Chamber and committees

Scottish Government (SG) announced in the 2018-19 Budget the £150 million Building Scotland Fund (BSF). £70 million was made available in 2018-19, £50 million in 2019-20 and £30 million in 2020-21.

SEPA do not hold any planning applications. The primary responsibility for dealing with planning applications and local planning matters rests with local planning authorities (councils and National Park authorities). SEPA is consulted on planning applications for incineration facilities and responds within the specified time period.

For permit applications, SEPA’s statutory determination period is four months plus one month for public consultation. However, where further information is required to supplement the application this process can take longer.

Zero Waste Scotland has welcomed feedback from a variety of sources, including from the waste industry, non-governmental organisations and local authorities, on their report, ‘The climate change impacts of burning municipal waste in Scotland’ . Zero Waste Scotland has revised a section of its report in light of some of this feedback and an update is expected to be published shortly.

The Scottish Government has not provided direct financial support to animal rescue shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the unprecedented demands on the Scottish Government's budget as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is, unfortunately, no scope to offer direct financial support at this time.

However, a universal 1.6% rates relief has been made available to all non-domestic properties in Scotland. Non-domestic rates are administered by local authorities, and they will apply this relief automatically.

Additionally, charitable rates relief provides an 80% mandatory rates discount, providing the property being occupied by a charitable organisation, or trustee of a charity, and be used wholly or mainly for charitable purpose; and the organisation is formally registered with OSCR (The Scottish Charity Regulator). A further 20% charitable rates relief is available, and is awarded on the discretion of the local authority.

In addition to rates reliefs, non-domestic properties, including shelters, may have been eligible for the Small Business Grant Fund which provided £10,000 for the first eligible property, and 75% grants (£7,500) to each additional property, in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), or eligible for the SBBS but in receipt of a small number of other reliefs such as charitable rates relief. This scheme closed on 10 July.

The budget provision for the overall Scottish National Investment Bank programme and Directorate was £280 million in the 2020-21 budget settlement. The amount that the Scottish National Bank plc and its group directly receives this financial year will be confirmed in the final out-turn position to March 2021 which will be reported on later this year. The overall proposed budget allocation specifically for the Scottish National Investment Bank in 2021-22 will be included in the draft budget which is scheduled to be published later this month.

The Food Waste Gone Bad campaign included television, radio and digital campaigns. The TV element was showed on STV, C4 and ITV breakfast Scotland and the following table shows how many times all adults in Scotland will have seen the advert one (1+ reach), three times (3+ reach) and how many opportunities to see (OTS) the advert there are:

With the increase of transmissions in Scotland and the new strain, there are no current plans to review this decision. We keep the content of the Strategic Framework under regular review.

The difficulties faced by justice social work in delivering community orders during the coronavirus pandemic were acknowledged by the Scottish Parliament through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which extended timescales for completion of unpaid work and other activity requirements, and created new regulation-making powers enabling community orders to be postponed or varied if necessary, subject to Parliamentary approval.

Social Work Scotland raised significant concerns during the summer about the ability of justice social work to deliver outstanding unpaid work and other activity requirements within reasonable timescales, suggesting that the effective operation of the community justice system is at significant risk unless action is taken to reduce the backlog, utilising the regulation-making powers mentioned above. I made clear to the Justice Committee I will keep the situation under review.

The Covid restrictions mean that unpaid work hours are not able to be completed in the same way they were pre-Covid, therefore serious consideration must be given to the options provided within the regulation-making powers, which all parties voted for. I will update Parliament on any decision I make in this regard.

In regards to wider support, an additional £4m in justice social work services has been invested in 2020/21 with flexibility to utilise this in responding to emerging pressures arising because of the pandemic. A further investment of up to £1m was agreed in December 2020 to assist in reducing the backlog of undelivered unpaid work or other activity requirements and there has been regular engagement with Social Work Scotland, local authorities and other partners throughout the pandemic.

The Scottish Government last met with the:

Scottish Football Association on 16 December 2020

Scottish Professional Football League on 10 December 2020

Scottish Amateur Football Association on 4 December 2020

Scottish Football Supporters Association on 25 November 2020

We routinely meet with the Chairmen – and senior representatives like Chief Executives – of SPFL Premiership clubs, the last discussion was with the Chairman of Ross County on 18 November.

Our approach and principles remain those we set out in our Framework for Decision-Making , based on clinical evidence, expert advice, and a balanced assessment of the risks.

Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators. Given that the situation with the virus remains fragile – with many cases and continuing pressure on the NHS – we are taking a cautious approach.