Chamber and committees

The award winning Great Tapestry of Scotland (GToS) is an excellent example of the Town Centre First Principle (TCFP) in practice. This principle has been embedded in the recently approved National Planning Framework (NPF4), so that future planning decisions will help to guide development to locations that support tourism and regeneration of our towns.

The Scottish Government is also supporting local authorities, businesses, and communities to promote regeneration within towns including through the Place Based Investment, Vacant and Derelict Land and Empowering Communities Programmes. In particular, on 6 February, it was announced that 15 projects, across Scotland, have successfully secured around £10 million funding, from the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme, to prioritise the reuse of such land as well community regeneration and town centres.

Architecture and Design Scotland provides non-chargeable advice and resources to a large number of public and private organisations. This service is extensive and has been provided via a wide range of programmes, events and initiatives since the organisation was established. A breakdown of the number of organisations that the NDPB has provided free advice and resources to is not held centrally.

Architecture and Design Scotland publishes an Annual Review which contains details of their work, including information on many of the organisations and locations that have received free advice and resources through the work of the NDPB. Architecture and Design Scotland Annual Reports can be accessed at https://www.ads.org.uk/our-corporate-documents

Architecture and Design Scotland originally identified 154 towns to be part of its Climate Action Towns project as set out in the following table.

Against the backdrop of continued impacts from Covid-19, public spending constraints and the cost of living crisis, we are doing all we can to protect Scotland’s culture and historic environment, to ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive, delivering on the vision of the Culture Strategy.

The Scottish Government will invest £278m in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector in 2023-24 which will support a range of actions set out in the Culture Strategy. Further information about the breakdown of individual budget lines will be shared in the coming weeks. Additionally, we will publish a refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan in spring 2023, which will set out how we will continue to deliver on the aims of the Culture Strategy.

As part of the Scottish Diabetes Group, there are several sub-groups working on delivering commitments specific to Type 1 Diabetes. These include commitments to improving education and self-management and also inpatient care. Closed Loop Systems are also being considered for potential inclusion in the new Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway co-odinated by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. Projects centred on access to technologies will have a particular focus on increasing access for those living in the most deprived areas of Scotland, using SIMD data.

We continue to support active farming and food production with direct payments to provide certainty to the industry. We delivered 2021 Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) payments to schedule with over £564 million issued. In 2022, we brought forward the payment date to as early in the year as was practicably possible in order to provide support to businesses with immediate cash flow challenges. Over 17,356 businesses have already benefitted from this change with around £417.4 million paid out to date.

The Scottish Government is working with the industry and partners with an interest in delivering a thriving, sustainable, rural economy, to co-develop and co-design future agricultural support structures and delivery, to offer clarity, and through a just transition, avoid cliff edges for Scotland’s farmers and crofters.

The Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB), co-chaired by Cabinet Secretary RAI and NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy, provides advice to the Scottish Government on actions that will assist the sector in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises at pace, and enable it to make targeted investment for longer-term benefits and outcomes.

The Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led scheme, delivered by industry, led by the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd. The Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations were laid in 2020 and businesses have now had three years to prepare for the launch of the scheme.

There are many companies providing these services in Scotland, and an assessment is not considered to be necessary or appropriate for Government to carry out.

Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016. The Open Government team works collaboratively with civil society to promote transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability across the Scottish Government and internationally. This includes sharing learning with governments around the world, and funding to promote participation and co-production work in Scotland. Scottish Government strongly supports these priorities and recognises the value of this work. We are currently delivering Scotland’s third Open Government Action Plan, which includes a focus on health and social care, climate change, fiscal transparency, improving participation, and data and digital.

It is not possible to accurately identify costs to support membership of the Open Government Partnership for the years 2016 - 2020. This is due to changes in the organisation of teams and categorisation of resources.

The number of staff working to support membership of the Open Government Partnership since 2016 is comparable to current numbers of staff.

You will also want to note that the costs of the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights’ attendance at the OGP Europe Regional Meeting in October 2022 were recently published in response to S6W-13376 on 17 January 2023.

Breakdown of Open Government team approximate spend, excluding staff costs

All Ukrainian displaced persons have the right to access free NHS dental care in Scotland. They are also entitled to register as a NHS patient with a General Dental Practitioner, depending on whether the practice is taking on new NHS patients.

For children and adults under the age of 26, exemption from NHS dental charges is automatically applied. For Ukrainian displaced persons aged 26 or over, dentists have been advised to select ‘Universal Credit’ and then ‘evidence not produced’ when submitting GP17 claim forms for payment. Guidance on this was issued to Health Boards on 6 April 2022: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/nhs-scotland-services-ukraine.pdf .

Since joining the Scotland + Venice project in 2016, Architecture and Design Scotland has supported the commissioning and work of external curatorial teams on behalf of the Scotland + Venice partners, (Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, the British Council (Scotland), the V&A Dundee, and Architecture and Design Scotland).

Funding allocated directly by Architecture and Design Scotland towards the Scotland + Venice project in the years 2016-17 to 2022-23 is provided in the following table.