Chamber and committees

The Scottish Veterans Fund continues to be our main route to directly fund projects supporting the Armed Forces Community in Scotland. In this financial year we are providing around £460,000 through the fund to help organisations deliver 14 projects across Scotland. These projects will help veterans navigate challenges in areas including their mental and physical health, finances and employment.

In addition to the Scottish Veterans Fund, we continue to support the Unforgotten Forces consortium and are providing them with £315,000 of funding this year. The consortium provides joined up support to veterans over the age of 60 across Scotland as well as acting as a forum to share best practise and learning. The consortium delivered over 30,000 episodes of support for older veterans across Scotland during its first five years.

The General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme opened to General Practices across Scotland in November 2023. The scheme aims to raise awareness among General Practice teams of some of the health challenges that veterans and Armed Forces families face as a result of military service. The training itself is easily accessible through NHS Scotland’s Digital learning platform and is currently being further developed for use by staff in secondary care.

During 2020, the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, MOD and Veterans Scotland, promoted and distributed Armed Forces and Veterans awareness training to all local authorities in Scotland via the network of Armed Forces and Veterans Champions. The training package also provided sources of further information and support for the veterans and Armed Forces community.

While training is currently available, it is for individual practices and local authorities themselves to determine the mandatory training requirements of their staff.

The Veterans Mental Health Advisory Group was established to progress the Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan. Tackling stigma is a key objective.

A Veterans Voice group serves to ensure the views of veterans inform the development and implementation of proposals emerging from the Advisory Group. This lived experience group will play a vital role in ensuring we remove barriers that prevent veterans from accessing mental health support.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has worked in partnership with See Me Veterans | End Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination (seemescotland.org) providing £50,000 to tackle stigma and promote the importance of veterans seeking help for mental health issues.

Phase 3 of the Review of Permitted Development Rights (PDR) has focussed on new and extended PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment to help address the climate and cost crises. A public consultation setting out proposed changes, including details on prior notification/prior approval arrangements, ran between May and August 2023 and several local authorities responded.

Phase 3 of Scottish Government’s Permitted Development Rights (PDR) review has focussed on new and extended PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment. The measures streamline the planning process for various low carbon technologies and for altering/replacing windows by removing the need to apply for planning permission. The purpose is to support households and businesses, including those in conservation areas, seeking to adapt their properties in the face of the cost and climate crises.

The new PDR allow windows on buildings located in a conservation area to be altered or replaced. However, where windows are located on a building’s front elevation or side elevation fronting a road, prior approval arrangements will apply in certain circumstances. This process allows the planning authority to consider the design and external appearance of the proposal. Furthermore, the new PDR do not apply in World Heritage Sites – and listed building consent will still be required for listed buildings. In this sense, planning controls will still apply in the most valuable heritage assets.

We consider that the measures achieve an appropriate balance which supports owners/occupiers improving the environmental performance of their properties while safeguarding the overall character and appearance of the historic environment.

New guidance to accompany the regulations will be published on 28 May.

The Scottish Parliament Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee considered the negative instrument on 14 May and agreed to make no recommendations. The legislation comes into force on 24 May 2024.

It is a matter for local licensing authorities to determine how to licence taxis and private hires within their areas within the powers they are provided with in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This includes in terms of setting conditions as part of granting a licence. It is open to local licensing authorities to set conditions that may relate to payment methods that must be offered within taxis and private hires. For taxi and private hire operators themselves, offering card payment as an option would seem an important aspect to consider given the wide proliferation of card payment methods that are in common use.

More generally, the Scottish Government Taxi and Private Hire Car Licensing - Best Practice Guidance for Licensing Authorities and Taxi and Private Hire Car Operators recognises the importance of flexible transport services and makes clear that it is possible for taxis and private hire cars to provide flexible transport services in a number of different ways. Such services can play a valuable role in meeting a range of transport needs. Local licensing authorities are encouraged, as a matter of best practice, to play their part in promoting flexible services, so as to increase the availability of transport to the travelling public.

The Scottish Government is strongly opposed to the Illegal Migration Act that will push vulnerable people further into destitution and increase the risk of exploitation and we have raised our serious concerns with the Home Secretary.

We continue to deliver a range of interventions to support people seeking asylum living in Scotland including providing £3.6m of grant funding to Scottish Refugee Council this year for a comprehensive, nationwide Refugee Support Service.

The Service will support refugees and people seeking asylum to settle into communities through providing advice, information and resources, improving access to support services and facilitating social connections and will support the implementation of the third New Scots refugee integration strategy.

Many of the essential services which support people seeking asylum are devolved and are delivered inclusively for everyone living in Scotland, as far as possible within UK immigration legislation and rules. For example, people seeking asylum can access NHS healthcare and asylum-seeking children are entitled to school education.

Glasgow is an excellent host city for Major Events, as proven most recently by the successes of the UCI Cycling World Championships in 2023 and the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March 2024.

A decision on whether to bid to host the Invictus Games in 2029 or 2031 would be primarily for Glasgow City Council. VisitScotland's Events Directorate EventScotland, work with partners to actively assess hosting opportunities to secure a strong and diverse pipeline of Major Events for Scotland, involving the Scottish Government as required.

Bidding to host any event, including the Invictus Games, could only happen through an appropriate formal bidding process and would first be informed by a feasibility study to determine the viability, benefits and legacy of hosting. It would also require the assembly of a partnership which could offer suitable assurances of a viable funding package to plan, host and deliver the event in question. At present the Scottish Government is unaware of a viable proposal and funding package.

Since 2021 the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) has supported the productive reuse of 50.5 hectares of vacant and derelict land across nine projects in Glasgow.

The aim of the VDLIP is to help with tackling persistent vacant and derelict land, supporting place based approaches to delivering regeneration and sustainable inclusive growth, as part of a just transition to net-zero. It is not intended to fund the remediation and reuse of all sites that are registered as vacant and derelict land.