Chamber and committees

Architecture and Design Scotland works to help deliver Scottish Ministers’ policies and objectives for the built and natural environment by providing advice, resources and advocacy, and through a programme of projects and initiatives. It does not provide grants or loans to external organisations.

In 2014-15 Architecture and Design Scotland facilitated the Stalled Spaces Scotland project on behalf of Scottish Government which provided funding to local authorities to enable stalled space projects to be delivered with communities. The following table details the local authorities and amounts awarded. Those organisations were required to match fund the award.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that, following the impact of the pandemic, RoS has stabilised and started to improve the position this year, in line with the strategy set out in their Corporate Plan .

RoS has committed to clearing the stock of older casework within the duration of the current Corporate Plan. RoS is in fact slightly ahead of target on their strategic objectives and the series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used to measure progress. KPI statistics are published quarterly on the RoS website .

Public Library services in Scotland are devolved to local authorities which have a statutory duty to secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area.

No Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years. The following table from the Scottish Library and Information Council provides data, compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), capturing the number of service points and net increase / decrease per year between 2009-10 – 2021-22. Information for 2022-23 will be available at the end of the current financial year.

Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) is a process through which authorities can identify, research, analyse and record the anticipated impact of any proposed measure – including new schools - on children’s human rights and wellbeing.

The CRWIA provides a template to help assess the impact of the measure on the Articles of the UNCRC, and consider how implementation of it can help progress the realisation of children’s rights, and support and promote the wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland.

The Learning Estate Strategy 2019 which underpins the Learning Estate Investment Programme incorporates a requirement to consult in its guiding principles. The subsequent CRWIA guidance Nov 2021 states that the CRWIA template “is a tool that can help inform and meet these duties”. The Learning Estate Investment Programme will signpost the CRWIA guidance and templates as part of the shared learning event programme.

The matter of strike action is a for Bòrd na Gidhlig to consider and to ensure that any vital services to the Gaelic community continue to be supported.

Architecture and Design Scotland staff are not civil servants, however their pay and conditions are analogous with Scottish Government civil servants.

The Climate Action Towns project commenced in September 2021. The number of Architecture and Design Scotland staff working on the Climate Action Towns project is as follows:

Following the successful completion of a two-year Scotland-wide pilot in 2022, the new fast-track Prescribed Blue Badge model for people with motor neurone disease (MND) was launched on 9 May 2022 via the provision of updated guidance for local authorities.

MND specialist nurses in Scotland now have the power to prescribe a Blue Badge for people with an MND diagnosis should their MND specialist nurse deem them as meeting the eligibility criteria. This means that such applicants can bypass the Local Authority assessment process and experience significantly shorter waiting times.

Information on entrants and enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is collect by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Between 2018-19 and 2019-20 HESA introduced a new subject classification system moving from JACS over to HECOS. As such, a continuous time series can not be provided and information has been put into two different tables below.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, JACS subject classification

The legislation underpinning Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) requires that NatureScot identifies any activities that are likely to damage the natural features for which the site is designated. These activities are listed for each site as ‘Operations Requiring Consent’ (ORC).

Before a private owner or occupier of a SSSI carries out any activity listed on the ORC list, permission must be sought from NatureScot and a consent issued. A SSSI Consent may be required by the landowner/occupier to undertake wildfowling on a specific SSSI if ORC 10 ‘The killing or removal of any wild mammal, bird, fish or invertebrate’ is in place for the SSSI in question, as this indicates that such activity has the potential to adversely affect nationally important bird populations. Further information on ORC can be found on the NatureScot website .

Most, if not all National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are also SSSIs, and so the provisions above for ORC would also apply. There is also provision in the underpinning legislation for NNRs for the creation of bye-laws to prevent damaging activity.

Where wildfowling takes place on Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) local authorities have powers to make bylaws to protect the interests of LNRs.

Throughout the 1140 hours expansion the Scottish Government has sought to improve conditions across the private, third and childminding workforce delivering funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). This includes our investment to support local authorities to set sustainable rates at a level that enables payment of the real Living Wage to those workers delivering funded ELC. Payment of the real Living Wage is a key measure in tackling in work poverty, and Scotland is the only part of the UK to apply this to the ELC sector.

Overview of Local Authority Funding and Support for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: 2022-23 , highlights that average rates paid to providers in the private and third sector to deliver funded ELC to 3-5 year olds have increased by 57% between 2017 and 2022, from £3.68 per hour in 2017-18 to £5.77 per hour in 2022-23.

The investment for the payment of sustainable rates has supported real progress in pay. For example, in 2016, before the ELC expansion to 1140 hours, the Financial Review of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland estimated that approximately 80% of practitioners delivering funded ELC in private and third sector providers were paid less than the real Living Wage.

The Financial Sustainability Health Check , published in August 2021, reported that 88% of private and third sector providers delivering funded ELC intended to pay the real Living Wage to all of their staff from August 2021.

However, public funding and Scottish Government policy can only effect a certain amount of change in pay. The childcare market is a mixed economy - the August 2021 Financial Sustainability Health Check reported that funding for the delivery of funded ELC accounted for, on average, around 33%-45% of overall income for private childcare services – and employers in the private and third sectors are responsible for making their own decisions about pay and conditions.

We are working with partners and sector representatives, including through our Real Living Wage and Fair Work Implementation Group, to understand any barriers to paying the real Living Wage and to ensuring all childcare staff perform their essential work under terms and conditions which meet Fair Work criteria.