Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19812 on‎ 1 August 2023. 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 answer to question S6W-19812 on‎ 1 August 2023. 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 Joint Working Group on Sources of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform is exploring proposals for meaningful changes to be introduced to Council Tax, this includes the consideration of approaches to longer term reform of the Council Tax system.

The Scottish Government have provided local authorities with nearly £13.5 billion of funding in 2023-24, a cash increase in local government day to day spending of over £793 million which represents a real terms increase of £376 million or 3 per cent.

We are spending every penny of consequential funding we receive on this programme of work, with spend to date of over £3.6m and the anticipated whole-life cost approximately £400m.

Spending information and quarterly updates were published in July 2023 and is publicly available at Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Work is underway on a stock census to evaluate buildings and explore ways to minimise cost and maximise revenue to ensure the programme can deliver its objectives in full, efficiently and in a reasonable timeframe.

The Legal Aid Fund is an open-ended, demand led budget. Last year total expenditure on legal aid was £138.3m. Civil legal aid is available in a wide scope of actions with generous eligibility thresholds and the application is subject to statutory tests which cover the merits of the case and the means available to the applicant. This can include contested divorces and applications for non-harassment orders if the tests are met. Means testing is an important lever for retaining this wide scope.

We are implementing ‘Equally Safe’, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. This is backed by £19m of annual funding to support 121 projects from 112 organisations that focus on early intervention, prevention as well as support services.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, and ensuring that victims receive the support they need. We have invested significant levels of funding into front line services, as well as working closely with statutory agencies to improve their response to victims and survivors. It is vital that those who suffer domestic abuse have the practical and emotional assistance they need, which is why we are providing £18.5m, through our Victim Centred Approach Fund, for specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence.

We support the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre (SWRC) which is at the forefront of improving access to justice offering free legal information and advice to women in Scotland who have or are experiencing gender-based violence. Funding has been provided to the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre through the Scottish Legal Aid Board since 2015 and the Scottish Government continues to provide funding in 2023-24 up to a limit of £230,000. The SWRC provide a range of services, including a national helpline, legal surgeries, advocacy services and online legal guides.

I have overall responsibility within my portfolio for support for business, industry and manufacturing.

The Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, under circular economy, is the lead on the Circular Textiles Fund.

Humza Yousaf MSP, the then Cabinet Secretary, wrote to the profession on 7 February 2023 providing an update on the new Determination 1 and indicated the direction of travel for dental reform: Letter to NHS dental teams from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care | Scottish Dental

On 27 July 2023 I provided a further update to the profession on the Scottish Government’s payment reform, which included the revised item of service fees, and will launch on 1 November 2023: PCA(2023)4 – Fees for Determination I | Scottish Dental

Publicly funded peatland restoration is delivered by Peatland ACTION – a flagship partnership programme established by the Scottish Government with five public sector delivery partners – NatureScot, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, Scottish Water, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Forestry and Land Scotland.

We published our National Peatland Plan in 2015 which can be found here: https://www.nature.scot/doc/scotlands-national-peatland-plan-working-our-future In 2020 we announced an investment of £250 million to restore 250,000 hectares of peatlands over a 10 year period to 2030, and reiterated this commitment in the First Minister’s new policy prospectus ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/equality-opportunity-community-new-leadership-fresh-start ), aiming to deliver up to 110,000 hectares of restored peatland by 2026.

In addition to currently providing up to 100% funding for peatland restoration, we are working on a variety of parallel fronts by leveraging activity across the Scottish Government and through Peatland ACTION to increase restoration rates, this includes:

• developing new models for private finance;
• improving our scientific knowledge base to ensure we target restoration where it can be most beneficial;
• encouraging landowners and managers to participate in restoration through our land and agriculture reform programmes as well as exploring opportunities for restoration on public land;
• signposting to the new National Planning Framework ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework-4/pages/6/ ), which strengthens controls on future extraction and on other types of development on peat;
• our consultation on ending the sale of peat in Scotland (closed 12 May 2023) which will support further policy development;
• addressing the skills shortages through the Peatland Skills, Capacity and Training Group which brings together partners from Peatland ACTION, Skills Development Scotland, LANTRA, Confor, Scotland’s Rural Collage and the James Hutton Institute;
• developing a Technical Compendium (published November 2022) ( https://www.nature.scot/doc/peatland-action-technical-compendium ) which is providing robust and standardised guidance on how to restore peatland and is helping contractors to specify and plan works more efficiently.

Comprehensive and rigorous monitoring of Scotland’s water environment is already undertaken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). This monitoring shows that 66% of Scotland’s water environment as a whole is assessed as having ‘good’ status and that 87% of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a ‘high’ or ‘good’ classification for water quality.

In its improving urban waters routemap, Scottish Water committed to installing 1,000 new CSO monitors by the end of 2024.

The Scottish Government have discussed peatland restoration with representatives of private investment funds as part of our commitment to develop a values-led high integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital. This engagement has included discussion on the Peatland Code and on options to increase the rates of peatland restoration.