Chamber and committees

I refer to the previous answer S6W-03362 on 22 October 2021 which details the guidance available on the Scottish Government and National Bee Unit websites, including changes in import conditions made since EU Exit:

• Importing bees into Scotland: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )
• Beebase - Beekeeping information resource for Beekeepers (nationalbeeunit.com)

Requirements include registration on the Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS), notification of imports on the system, entry via an appropriate route (usually a border control point), provision of a health certificate and post import checks.

The legal framework surrounding international trade requires certification of freedom of notifiable diseases and pests. Imports from areas where certain diseases of pests are present is not allowed, for example areas of Italy affected by Small Hive Beetle (SHB).

Beekeepers also have a significant role to play by ensuring disease management within their own apiaries is in order, by being proactive in making themselves aware of the signs of diseases and sourcing bees that are healthy.

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

Our regulatory proposals will give local authorities powers to strike a balance between the needs and concerns of their local communities, with the wider economic and tourism benefits of short-term lets.

We published a draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) on 25 June 2021 for consultation. The economic and Scottish firms impact of the legislation is discussed at paragraphs 120 to 131 of the BRIA. We are now in the process of updating the BRIA as part of preparing the Licensing Order for laying in November 2021.

We have conducted an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) which we published in December 2020 and will update to reflect the revised Licensing Order. The ICIA can be found in our December 2020 consultation report: Short-term lets – licensing scheme and planning control areas: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Discussions on creating a Scottish Peace Institute are at an early stage and its location, cost and remit are yet to be determined.

(a) The regulation of short-term lets supports the following National Performance Framework objectives:

• We have a globally competitive, entrepreneurial, inclusive and sustainable economy.
• We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone.
• We tackle poverty by sharing opportunities, wealth and power more equally.
• We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe.
• We value, enjoy, protect and enhance our environment.
• We are creative and our vibrant and diverse cultures are enjoyed widely

(b) Building a Wellbeing Economy is a top priority for the Scottish Government. This means building an economy that is inclusive and that promotes sustainability, prosperity and resilience, where businesses can thrive and innovate, and that supports all of our communities across Scotland to access opportunities that deliver local growth and wellbeing. Our proposals for regulating short-term lets balance the needs and concerns of local communities with wider economic and tourism interests; getting this balance right means that responsible and sustainable tourism businesses can thrive and local communities’ wellbeing is safeguarded.

We are removing the overprovision powers from the Licensing Order. Having considered representation made through the 2021 consultation, the Scottish Government is of the view that the powers given to local authorities to establish control areas are sufficient to manage high concentrations of short-term lets, where local authorities wish to do so.

The level of funding approved by Scottish Government through the Housing Infrastructure Fund for loan and grant between 2016-17 and 2020-21 is shown in the following table.

We have not set a date for publishing the Remote, Rural and Island Housing Action Plan. Work is at an early stage of development and we want to engage with a wide range of stakeholders in the development of the plan to ensure it delivers for remote, rural and island communities.

In developing proposals for the regulation of short-term lets we have engaged extensively with a range of stakeholders across Scotland, including short-term let hosts and operators and organisations representing their interests, through three public consultations, the Short-Term Lets Stakeholder Working Group and through other meetings with Ministers and officials. Across the three public consultations, we have received over 3,000 responses, of which over half were from hosts and operators, and considered over 1,000 letters and e-mails from all types of stakeholders. We have engaged directly with self-caterers, B&B owners and Airbnb hosts. We do not have this data broken down by area but, of those responses supplying a postcode, only around 14% of responses to the 2021 consultation supplied an EH postcode.

Paragraphs 13.30-13.35 of our 2020 islands communities impact assessment (ICIA) sets out details on licensing related costs. The ICIA notes that, although operators in island communities may face higher costs in implementing measures to comply with the basic safety standards required by the licensing scheme (compared to mainland operators), these basic standards are required under existing legislation or best practice. Therefore, these are costs that responsible operators will already be incurring.

In addition, further detail on licence fees and compliance costs has been set out in our consultation draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), published on 25 June 2021, which can be found at: Short-term lets - licensing scheme and planning control area legislation: draft business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We continue to await final confirmed data on college and university based projects, delivery of which continued until the end of the academic year and I hope to provide an update on final anticipated figures for Year One shortly. However, to date, based on available data and anticipated final college and university numbers, at least 7,500 i ndividuals have received training through the programme across a range of sectors including Tourism and Hospitality, Rural, Creative Industries, Aviation and Aerospace.

In Year Two we have broadened the scope of NTTF. While retaining the focus on recovery from the economic impact of Covid-19, we are also supporting sectors affected by Brexit as well as those sectors with significant skills transitions such as the transition to net zero. Year Two data is not yet available.