as the data required is not currently available.

The release is a summary of data sources from UK Government departments including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Home Office.

These departments have temporarily suspended most statistical releases for reasons such as data quality, other underlying data issues, and reviewing the way they produce statistics to make best use of available data.

More information can be found on the NRS, DWP, ONS and Home Office websites.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of providing compassionate, person-centred support for people who have been bereaved by suicide. This is reflected in the Scottish Government and COSLA’s new suicide prevention strategy and action plan, Creating Hope Together, which published in September. The strategy is supported by the Programme for Government commitment to double funding for suicide prevention to £2.8m per annum by the end of this Parliamentary term.

The new action plan includes a commitment to roll out bereavement support across Scotland, drawing on the evaluation of the current Suicide Bereavement Support Service pilot. The Scottish Government funds this pilot in two Health Board areas; Penumbra leads delivery of the pilot in Ayrshire and Arran and Change Mental Health (formerly Support in Mind Scotland) leads delivery in Highland. The total cost of the pilot service is £255,000 per annum, and this funding, split between the two organisations, has been allocated in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Additionally, we have allocated Cruse Scotland a total of £16,780 for 2021-22 and £33,560 in 2022-23 to provide bereavement support in workplaces which have been affected by the suicide of a colleague.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government has provided additional funding of £200k in 2021-22 and 2022-23 to Bòrd na Gidhlig to support the network of Gaelic Development Officers across Scotland. These officers are supporting the Gaelic communities by providing a range of c ommunity-based activities through a variety of different schemes.

The focus of Bòrd na Gidhlig’s evaluation review of the Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer post is to develop, and put in place, a more comprehensive and sustainable framework for delivering community based developments in Ga elic . At the core of this framework is the move towards a multi year funding arrangement to better support the work of development officers and to strengthen the network of officers to maximise the benefit to their communities. There are currently a total of 58 officer posts that have been supported by the Bòrd in communities this financial year with an investment of over £1.1M.

The Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer was a partnership arrangement between Bòrd na Gidhlig and Community Land Scotland and any funding is a matter for their decision-making processes.

All children and young people should receive the support they need to reach their full potential.

Education authorities are legally responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils, including any additional support needs of pupils receiving Gaelic-medium education. The Scottish Government has supported education authorities in the delivery of these duties through the preparation and publication of statutory guidance.

We are also working closely with local government partners, through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board , to ensure we continue to see progress with the delivery of the recommendations from the 2020 additional support for learning review. In November 2022, we published an updated action plan and progress report to further support improvement in the implementation of additional support for learning, including within Gaelic-medium education.

Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer post was a pilot project that was run in partnership between Bòrd na Gidhlig and Community Land Scotland . This project is now being evaluated and the report is expected in February 2023. This evaluation report will help inform future funding initiatives in our Gaidhlig communities.

Today the Scottish Government has published the Onshore Wind Policy Statement, which can be accessed on the Scottish Government website ( https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805253754 ). This is the result of careful consideration of the 162 responses received during the consultation period.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement sets out our ambition for 20GW of onshore wind to be operational by 2030. This challenging ambition, which will see Scotland’s onshore wind capacity more than double, is needed now more than ever, to provide clean, affordable, renewable energy.

The Scottish Government will ensure Scotland’s people benefit from this potential, and to this end will form an Onshore Wind Strategic Leadership Group tasked with pushing forward progress against the issues set out in the Policy Statement and with the development of a Scottish Onshore Wind Sector Deal, to be developed over the first half of 2023.

In addition, we will follow the onshore wind policy statement with our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan in early January which will set out our approach to the energy transition.