Chamber and committees

The Creative Digital Initiative (CDI) launched on 23 March 2021, with businesses being able to register their interest to be informed when grant funding would be made available.

Businesses who had registered their interest were offered the opportunity in Mid-June 2021 to submit summaries for innovative digital projects. These summaries were appraised by an team consisting of representatives of Scottish Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, and decisions will be finalised shortly. Successful projects will receive funding of between £20,000 and £50,000, as well as advice, information and development support or a mixture of these in order to fully deliver the project objectives within this calendar year.

South of Scotland Enterprise have also run a number of courses through the CDI that aim to increase confidence in digital understanding while breaking down technical jargon – these courses have been attended by 56 practitioners/organisations. As part of the CDI, Creative Scotland are currently delivering a programme that will support up to 50 individuals and cultural organisations to leverage digital tools and skills in their creative practice, audience engagement and organisational strategy.

In addition, following the success of the DigitalBoost Grant, where the Scottish Government invested £20 million in over 2200 SMEs to help improve their digital capacity and capability, the Scottish Government is investing a further £25 million to re-open the programmes, as part of our 100 days commitment. This forms part of a broader commitment to invest £100 million over the life of parliament to support our SMEs to take advantage of digital technologies to drive forward our economic recovery.

All businesses who have registered on the CDI website (XpoNorth | Register Your Interest) will receive a notification once the DigitalBoost Grant scheme is live.

Scottish Government officials continue to hold frequent meetings with SEPA to support them and to better understand risks, consequences and responses as they recover. SEPA’s progress is reported through their weekly service status update which is published on its website. They have also recently published their Annual Operating Plan which outlines their priorities to March 2022.

The Scottish Government authorised an overspend of up to £2.5m against the approved 2020-21 resource budget allocation to cover unforeseen costs including accessing cyber recovery expertise in the immediate aftermath of the attack and fund recovery work. In 2021-2022 SEPA have been given the flexibility to use all available funding to best effect to ensure a successful recovery.

SEPA continue to manage within their overall allocated annual budget for 2021-2022. This is reviewed on a monthly basis with Scottish Government Officials.

We continue to support community-led climate action in a variety of ways. We have committed £3.4 million in 2021-22 to 46 ongoing CCF (Climate Challenge Fund) projects. The developing network of climate action hubs will empower communities to identify the actions that are most appropriate to their needs, and the Climate Action Towns initiative focuses on small towns with little historical engagement on climate action.

Communities can receive advice and funding through a number of Scottish Government initiatives such as:

• Our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) provides free advice and funding, with up to £5.25 million available this financial year, to support community groups develop renewable energy projects, or their engagement in wider local energy projects.
• Spend on active travel increased to £115.5 million in 2021-22 to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday journeys .
• The Energy Savings Trust deliver a number of initiatives on our behalf that help community transport groups switch to the use of low-carbon vehicles. Details of schemes are as follows:
• Plugged-in Communities (PiC) programme : This programme aims to provide access to electric vehicles and the associated infrastructure to low-income communities in the form of shared-use electric vehicle car clubs and is available to housing associations as well as third sector organisations. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for funding through the ChargePlace Scotland programme which is also administered by Energy Savings Trust to cover the cost of charge point installation as part of their application.
• The E-bike Grant Fund : This programme supports local authorities, public sector agencies, education institutions, active travel hubs and community groups to adopt e-bikes and cargo bikes as more sustainable alternatives to car journeys through providing grants of up to £200,000.

Our new website – netzeronation.scot – launched as part of our Let’s Do Net Zero campaign, aims to help the public understand how they can play their part in tackling the global climate emergency, provide resources for community action, and become an online hub for Scotland's collective response to the climate emergency. The website also signposts to further practical and financial support available to communities.

In addition, Scotland’s Climate Week (13-19 September) will be an opportunity for organisations to join the climate conversation ahead of COP26 in November, and tools will be available to support this on the website in the coming weeks.

Supporting communities to be climate ready is a key part of our just transition to net zero and we continue to review options for future support.

