Chamber and committees

General guidance for local authorities to administer and manage the Private Landlord Registration scheme was issued in 2009: https://www.gov.scot/publications/registration-private-landlords-guidance-local-authorities/pages/1/ .

This was updated in 2017 to provide statutory guidance for local authorities regarding the effective regulation of landlord registration: https://www.gov.scot/publications/landlord-registration-statutory-guidance-local-authorities-2017-statutory-guidance-local/ .

We are preparing further guidance, in consultation with local authorities, that we expect to be issued later this year.

The Scottish Government issued statutory guidance to local authorities on the licensing of houses in multiple occupation in 2012: https://www.gov.scot/publications/licensing-multiple-occupied-housing-statutory-guidance-for-scottish-local-authorities/ .

The following buildings have dedicated cycle parking spaces:-

Freight works on a commercial basis so the decision to move products by rail is a decision for the customer and its logistics provider.

However, I can confirm that a dedicated express rail logistics service is currently running into Scotland. This service which runs between Birmingham and Mossend, started with a trial period on 17 October 2022 followed by a full operational service running five nights a week from 9 January 2023, is operated by Varamis Rail.

The Retail Strategy Steering Group was established to guide the content and recommendations of the Retail Strategy and operated for the duration of the strategy’s development.

The Steering Group was Chaired by the then Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur, and was made up of members from bodies across Trade Organisations, Public Sector Bodies, businesses, and Trade Unions whose expertise and insight helped to shape the Retail Strategy. Actions and recommendations arising from the Steering Group were progressed through a number of thematic workstream groups chaired by members of the Steering Group and comprised of business, policy, and delivery experts.

Three workstreams were identified – People, Place and Sector, which transformed into a set of actions within the Retail Strategy. Following the publication of the Strategy in March 2020. An Industry Leadership group was established to drive and support the delivery of these actions. This group has agreed an outline Delivery Plan, identifying the group’s priorities as well as a critical review process and timelines for measuring success.

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with the sector, trade unions and employees, whose experiences are crucial, to help the retail sector in Scotland become an exemplar for inclusive economic growth and play its part in creating a wellbeing economy and a fairer, greener, and stronger Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Ministerial Population Taskforce recognises the significance of long-term projected demographic change and since publishing the Population Strategy in 2021, it has focused - across government, and with local and regional partners – on ensuring Scotland’s population profile provides a platform for sustainable and inclusive economic growth and wellbeing.

In the period since this commitment was made in 2021 we have invested £38 million directly into Scottish businesses and associated support for them to access. This does not include the value of the programmes that our enterprise agencies deliver on our behalf.

A breakdown of the £38 million is as follows.

DigitalBoost Development - £30 million

Digital Development Loan - £5.1 million

DigitalBoost National Programme - £2.9 million

Digital Productivity Labs Pilot - £600,000

Data Readiness Tool - £170,000

Total - £38.77 million

The Scottish Government have engaged with the Bank regularly throughout the recruitment process for a new CEO including over the last few weeks.

The International Trade and Investment budget funds the delivery of three key plans. These are: A Trading Nation - Scotland's Export Growth Plan; Scotland's Inward Investment Plan and Scotland's Global Capital Investment Plan. Together these work to deliver economic growth as well as a stronger, fairer, greener Scotland that benefits everyone. They enable Scotland to be a highly productive and innovative place to live, work and do business on a global scale.

Evidence shows that our plans are working:

In terms of Inward Investment –

• The EY Annual Attractiveness Survey 2022 showed that Scotland has been the top performing region or nation of the UK, outside of London, in attracting FDI, for the past 7 years.
• Scotland’s FDI projects outpaced Europe and the rest of the UK – Scottish projects were up by 14% from 2020, compared to 5.4% increase in Europe and 1.8% per cent increase in UK.

In terms of Exports –

• Comparing with the previous year, when oil and gas are excluded, Scotland’s international goods exports increased by 20.5% in 2022 compared to 2021. This compares to a 13.3% increase for the UK.

International Trade and Investment’s budget for 2023-24 will be targeted towards the next phase of delivery which will:

• Set the direction on new Market Opportunities to attract high quality inward investment (and associated spill over benefits) and the technologies required to deliver our ambitions in areas such as Energy Transition, focusing on Scotwind and Hydrogen, Space, and Decarbonisation.
• Scale up Scotland’s trade promotion, international reach and profile; promoting Scotland on world stage at key events such as COP28.
• Continue targeted support to enhance our firms’ export capacity. In particular, delivering three Sector Export Plans (SEP) – Life Sciences, Technology and Renewables and the development of a Hydrogen SEP to support the growth of renewables exports from Scotland and identifying new and critical markets
• Push forward our capital plans to support the economy, including exceeding our commitment to the annual capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank, and renewing support for the enterprise agencies and delivery partners.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16389 on 14 April 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .