Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-15090

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a more detailed breakdown of where funding will be allocated from the budget line "Climate Action and Just Transition Fund" in the Scottish Budget 2023-24, which is set at £79.5 million.

The Scottish Government is investing £79.5 million, an increase of almost 60% from 2022-23, to deliver climate action through an updated climate change plan and Scottish adaptation programme, a public engagement strategy and community action.

The Scottish Government will provide £50 million in capital and financial transactions to support the Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray to accelerate the development of a transformed and decarbonised economy in the region. This increase from 2022-23 is part of the Scottish Government's commitment to spend £500 million over ten years.

The Scottish Government will also continue to influence positive and progressive international climate action investing at least £6m in the Climate Justice Fund.

Question reference: S6W-15129

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding has been provided to third sector organisations in each year since 1999, broken down by organisation.

Question reference: S6W-15133

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children currently living in temporary accommodation, who are of relevant age, are not enrolled and attending (a) primary and (b) secondary school.

Question reference: S6W-14920

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07074 by Richard Lochhead on 11 March 2022, which responded to reports that it has only delivered approximately one in 20 of the offshore wind jobs that it forecast, how (a) it has spent, and with what agencies and (b) much remains unallocated of the "£2 billion in low carbon funding to invest in new measures to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change and create green jobs"; what the results of its "Creating, supporting and monitoring green jobs" have been; what progress has been made in relation to the work that is "ongoing within the Scottish Government to establish a broader measure of green jobs", and whether it will provide an update on when the creation of "thousands of new jobs" that will be generated by the ScotWind programme will be realised.

The Scottish Government’s financial commitments to create green jobs include funding support provided through our Green Jobs Fund and the Just Transition Fund.

The Green Jobs Fund is a five-year, capital fund of up to £100m over 5 years which will support businesses and their supply chains to help them better transition to a low carbon economy and create new green jobs. In year one of the Green Jobs Fund, between the Enterprise Agencies and Scottish Ministers, 57 projects have been supported with grant funding of £16.8m. Figures provided by the recipients of these awards estimated this fund will support up to 3,886 jobs over the life of the individual projects. Figures for year 2 of the fund are not due to be published until Q2 2023 as contractual negotiations are continuing to be finalised.

The fund consists of £50 million provided by our Enterprise Agencies for businesses which provide sustainable or low carbon products and services to help them develop, grow and create jobs and up to a further £50 million to help ensure that businesses and supply chains across Scotland can capitalise on our investment in five priority sectors: energy transition; transport; manufacturing; construction; agriculture and land use. The Green Jobs Fund will make focused investments in, for example, machinery and equipment and research and development to ensure businesses are well placed to win public and private contracts.

Our Just Transition Fund is a ten year, £500m investment to support a fair transition to net zero and to diversify the regional economy, with the first £50m committed this year. Examples of the projects supported in the first year of the fund include a digital offshore energy skills passport which empowers offshore workers to utilise their existing certification; and an advanced manufacturing skills hub.

The Scottish Government also ring-fenced £1m of the Just Transition Fund this year for participatory budgeting, whereby local communities are able to influence and have a direct say on how money is spent in their local areas.

The Scottish Government is determined to maximise the economic opportunity for the Scottish supply chain from our offshore wind potential. That is why we asked Crown Estate Scotland to introduce the Supply Chain Development Statement as part of the ScotWind leasing round to demonstrate how serious the Scottish Government is about holding developers to account if they do not honour their supply chain commitments and create green jobs.

ScotWind developers have committed to invest an average of £1.4 billion per project, equating to more than £28 billion of potential investment in Scotland's supply chain. Government and its agencies continue to work closely with developers and those at the top of the supply chain to ensure that local suppliers in Scotland have a realistic opportunity to compete for key manufacturing contracts.

We are already seeing the employment benefits from the development of Scotland’s offshore wind sector. Scotland is the best performing UK region in the Green Jobs Barometer, a tool to track job creation, wider employment benefits, job loss, carbon intensity of employment, and worker perceptions with relevance to the green transition.

Question reference: S6W-14897

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £50 million Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund, launched in September 2022, has been distributed to (a) each local authority and (b) registered social landlords.

£7.473m has been allocated to Aberdeen City Council, North Ayrshire Council and New Gorbals Housing Association. When including the pilot by North Lanarkshire Council, a total of four capital projects providing 754 homes are being supported by funding in the region of £13 million. We are also at an advanced stage of due diligence on several further applications from local authorities and registered social landlords across Scotland. These have the potential to bring up to a further 250 homes back into use. Approved project costs are published on our website at: Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund - gov.scot

Question reference: S6W-14826

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking on each of the headline recommendations made in Audit Scotland’s 2020 review, Privately financed infrastructure investment: The Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) and hub models.

