Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has regular discussion with tourism ministers both from the UK Government and also the other devolved administrations on matters of mutual interest, including travel visas. This will next be discussed in November 2016.

Since May's election, both my officials and I have undertaken an intense programme of engagement to meet with all the Scottish offshore developers and many of the companies within the related Scottish supply chain. Through my co-chairmanship of the Offshore Wind Industry Group, and as part of my keynote address and bilateral meetings with industry stakeholders and developers at Global Offshore Wind in Manchester, I have emphasised the importance of utilising our indigenous supply chain. Whilst visiting Bifab, Global Energy Group, Babcock International and CS Wind I have also offered support to ensure that these key Scottish supply-chain companies are as competitive as possible when bidding for contracts both in Scotland and further afield.

The Scottish Government provides direct funding to local authorities for active travel through the Cycling, Walking, Safer Streets (CWSS) ring fenced budget within the local authority settlement. The CWSS has allocated £475,000 to Angus and over £1million to Aberdeenshire over the last three financial years.In addition, the Scottish Government provides grant funding to organisations to encourage sustainable and active travel. These include Sustrans Scotland, Cycling Scotland and Paths for All. Since 2014-15, the following projects have been taken forward in this area.Cycling Scotland has distributed £30,000 for projects including a Cycle Friendly Development Grant in 2016 to the Angus Bike Hub and for a Cycle Friendly campus for Dundee and Angus college, as well as supporting Bikeability on-road training at primary schools in the area.Angus and Aberdeenshire have been allocated £214,000 and £526,000 respectively in 2015-16 and 2016-17 through the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places Programme, which is administered by Paths for All. Projects funded in Angus and Aberdeenshire have included support for the development of school travel plans, workplace travel plans, walking and cycling signage, information and publicity, path promotion, bike recycling, WOW (walk once a week with schools) and a cycle hire scheme.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme has delivered fibre broadband to more than 7,000 homes and businesses in Angus. At present 59% of premises in Angus are connected to fibre broadband. By the end of March 2018 at least 93% will have fibre access. Community Broadband Scotland is also supporting the development of a small number of community-led projects in Angus. In total, these projects could deliver a broadband solution to over 2,000 premises.

The Scottish Government is committed to empowering communities and involving them in the planning process.

On 3 August 2016, I announced funding of £300,000 across two grant schemes – the Design Charrettes Programme and the Activating Ideas Fund. These funds provide a way of enabling people across Scotland to have their say on the long-term future of their community.

We continue to support communities in the use of The Place Standard, an innovative new tool to support the delivery of high quality places.

The Scottish Government is also currently considering the report of the independent planning review which contains recommendations designed to support community inclusion and empowerment. We intend to consult on a white paper in winter 2016.

The Scottish Government provides an annual funding allocation to help registered social landlords (RSLs) meet the needs of their tenants who require housing adaptations. Funding is not ring-fenced for specific client groups and no target number of adaptations is set for individual RSLs. Instead, each RSL, with the assistance of suitably qualified experts such as occupational therapists, will determine the relative priority of each individual application for an adaptation.

The following table sets out the total funding provided to RSLs in Scotland for adaptations from 2007-08 to 2015-16.

Monitoring of the RSL adaptations programme was introduced in 2012-13. Whilst it is not possible to provide details on the number of homes that have received adaptations supported by Scottish Government funding, the following table sets out the number of separate adaptations for each client group from 2012-13 to 2014-15 as reported by RSLs.

We will provide SPICe with the number of adaptations for 2015-16 by client group before the end of the calendar year.

Due to the secrecy of the ballot, information on voting patterns is not centrally recorded. The Electoral Commissions report on the Scottish Parliamentary Election, due in September 2016, may give further information on voter participation, which they gather from their own surveys.

The Scottish Government continues to make representations to the UK Government that 16 should be the voting age for all elections, having legislated for those elections which it had the power to do so.

I met with David Sigsworth yesterday evening, 28 June 2016. At that meeting Professor Sigsworth presented the interim findings of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group.

Key findings related to fundamental issues, including identifying significant flaws in the way fuel poverty is defined, which requires an urgent review. In addition, it is the group’s view that, despite the significant benefits delivered through Scottish Government investment in our fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes, the ambitious target to eradicate fuel poverty by November 2016 will not be met.

This government has allocated over half a billion pounds since 2009 and in 2016 we are making available more than £103 million to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency. Our £103 million budget this year will be used to help install energy efficiency measures, including solid wall insulation, in 14,000 homes and will build on the over 1 million energy efficiency measures which have been installed in nearly 1 million households since 2008. Installers, industry and those working to tackle fuel poverty have greatly welcomed our programmes and noted repeatedly about how effective they are in both providing economic opportunities and assisting householders stay warm in their homes.

Our record investment is reflected in the big improvements in the energy efficiency of Scotland’s housing. Two out of five dwellings are now at Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C or better, an increase of 71% since 2010 and 11% in the last year alone and we now have proportionately 35% more homes with a good EPC rating (C or above) than England.

Whilst we have welcomed this success, factors beyond our control have greatly impacted on Scottish households. All of the increase in fuel poverty since the introduction of the fuel poverty target can be explained by above-inflation energy price increases which are regulated by the UK Government. Fuel poverty in 2014 would have been around 9.5% (instead of nearly 35%) if fuel prices had only risen in line with general inflation.

Therefore based on the advice we have now received from experts across the sector, we must reluctantly accept that fuel poverty will not be eradicated this year. We are committed to continuing our efforts in this area and I informed Professor Sigsworth that we will continue to work with stakeholders to review the fuel poverty action plan, including the fuel poverty eradication target. This will include considering the recommendations from the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force and Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group who are both due to issue final reports on their findings by the end of the calendar year.