Chamber and committees

A list of the NatureScot Better Places Fund recipients can be found on its website using the link below. It includes both recipients of the first round of the Better Places Fund in 2020-21, a NatureScot initiative, and a second round of funding in 2021-22.

Better Places Green Recovery Fund - Closed for applications | NatureScot

This second round of funding was provided by the Scottish Government specifically to support communities, local authorities and public bodies as they prepared for the 2021 season.

In total the £3.2m fund has supported 125 projects including 75 ranger posts, 54 visitor operatives and infrastructure such as advisory signage, recycling litter bins, temporary toilets, over-flow parking areas, car park upgrades and other developments.

Projects have covered a variety of locations across the majority of the country.

The First Minister has not visited any care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic to listen to the views of residents, but has closely monitored the situation in care homes throughout, discussing developments frequently with officials and Ministers.

The Scottish Government have not made contact with the Australian Government for advice regarding an apology for historical adoption practices.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of mobile and broadband connectivity for almost all aspects of everyday life which is why we work closely with Local Resilience Partnerships, telecoms providers and the UK Government - both in preparing for, and responding to severe weather events which may impact telecommunications in Scotland.

It is important to note that resilience of the Communications Sector, which includes telecommunications and internet, is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Major outages are extremely rare, but most telecoms equipment is dependent on a power supply in order to function which can be disrupted by extreme weather.

During the Storm Arwen response effort, welfare centres offered Wi-Fi and mobile phone charging facilities where possible. Additionally, in the in the run-up to Storm Arwen, the Scottish Government’s Ready Scotland campaign was activated using local radio and digital channels and was geographically targeted on the areas affected by the Amber and Red Met Office warnings.

The ‘Ready Scotland’ website, at ready.scot , provides advice to the public on how to prepare for and respond to emergencies; including utilities loss and severe weather.

We will continue to press the UK Government and the regulator (Ofcom) for assurance that increasing resilience of the telecoms network in Scotland is a priority.

This year’s Scottish Budget is a budget of choices and we have chosen to back our national mission to tackle child poverty and strengthen support available for families during the cost of living crisis.

The Budget commits almost £200 million to double the Scottish Child Payment to £20 from April 2022, immediately benefiting 111,000 children under the age of 6.

We remain committed to delivering the Scottish Child Payment for children and young people aged 6-15 by the end of 2022, subject to receipt of the necessary data from DWP, at which point more than 400,000 children will be eligible.

In advance we are supporting as many school age children and young people as possible through our Bridging Payments, worth £520 in 2022. This innovative response, which makes use of the data local authorities have, is delivering immediate support to around 150,000 children.

The Scottish Child Payment remains the best way to provide the support low income families need now which is why we have acted to double the payment from April.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that positive, well supported transitions have on outcomes for care leavers and that the relationships care leavers build including with their foster carers are integral to these outcomes.

Since 1 April 2015, young people leaving care after their sixteenth birthday, and who have been looked after in foster, kinship or residential care have been eligible for Continuing Care and therefore able to continue in their care setting if that is in their best interests. The Scottish Government’s Continuing Care guidance stipulates that local authorities should carefully consider the financial implications for a carer offering a Continuing Care placement to ensure that a lack of financial support is not a barrier to the continuation of the placement.

We have heard directly from retail businesses advising that the impact of these changes are already being felt, and that the new rules put Scottish and UK-wide businesses at a disadvantage when compared to other European destinations who continue to operate VAT refund schemes.

Following the announcement of the changes to tax-free shopping on 11 September 2020, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, and I wrote a joint letter to the UK Chancellor opposing the proposed changes; especially at such a challenging time for businesses. No action was forthcoming from the UK Government, so on 20 December 2021 I sent a follow-up letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reiterate the Scottish Government’s concerns on the matter, and request any data and analysis on the impact of these changes.

The Scottish 4G Infill Programme is investing £28.75M to build up to 55 mobile masts designed to bring 4G connectivity to rural and island communities around Scotland. Updates are published on a regular basis at Scottish 4G infill programme: progress update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In the areas specified, the current breakdown for new activated masts is:

(a) Argyll and Bute (2) – Bunessan, Glenbarr

(b) Western Isles (2) – Lemreway, Ranish

(c) Highland (8) – Applecross, Blairmore, Glenborrodale,, Killilan, Littlemill, Polbain, Strathconon, Tarskavaig

(d) Orkney (2) – Burray, Deerness

(e) Shetland (1) – Reawick

(f) Moray (1) – Chapeltown

From 30 November 2021 the eligibility criteria for the Self Isolation Support Grant was changed to enable close contacts of someone who has tested positive or has been asked to isolate as part of the exercise within the public health response to the Omicron variant if they have to isolate for the required 10-day period to be eligible.

Scottish Government currently owns 1081 registered domains. 629 of them are currently “active” and 452 are currently “inactive”.

This total includes domain name variants which are commonly registered to protect a domain from malicious use, as well as domains for expired websites which are retained in order to redirect users to suitable alternatives.

We have defined “active” as a domain that has DNS configuration applied to it. Any domain that is currently parked with our Registrar Com Laude or has no DNS configuration has been defined as “inactive”.