The Scottish Government welcomed Audit Scotland’s report, which provided useful lessons which we are already implementing through successor schemes to the NPD and hub models which the report considered. These schemes allowed us to deliver much needed new schools, new NHS facilities, new colleges and other key infrastructure that would otherwise not have been possible. They also provided a significant boost to the Scottish economy at a time of constrained private sector investment.

The eleven main recommendations in the Audit Scotland report are in included within the following tables along with accompanying Scottish Government comments.

The Scottish Government should:

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT COMMENTS

1. Better document and report how decisions on the use of private finance are made at a programme level, and how the overall combination of programme and project funding aims to maximise investment and benefits (paragraph 29)

The Scottish Government’s five-year Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) published in February 2021 showed how we will enhance our approach to choosing the right future investments and introduced a new infrastructure investment hierarchy. We consulted on the new IIP to ensure the right final approach that benefits the whole of Scotland both now and in the future.

The IIP builds on the recommendations of the independent Infrastructure Commission for Scotland. As a result of the Commission and consultation, the IIP includes the following:

? An expanded definition of infrastructure to include Natural Infrastructure.

? A new investment hierarchy framework to prioritise making the most of existing infrastructure ahead of building new assets.

? Commitments to develop new methods of appraisal and prioritisation to ensure they match long-term goals.

? A commitment to prepare a cross-sector infrastructure needs assessment to inform the next Infrastructure Investment Plan.

? A commitment to develop a broader approach to public engagement in forward infrastructure plans.

2. Better communicate the rationale of project financing and funding decisions to public sector organisations and Parliament (paragraph 32)

Local authorities determine their own programmes for capital investment and are required by legislation to comply with The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities, which was developed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). The Prudential Code requires local authorities to ensure that all capital investment decisions are prudent, affordable and sustainable.

3. Continue to monitor existing NPD and hub projects to review if the models are successfully achieving their original aims, and documenting lessons learned (Parts 2 and 3)

The Scottish Government annually update and publish information relating to contracts within the NPD programme which includes unitary charge payments, fixed debt providers, SPV’s and equity holders. This information is available from the following link www.gov.scot/npd .

The Scottish Futures Trust also publishes NPD and hub DBFM investor information as well as NPD and hub financial indicator information. This is available from the following respective links www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/npd

www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/hub

4. Set out how the MIM will operate, and establish clear criteria for selecting programmes and monitoring risks (paragraph 88)

The approach to the Mutual Investment Model (MIM) governance is being developed and considered following SFT’s options appraisal. The use of MIM is being considered alongside a range of financing approaches including capital grant, capital borrowing, financial transactions and other forms of finance when determining how to finance projects.

5. Develop its public reporting to provide more information on the costs and benefits of using private finance, the management of risks and outcomes delivered, and its contribution to supporting economic policies and growth (paragraph 97)

The Scottish Government monitor the affordability of revenue financed investment through imposing a cap on revenue commitments which is assessed as part of the annual budget process. This is in place to ensure that revenue-funded methods of investment are used at a sustainable level and do not overly constrain our choices in future years.

Procuring authorities have governance processes in place to evaluate their revenue financed projects through for example, post project reviews and post project evaluations. They also monitor the contractual commitments of the private sector in delivering the associated public facilities for use.

A key requirement of the NPD programme was to deliver local community benefits and support the local economy. The Scottish Futures Trust have confirmed that contractual targets were exceeded for the number of work placements, graduates and apprentices employed and the construction phases supported approximately 8,000 jobs across Scotland. This information is available from the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/community-benefits

The Scottish Government publish an annual progress report relating to the Infrastructure Investment Plan which outlines the contribution made to economic development by major capital projects. This is available from the following link www.gov.scot/iip-progress-report

The Scottish Futures Trust should:

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT COMMENTS

6. Demonstrate more clearly the links between the financial savings attributed to centralised activity and individual projects (paragraph 52)

From 2019-20, SFT changed its approach of reporting from financial benefits (i.e., an annual Benefits Statement) to Outcomes Reporting.

In SFT’s 2019-24 Corporate Plan, it published ten infrastructure outcomes which further the goals of the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework (NPF). Together with many public and private sector partners SFT are working to deliver business objectives which are aligned to those ten infrastructure outcomes.

SFT’s latest updated Outcomes Report was published on 17 November 2022 and is available from the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/outcomes

7. Monitor any secondary market transactions in hub equity and NPD and hub Special Purpose Vehicle equity to record ownership and, potentially, to inform the design of future privately financed contracts (paragraphs 58 and 76).