Our policies continue to support suitable hydrogen projects and proposals of smaller scale Schemes of this funding scale may fall under the banner of local energy systems, in which case support may be available through:

• CARES which may be able to provide funding support: https://www.localenergy.scot/funding/ . This scheme has supported projects such as the Huntly hydrogen project in the north east: https://www.localenergy.scot/projects-and-case-studies/case-studies/community-owned/huntly-hydrogen
• The Local Energy Systems Scottish Industry network (LESSIN) can also direct towards funding whilst providing other types of support - https://es.catapult.org.uk/impact/projects/local-energy-systems-scottish-industry-network/

Where there is clear economic benefit (jobs, regional growth etc.) and a contribution to net zero and in particular Scottish Enterprise’s Hydrogen Economy national programme ambitions, Scottish Enterprise’s place team may be able to become involved as a partner on projects and provide support for certain activities such as strategy development, market and economic research, meetings and events, facilitation of workshops & appraisals

Any prospective hydrogen production project owners in the North East are also encouraged to contact Scottish Enterprise’s hydrogen economy national programme team ( [email protected] ) so that they are aware of the project and can connect it to other relevant projects, companies and initiatives.

If the project involves buses (including mini-buses for smaller projects), Transport Scotland’s Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge fund ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/scottish-zero-emission-bus-challenge-fund/ ) could help with the cost of the vehicles, but also associated infrastructure (e.g. hydrogen refuelling stations at a very attractive 85% intervention rate).

Additionally, the Hydrogen Policy Statement published on the 21 December 2020 sets out the Scottish Government’s vision for Scotland to become a leading Hydrogen Nation with an ambition to generate 5GW’s of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030, committing to £100 million funding to accelerate the hydrogen economy in Scotland over the next five years.

The framework provided by the Hydrogen Policy Statement is informing the development of a Hydrogen Action Plan in 2021 which will provide further detail on the planned approach and necessary actions to assist the growth of a Scottish hydrogen economy.

In the development of the Hydrogen Action Plan, the Scottish Government is considering a wide range of options and actions to provide financial support to companies investing in the Scottish hydrogen sector to assist the Government in meeting the ambition to reach 5GW’s of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030 as set out in the Hydrogen Policy Statement.

The following table shows a breakdown of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order from 2017-18 to 2020-21 by local authority. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure purposes.

Data on temporary accommodation taken from the HL3 data collection is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18. Although some local authorities have provided data prior to this, there is not enough to provide a meaningful national picture and this data has not been subject to the rigorous quality assurance procedures required to finalise the data to official statistics standards.

Important:

Over the 2020-21 reporting period i) there was a significant change to legislation and ii) temporary exceptions were put in place at very short notice in response to COVID-19, both of which have had considerable impacts on the data. The urgency of having to adapt to the revised legislation without any specific guidance means that local authorities have reported inconsistencies in the information captured regarding breaches which is likely to affect comparability. For these reasons, these figures should be treated with caution.

Changes in legislation:

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach was encountered when a household with a pregnant woman and/or child is in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all households. Therefore, the total number of breaches across the year 2020/21 will include those based on both old and new legislation.

Covid-19 exceptions:

Temporary exceptions were put in place to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19.

The legislation noted that a placement was not considered unsuitable if:

• a person in the household has symptoms of coronavirus and the household requires to isolate; or
• the accommodation is required to provide temporary accommodation to ensure that a distance of 2 metres can be maintained between a member of the household and a person who is not a member of the household in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus; or
• the local authority is unable to place the household in suitable accommodation as a result of the impacts of coronavirus on temporary accommodation supply in the area, provided that where a household includes a child or a pregnant woman the household is not placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than 7 days.

(To note: the third of these only came into effect on 30th September 2020, halfway through the 2020-21 reporting period.)

A household placed in unsuitable accommodation for longer than 7 days where an exception did not apply must still be recorded as a breach.

Number of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority: 2017-18 – 2021-2020

In accordance with CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL) terms and conditions, and Passengers' Rights Regulations, concerning the rights of passengers when travelling by sea and inland waterway, the operator does not have liability to reimburse passengers for unused accommodation as a result of cancelled ferry services. However, if a sailing is cancelled or delayed due to reasons within the operator’s control, and passengers require to pay for overnight accommodation, the operator will reimburse these costs in line with Passenger Rights regulations.

