Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published guidance outlining the action that local authorities and Registered Social Landlords should be taking to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on delivering grant funded affordable housing projects which were contractually awarded prior to lockdown. While the guidance notes that the firm aim of local authority/ Registered Social Landlord engagement with their contractors should be to reach agreement which negates the need for additional funding support, it also sets out the circumstances under which applications for additional grant funding will be considered if a contract cannot be made to work and no other negotiated solution is achievable. Once we receive an application from Cunninghame Housing Association for projects in Dumfries and Galloway, we will review this in line with our published guidance.

The Scottish Government has offered a package of grant support for businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and each scheme has its own specific eligibility criteria.

To qualify for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant businesses had to be operating in the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors and the property wholly or mainly being used for one or more of the qualifying purposes as set out in the guidance in Local Government Finance Circular 08/2020. For the purposes of these grants, a key consideration for the joint Scottish Government, COSLA and Local Authority working group overseeing the administration of the grants was whether a business was involved wholly or mainly in the front-end retail of goods, as opposed to the provision of services.

The Strategic Framework Business Fund offers financial support for businesses required to close by law, or specifically required to modify their operations by law as set out in the schedules of The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 , as amended. Car repair and MOT services are listed in these regulations as businesses which are not required to close.

Following publication of the strategic framework for re-opening schools in May 2020, I asked Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education to undertake a review of the local authority local phasing delivery plans for the re-opening of schools.

I announced on 13 January 2021, that Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education would commence a national review of the quality and effectiveness of remote learning across the country. As part of the national overview, Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education are engaging with local authorities and reviewing local authority planning and guidance for the delivery of remote learning. This aspect of national overview will be published by Friday 22 January 2021.

I have asked Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education to commence with a national review of the quality and effectiveness of remote learning across the country. A programme of ‘national overviews’, will commence immediately and last for the duration of remote learning.

The purpose of the programme of ‘national overviews’ is to:

• Learn what is working well and share this widely to celebrate success and support consistency in the quality and effectiveness of delivery of remote learning.
• Surface the challenges and/or issues so that these can be addressed either locally or nationally, as appropriate.
• Identify what further assistance is required to continue to improve the delivery of remote learning so that relevant support can be provided at local and/or national level.

These overviews will be published weekly to ensure they are available for everyone to learn and build from, starting week ending 22 January 2021.

The use of houses (class 9 in the Use Classes Order) as bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) is a form of home sharing and these will require a licence. Guest houses (class 7) are excluded from the definition of a short-term let and will not require a licence.

The principal component of our licensing scheme is a set of mandatory standards which apply to all short-term lets, and will help to protect the safety of guests and neighbours across Scotland. Many hosts, including B&B operators, will already be following these standards as a matter of compliance with existing law or best practice.

In developing our regulatory proposals, we have directly engaged with and heard from a wide range of stakeholders covering a range of interests. The Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association responded to both our 2019 and 2020 consultations on short-term lets.

The Scottish Government has not had direct discussions with Dumfries and Galloway Council, however Education Scotland, in its role as improvement agency for education, has been in contact with the Council in order to share information on progress with its Virtual School.

Education Scotland has confirmed its understanding is that the school covers both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase, that virtual teachers have been appointed to the school and that prior to the recent school closures the virtual school had been providing support to pupils who had been absent for Covid-19 related issues.

The responsibility for the school rests with the local authority, however Education Scotland will continue to liaise with the local authority as part of its role in providing improvement support across Scotland. Dumfries and Galloway Council, in common with other local authorities, can also access options via the National E-Learning Offer.

Further information can be obtained from the local authority.

The Scottish Government fully understands the challenges facing the hospitality sector as we look to balance measures to suppress the virus and protect lives with keeping businesses open and trading viably. The scale of the impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector is significant. Data from Scottish Government’s Monthly GDP statistics for October indicates that GDP in Accommodation and Food Services was almost 44% lower than in February, while data from our analysis of ONS’s BICS survey indicates that 52.4% of the workforce in the sector were on furlough leave in the period 16 November to 13 December. The findings from this report offer a further illustration of the negative impact Covid-19 has had on hospitality. We have provided substantial support to the hospitality sector in response to these unprecedented challenges, including 100% rates relief for pubs and restaurants for the year, and we will shortly announce details of further funding targeted for tourism and hospitality. We also pressed the UK Government intensively for the extension of the CJRS – in light of the challenges faced by sectors like hospitality. We believe the current restrictions for hospitality are the correct balance but we will continue to assess the restrictions to ensure they remain appropriate for the circumstances. A Four Harms analysis report has also been published which set out the impact and analysis across all four. We remain committed to building on our constructive dialogue with the industry – including regular contact with key business organisations – and are listening carefully to their suggestions and concerns.

Scottish Forestry investigated the concerns about forestry planting operations at Tansey Hill in December 2020 and found that some small areas of deep peat, adding up to 0.5 hectares in total, had been ploughed in preparation for tree planting.

The Scottish Government’s policy seeks to protect areas of deep peat and does not approve ploughing or tree planting on deep peat. The ploughing of deep peat on Tansey Hill did not comply with the terms of the planting approval or the Forestry Grant Scheme contract.

Scottish Forestry has requested a range of remedial actions to protect the peatland and reinstate the damaged areas. These have been accepted by the forestry agent and are in the process of being implemented.

The measures include removing the deep peat areas from the planting scheme and reinstating the disturbed peat on all ploughed areas where the depth exceeds 50 cm.

Ploughing will not be allowed to recommence until these remediation measures have been completed.

The Scottish Government has provided no direct funding to Canonbie Primary School to facilitate the accommodation of a nursery classroom.

In May 2018, the Scottish Government awarded Dumfries and Galloway Council a multi-year capital funding settlement of £9.1m for early learning and childcare, including any capital works required to make the council’s infrastructure ready for the increase to 1,140 funded nursery hours for eligible children.

Dumfries and Galloway Council is responsible for decisions on how that £9.1m should be allocated to individual projects.