Chamber and committees

As the Scottish Waste Environmental Footprint Tool (SWEFT) is developed it will be used as appropriate to support policy making, helping to ensure that we have a sustainable international material footprint, and supporting the Scottish waste and resources sector to play its full role in tackling the global climate emergency.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that RoS does not hold information on transfers which may have occurred but for which no registration application has been submitted.

In relation to registrations in each of the last 10 years the position is given in the following table.

These numbers include transfers for value (sales) and transfers which are not for value (such as succession), but do not include voluntary registrations (where a property owner voluntarily moves their property from the Register of Sasines to the Land Register with no change in ownership).

As at 22 July 2022, in total there are 396 titles with an area over 3000 hectares registered in the Land Register of Scotland. A further 32 titles with a provisional extent over 3000 hectares are currently undergoing first registration.

The Autism and Learning Disability Team engages regularly with HSCP leads across Scotland on their strategic approaches and why it is so important for them to increase capacity for autism diagnostic services and to redesign services which are sustainable. We do this on an individual basis and also through the networks of Social Work Scotland.

HSCPs are aware of the actions identified in the current “Towards Transformation” plan for autism and learning disabilities. This includes action on post diagnostic support for adults and the piloting in 4 HSCP areas of a single adult neurodevelopmental pathway. We continue working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) who help build capacity and expertise, acting as a bridge between national strategy and its implementation at local level by providing a hub of professional autism support and information. The Scottish Government provide funding to a number of charities to provide post diagnostic support locally, linking with HSCP service leads.

HSCP leads are linked into our leadership and engagement framework in partnership with people with lived experience focusing on the topic of mental health. In addition, we will be working with HSCPs as we scope out the work towards a Bill to introduce a commissioner for Autism, learning disabilities and people with neurodivergence.

Since 1 October 2021 the Scottish Government has funded Elect Her through the Equality and Human Rights (EHR) fund to increase the level of women’s political representation. Their annual EHR funding is approximately £106k of which £250 is used for website hosting. Other elements of their funded work include the creation of an online learning platform and running online workshops.

All organisations funded through the EHR Fund provide progress updates to the fund manager, Inspiring Scotland, every six months. We know that Elect Her supported 58 women in the 2022 Scottish local elections and 27 of them were elected.

We have engaged extensively with people with neurological conditions, and organisations which represent them, throughout the development of Adult Disability Payment. Also, during the process of passing the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, it was decided that private sector health assessments would not take place in the devolved social security system. Social Security Scotland makes entitlement decisions based on the individual’s account of the impact of their disability or condition and other supporting information. This includes information from people’s wider support network, in order to understand the full range of needs someone with a neurological condition has over a period of time.

Social Security Scotland do not carry out any functional examinations because they do not provide reliable information, particularly in relation to neurological conditions as needs can fluctuate over time. Instead, consultations are a conversation between the practitioner and the client, starting from a position of trust.

The Public Library COVID Relief Fund was announced as part of the 2021 Programme for Government. The Fund was delivered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). 31 local authority library services in total submitted applications to the Fund, across two rounds of funding.

The first round of funding closed to applications in October 2021. 21 services received a total of £1,045,681 (in the first table).

In January 2022, the Fund reopened for a second round to unsuccessful services and those that did not apply during the first round. 7 services received a total of £215,870 (in the second table).

Across the two rounds, the following library services have been awarded funding:

The values of non-domestic rates reliefs, broken down by local authority and relief, are available in Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics, at https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/#scottishlocalgovernmentfinancialstatistics . The figures can be found in the respective annual publications, in Table 1.16a for 2017-18, and table 2.17a for 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21. Transitional relief was introduced in the Non-Domestic Rates (Transitional Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 and was therefore not available in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is a thriving music industry in Scotland and so provided £750,000 across 2021-22 and 2022-23 to enable Scotland on Tour to take place.

Scotland on Tour has facilitated new concerts in venues across Scotland at a time when the postponement of concerts, due to the pandemic, had left little room for new concerts to take place in 2022.

While there are no plans to reopen the fund, we will work with the culture sector to ensure our diverse and world class cultural scene continues to thrive.

Since 2020-21, the Scottish Government has provided funding for all Saltire Scholarship programme students; this consisted of 100% non-EU students in 2020-21 and for 2021-22 the breakdown was 88% EU students and 12% non-EU students.

Since 2020-21, the Scottish Government has allocated funding levels of £2,650,000 for all Saltire Scholarship programme students; this consisted of £200,000 in 2020-21 and £2,450,000 in 2021-22.