Chamber and committees

The responsibility for publishing the Deloitte audit report of the Crofting Commission lies with Audit Scotland. Officials have advised that the report will be in the public domain in November 2021.

The Scottish Government published the Rural Payment Strategy Timetable for 2020 scheme year payments in November 2020 with payments to farmers and crofters starting in December 2020, the earliest point since 2015.

All elements of the 2020 payment strategy were successfully delivered by 11 June 2021, two weeks ahead of schedule. By the regulatory deadline of 30 June 2021, over 99% value across all schemes had been paid with a value of over £530 million delivered to the rural economy.

The second payment of convergence funds and the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme provided a further £76 million.

In respect of the 2021 Payment Strategy, the strategy, announced on 12 February 2021, sets out our intention to match our 2020 payment performance.

In total over £660 million in ongoing agricultural support was approved as part of the 2021-22 Scottish Government budget.

The Scottish Government has spent £16,959,406.60 supporting the fishing industry since 1 January 2021. This is made up of residual EU and domestic project funding as well as the support through the Seafood Producers Resilience Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35673 on 5 March 2021. Since that answer, the working group met again on 5 July and will continue to make progress over the rest of 2021.

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

Initial estimates suggest that 5,786 invitations have not yet issued to people affected by the pause, but it should be stressed that this will be for a range of reasons, including participants being excluded from the programme after it restarted, or taking the opportunity to be screened at their GP ahead of their scheduled prompt to make an appointment. Data on patients who had their routine cervical screening test delayed and have (a) now received a test, (b) referred for further investigation is not routinely available at present.

Public Health Scotland will release their annual statistical report on the cervical screening programme on 1 September 2021.

We do not underestimate the severe impact the pandemic is having on the night-time sector and restrictions will not be kept in place a day longer than necessary. As the First Minister made clear on 13 July, a gradual approach to the lifting of restrictions gives the best chance of sustainability and will help build people’s confidence to return to their normal lives and support these businesses.

We have previously made additional funding of up to £750 per week available to nightclubs depending on their Rateable Value. We regularly engage with the night time industry. Guidance for the night time economy will be developed in partnership with the industry in line with the decisions on moving beyond level 0 and taking account of the baseline measures which will be in place. We are however, at this time, unable to commit to further funding for businesses or their employees including those in the night time economy due to a lack of further consequentials from the UK Government.

We continue to urge the UK Government to extend both the Self Employment Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support both workers and the self-employed impacted by the ongoing influence of COVID-19 the economy .

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the annual spend for oil and gas workers specifically for net zero training. However the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund (TTF) ran from 2016 to 2019 to help workers affected by site closures to re-skill and retrain to find employment. The total spend against the fund is listed in the following table:

Data on the number of heat pumps in Scotland can be found on page 27 of the ‘Renewable Heat in Scotland, 2019’ report, which was published in October 2020: Renewable-Heat-in-Scotland-2019_new.pdf (energysavingtrust.org.uk) . The report states that there are, as of 2019, 17,140 heat pumps in Scotland. The next report is due to be released in October 2021.

Through The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk) face coverings remain a mandatory legal requirement at all protection levels including at level zero, in most indoor public places and indoor communal spaces, including places of worship.

On 13 July 2021, the First Minister said that the mandatory wearing of face coverings will remain in place for some time to come, stressing that they provide added protection to the population and assurance to those who are at the highest risk.

Further guidance and information on the wearing of face coverings can be found at Coronavirus (COVID-19): face coverings guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Since 31 May 2021, congregational singing and chanting has been permitted in places of worship at protection levels one and zero, subject to a risk assessment and mitigations including use of face coverings and physical distancing. From 19 July 2021, the whole of the Scotland moved to level zero.

Details of all the measures intended to help places of worship operate safely can be found at Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for the safe use of places of worship - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government officials continue to work with faith and belief groups as we prepare to move beyond level zero.

While the Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) hold information about defibrillators across Scotland – available at: Registering your Automated External Defibrillator . The key aspect of the information held relates to the location in order to support SAS call handlers to direct OHCA bystanders to the nearest publicly accessible defibrillator, rather than maintaining a record of the type of building where the defibrillator is placed.

In searching this publicly accessible information, there are over 150 defibrillators at school locations across Scotland currently registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

It is, however, it is important to note that registration of defibrillators is voluntary, and the responsibility of the defibrillator guardian, therefore this may not be an accurate picture of the number of defibrillators placed in schools across Scotland. I refer the member to my answer given to PQ S6W-01501, in which I recommend that you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold.