Chamber and committees

The Forest Research National Forest Inventory (NFI) provides ecological data on all types of woodland using data drawn from the Woodland Ecological Condition (WEC) assessment. This is a systematic and statistically robust evaluation of ecological condition in all types of woodlands.

The Woodland Ecological Assessment is based on 15 measures of ecological condition, including the amount of deadwood, proportion of favourable land cover around woodland, vegetation and ground flora, herbivore grazing, and invasive non-native species which all provide an indication of biodiversity value. Measures that relate to habitat connectivity, such as proportion of favourable land cover around woodland are also measured. A WEC score is produced against each of the indicators and aggregated to produce an overall score. The benchmark is an Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland in good condition. Results are produced approximately every five years, with next cycle of reporting is due in 2024-25.

Currently the National Youth Arts Advisory Group comprises ten young people from the following local authority areas: three from Edinburgh and one from each of Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Highland, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire and Scottish Borders.

In line with the annual reports published on Creative Scotland’s website, no bonus payments have been awarded to the senior leadership team at Creative Scotland since its establishment in 2010.

Scottish Government pay policy for public bodies has not permitted performance-related payments for Chief Executives or for staff at director/executive level over this period.

As set out in our response , published today, to the report of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group, we will begin by prioritising a number of actions to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2026. We will:

• invest at least £60 million this year through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme to support a national acquisition plan
• maintain momentum in delivering our Affordable Housing Supply Programme
• work with social landlords to deliver a new programme of stock management
• implement targeted partnership plans with the local authorities facing greatest pressure.

These actions build on the clear commitment in the Policy Prospectus to respond to the Task and Finish Group’s recommendations to support more people more quickly to a settled home and progress our work to end homelessness in Scotland. Work to set the conditions for effective delivery has been progressing in parallel to preparing our response and we are ready to hit the ground running in implementing these actions.

We will build on engagement undertaken in the lead up to the publication of our response which has helped inform the detail of these actions. We call on our partners in local government and across the housing sector to work with us to respond to the housing pressures we are seeing across the sector and to deliver on our shared public responsibility to both prevent homelessness and support more households to a settled home.

We are aware of the global issues affecting construction which are impacting housing delivery so are working closely with the construction industry and housing partners to mitigate this where possible. For example, the Scottish Government is a member of the Cost Pressures in Construction Working Group, which brings together a number of stakeholders, including the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, Homes for Scotland and Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations and their member organisations, to explore a range of solutions to overcome the cost barriers to housing development.

We continue to collaborate with all our partners to achieve our shared goal of delivering more affordable homes for Scotland, and we are committed to delivering our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent and 10% will be in our remote, rural and island communities.

Recently published quarterly statistics show that in the year to end March 2023, a total of 10,458 affordable homes were completed, an increase of 7% (701 homes) on the previous year and 61% (3,979 homes) higher than in the year to end March 2021. This is the highest annual completions figure since the start of the series in 2000.

The Scottish Government continue to engage with public sector and private sector bodies, and we have also received a request for financial support from another local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of community pharmacies who are able to receive prescriptions by fax. All 1,258 community pharmacies have access to an NHS email account.

Since May 2021, Scottish Ministers have met with the Federation of Scottish Theatres (FST) on two occasions.

On 28 July 2021, the Minister for Culture, Europe and international Development, held an introductory meeting with various stakeholder from the culture sector which the FST attended. The discussion included the challenges brought on by Covid-19 restrictions.

On 7 September 2022, my predecessor, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, Neil Gray met with the FST to discuss the impacts inflation and the cost crisis were having on FST members.

As part of Scottish Government’s regular engagement with cultural organisations, officials continue to meet with the FST at regular intervals to discuss support for the culture sector and the ongoing recovery from the pandemic. Officials have also attended two of the regular FST members meetings during the period in question and discussed the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the culture sector’s recovery.

Building safety is a matter for the owner acting in accordance with the relevant health and safety legislation. Before any decisions can be taken on funding, it is important to understand the scope and nature of the issue.

We do not hold any information on the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in current social or private housing developments. Building safety is a matter for the building owner, acting in accordance with the relevant legislation.