Chamber and committees

The original timeline for the Scottish Growth Scheme was for a 3 year period to June 2020.

There are no plans to publish the internal Scottish Growth Scheme monthly report.

To 30 September 2019, £160m has been invested in the Scottish Growth Scheme and this has supported 262 businesses.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information in the format requested. Details of all projects, including funding allocation, that have been supported through the Regional Food Fund are published on the Connect Local website. https://connectlocal.scot/regional-food-fund/regional-food-fund-awarded-projects/ .

As committed in the Programme for Government, we will publish an action plan in spring 2020 to decarbonise Scotland’s railway network by 2035. The primary focus will be the continuation of a rolling programme of efficient electrification, the procurement of battery trains and the development of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion trains. Further detail on how change may affect specific routes, will be set out in the action plan.

Although more seats have been provided in the last few years Abellio ScotRail has further plans to increase peak capacity on the Borders route. However, these plans cannot be implemented until Angel Trains and Wabtec deliver on their contracted programme for refurbished HSTs so that existing upgraded diesel trains used elsewhere on the Scottish network cannot be cascaded to meet the needs of busy Borders services.

The fleet of class 158 and class 170 diesel trains which currently operate on Borders services have completed a significant refurbishment programme which has seen Wi-Fi, wheelchair spaces, power sockets, accessible toilet plus new flooring, seating and lighting installed to deliver the modern facilities that passengers expect. It is apparent that a high quality refurbishment can deliver a passenger experience comparable to new rolling stock whilst offering value for money across the Franchise period.

Information on the income from non-domestic rates charged on sporting rights are not available by parliamentary region. The following table presents the estimated non-domestic rates income raised from sporting rights from 2017-18 until 2019-20, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government supports schools and communities through its funded bodies to promote culture and heritage using digital technology. The National Collections, Creative Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, National Performing Companies and the Scottish Library and Information Council all have exciting and innovative digital projects in place which allow users access to a wealth of culture and heritage resources.

These include: digital learning resources that are linked to many areas of Curriculum for Excellence which cover resources for both Primary and Secondary school age students; funding to support innovative ways for people to use public libraries in communities across Scotland; and working with vulnerable young people to explore themes from current repertoire through dance, music, visual art and digital media.

There are also programmes which have seen young people co-designing digital outputs such as music recordings, videos, virtual tours and on-line resources, and programme which develop participants’ digital skills.

The census rehearsal operation started on 7 October 2019 and closed for returns on 7 November 2019, with a reference date of 13 October 2019. The rehearsal was conducted in three local authority areas, namely parts of Glasgow City, Dumfries and Galloway and Na h-Eilieanan Siar, reaching 72,000 households. National Records of Scotland will be evaluating the information gathered through the rehearsal over the coming months and will publish an evaluation report in March 2020. The results of this evaluation will be used to inform further improvements to systems and the planning approach for Scotland’s Census 2021.

The definitions reflected in our strategy, ‘A Connected Scotland’, are drawn from the NHS Health Scotland review of social isolation and loneliness prevalence and trends.

Social isolation refers to when an individual has an objective lack of social relationships (in terms of quality and/or quantity) at individual group, community and societal levels.

Loneliness is a subjective feeling experienced when there is a difference between the social relationships we would like to have and those we actually have.

Since the Digital Development Loan was launched 50 businesses have been supported by the Digital Growth Fund.