In circumstances where passengers have paid for accommodation that was unused due to ferry cancellations, they are advised to reclaim these costs through their travel insurance.

A guide to Sailing Disruption and Passenger Rights Claims can be found on CFL’s website at the following link: https://www.calmac.co.uk/travelling-with-calmac/help-for-passengers/passenger-rights .

As I advised Parliament on 26 May, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party committed to exploring opportunities for cooperation and joint working

I am pleased to advise Parliament that the Scottish Government has today published drafts of a joint cooperation agreement and a shared policy programme, Working together to build a greener, fairer, independent Scotland .

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-and-scottish-green-party-cooperation-agreement

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-and-scottish-green-party-shared-policy-programme

Together, these set out our plans for close cooperation and collaboration that will allow us to work together to deliver the bold policies and programmes we need for the challenges we face. We are also determined that this new approach will change the dynamic of our politics for the better and in line with the founding principles of our Parliament.

Licensing of shooting ranges and gun clubs is a function of Police Scotland and is not part of the planning system.

Decisions on planning applications, including for shooting ranges, are primarily a matter for the relevant planning authority. Scottish planning policy sets out that planning decisions should be made at the most local level appropriate wherever possible. Where a planning authority were to refuse permission the applicant has the right of appeal which would be either to the Local Review Body or to Scottish Ministers.

Scottish Ministers have the power under current legislation to ‘call-in’ any application for their own determination. While Ministers exercise these powers sparingly, it is open to any individual to contact the Scottish Ministers to request call-in of any application prior to a decision being issued by the planning authority.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to review the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review the arrangements currently in place through which qualified clinicians, taking on board the patients’ medical history and lifestyle, agree with their patients, on a case-by-case basis, whether they would benefit from opioid substitution treatment (OST) or not. It is for patients and their clinicians to determine what is best for them and this will include agreement on the type and dosage of relevant OST. Methadone remains the most popularly used type of OST in Scotland, and there is strong evidence that supports its use.

From the recently published National Records Scotland (NRS) report on drug related deaths in 2020, methadone, on its own, was implicated in a very small number of deaths (7). However, it is increasingly implicated in deaths alongside other drugs suggesting that poly-drug use and non-compliance with treatment is the biggest factor. To increase our understanding in this area, and to inform policy making going forward, the Scottish Government is commissioning research to investigate the role and risks of methadone in drug related deaths.

Ministers are also keen to make sure as wide a range of OST and other treatment options are available, particularly long-acting buprenorphine – which has been deployed successfully in Scottish prisons throughout the pandemic. In addition, publication of the new Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards on 31 May 2021, emphasises the importance of allowing people to make informed choices about the type of medication and help available to them and to be supported to make an informed choice with regards to what medication to use for MAT.

Transport Scotland undertakes an annual assessment of the safety performance of the entire trunk road network, including the A90, and considers accident patterns and rates in the form of Route Accident Reduction Plans. In the short term, a Vehicle Activated Sign will be installed at this junction, with the aim of raising driver awareness and improving safety.

Recommendations for future transport investment will emerge from the ongoing second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) which is considering potential improvements to the trunk road network (and all other modes) across Scotland. The Aberdeen City Region Deal - Strategic Transport Appraisal Pre-Appraisal Study, recommended a package of possible road improvements for the A90 from Ellon to Peterhead and Fraserburgh. This, together with the other 34 remaining recommendations, are now subject to further appraisal as part of this review.

The appraisal process for STPR2 is considering the performance of all options against transport planning objectives, which are aligned to our National Transport Strategy priorities and outcomes. We also need to consider Value for Money based on performance against these objectives and the five Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance Criteria. This will be an important consideration given the pressures on current and future public finances. The interventions will seek to contribute to our vision of a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Until the appraisal process is completed, it is not possible to make individual decisions on upgrading specific sections of the A90, including the Toll of Birness. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.