The Scottish Futures Trust publishes NPD / hub DBFM investor information as well as NPD / hub financial indicator information. This is available from the following respective links:

www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/npd

www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/hub

The Scottish Government also annually update and publish information relating to contracts within the NPD programme which includes unitary charge payments, fixed debt providers, SPV’s and equity holders. This information is available from the following link www.gov.scot/npd

If private sector companies subsequently choose to ‘trade’ future income for upfront cash, the initial investors accelerate their return, but no additional profit is made over the life of the project. This does not increase what is paid by the public sector, or impact the value-for-money of the underlying NPD contracts

Councils and other public sector organisations should:

REPORT RECOMMENDATION	SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT COMMENTS
8. Systematically assess the implications of participating in the financing and contract approaches led by the Scottish Government, before going ahead with individual projects (paragraphs 30–32)	The NPD programme allowed the delivery of much needed new infrastructure such as schools, new NHS facilities, new colleges and other key infrastructure that would otherwise not have been possible. Audit Scotland reported this, and that NPD had supported £3.3 billion of additional investment in Scotland’s infrastructure. In relation to NPD projects, the Scottish Futures Trust published a ‘Value for Money Assessment Guidance: Capital Programmes and Projects’ on behalf of the Scottish Government which described the value for money process for capital programmes and projects and the requirements that Procuring Authorities need to consider before making relevant investment decisions. This included guidance on Qualitative and Quantitative Assessments. The guidance was mandatory for all capital programmes and projects for the Scottish Government, its associated Directorates, Executive Agencies, Non-Departmental Public Bodies and for all public bodies in receipt of funding from the Scottish Government or its Agencies. Other accompanying guidance notes were also subsequently published. See also recommendation 2.
9. Clearly report current commitments under privately financed contracts, and the ongoing commitments related to these, as part of their annual budget setting (paragraph 32)	See recommendation 2.
10. Review all projects and services procured through the hubs to assess the costs, savings and benefits against other procurement options (page 29).	See recommendation 1.

The Scottish Government and councils should:

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT COMMENTS

11. Continue to work together to develop arrangements for the new schools investment funding model, ensuring opportunities and risks are fully understood and properly managed (paragraph 93).

The first phase of school projects to benefit from the Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) were announced in September 2019 and a second phase was announced in December 2020 (37 projects in total). The first LEIP projects started construction during the summer of 2021.

Phase 3 of LEIP was opened to local authorities in 2022 and we hope to announce the successful projects soon.

Question reference: S6W-14881

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering introducing further restrictions on the shooting of native woodcock, in light of the reported decline in European woodcock populations over the last 10 years, current pressures from bird flu and the unusually cold winter.

The Scottish Government understands concerns over the decline of European woodcock populations. At present, all woodcock in Scotland are classed as a quarry species and as such are listed on Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which determines the species that can be killed or taken.

As set out in my response to PQ S6W-14320, NatureScot are currently carrying out a review of Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Once the review has been completed, they will provide a report to the Scottish Government for Ministers to consider whether any changes to the Schedule are required.

Question reference: S6W-14792

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support is being provided to local authorities to support (a) breakfast and (b) after school clubs that may otherwise face closure due to financial constraints.

The Scottish Government does not provide specific funding to local authorities to support breakfast and after school clubs which are struggling financially. Local authorities have flexibility to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. In 2023-24 local authorities have autonomy to allocate over 93% - £12.5 billion – of the funding provided by the Scottish Government, plus all locally raised income.

Question reference: S6W-15250

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to tackle any health inequalities related to HIV, in particular among people who inject drugs.

Reducing health inequalities continues to be a top priority for the Scottish Government, and we recognise that particular efforts are needed for vulnerable populations, such as people who inject drugs. We know that stigma can stop people accessing the support they need and that stigma can manifest in many ways and in many settings. That is why Scottish Government recently facilitated a campaign to challenge the stigma which too often negatively impacts upon those who use drugs. In addition to this campaign, on World Aids Day 2022, the Public Health Minister announced the development of a national awareness raising campaign focused on reducing historical stereotypes associated with a positive HIV diagnosis.

Further to these campaigns, the HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal highlighted that equitable access and uptake of key prevention measures is required to avoid amplifying existing inequalities. Reducing health inequalities will be a key consideration for the HIV transmission elimination implementation group as they assess and prioritise the recommendations contained within the proposal.

Question reference: S6W-15229

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cladding Remediation programme's Outline Business Case is complete, and when the Full Business Case will be completed.

Chamber and committees