Chamber and committees

I meet jointly with the Chairs and Chief Executives of both agencies to discuss progress in collaborative working on skills every 6 weeks.

This is supported by an assurance group, chaired by Senior Civil Servants and including the Senior Responsible Officers for all collaborative skills projects.

A Shared Outcomes Framework that defines the collaborative projects, sets out strategic objectives, key milestones, deliverables, impacts and measures is currently being developed by the Scottish Government and both agencies to enable more effective monitoring and reporting of joint action in this area .

Letters of Guidance are issued by the Scottish Government to its public bodies annually. The letters set clear Ministerial expectations on our priorities for the year ahead.

The letters to both Skills Development Scotland and to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will have a clear emphasis on the need for shared working on skills planning; recognising the commitment as set out in the Scottish Government’s response to the SFC Review of Coherence and Sustainability to build capacity and a more systematic approach to the way we collectively plan coherent tertiary education and skills provision and investment, so that it responds better to current and future needs. The Letters of Guidance will draw on the Shared Outcomes Framework that is currently being developed and which will set out clearly the intent for collaborative projects, connected to the National Performance Framework and the National Strategy for Economic Transformation priorities, and include milestones, objectives, impacts and measures for each of these projects.

We expect that the letters will be issued in Spring 2022 once the budget for 2022-23 has been approved by parliament.

Flytipping is a criminal offence. People who flytip can be issued with a fixed penalty notice up to £200. If prosecuted, a person who is caught flytipping can face a fine up to £40,000. SEPA are engaging with the Scottish Sentencing Council on behalf of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce to help develop sentencing guidelines on environmental offences.

In December 2021, Scottish Government launched a consultation on potential additional measures to tackle flytipping in Scotland, including actions to further strengthen enforcement. Proposals include raising fines, extending local authorities' enforcement powers and exploring the use of civil penalties to enforce flytipping offences.

Responses to the consultation, which is open until 31 March 2022, will inform the development of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently.

New regulations, which came into force on 9 November 2020, require Scottish public bodies from November 2022 to report on how they will align spending plans and use of resources to contribute to delivering their emissions reduction targets.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Scottish Government ran a very successful five-week, multi-media marketing campaign last autumn to raise awareness of the new standard. This was supported by over 96,000 leaflets distributed to all libraries in Scotland as well as posters, website and an online campaign toolkit shared with over 500 partners.

Independent analysis showed the campaign reached 95.2% of its target audience and follow-up analysis in December 2021 showed 88% were aware of the new standard.

Furthermore, Scottish Government has published material online through social media and a dedicated website and the Cabinet Secretary has written on several occasions to MSPs with information and FAQs to support their constituents.

We have worked very closely with partners including the SFRS throughout the legislative process and they fully welcome any measures that support fire prevention.

The legislation provides flexibility for people to fit the necessary alarms in due course if they are unable to do so by the February 2022 deadline. The rules place a legal duty on local authorities, not homeowners, to ensure homes are fitted with the correct alarms. A joint SG/ COSLA statement was published on

‎ 21 January, which confirmed that local authorities will be taking a proportionate and measured approach to compliance taking individual circumstances into account as well as reflecting the evolving situation with the Covid 19 pandemic.

No one will be criminalised if they need more time and there are no penalties for non-compliance. However, we would encourage everyone to install these alarms at their earliest opportunity as they can help to save lives.

As we move into a different phase of the pandemic, we are looking to actively encourage everyone who is eligible to apply and will be launching a national marketing campaign in the coming weeks.

The application process, card renewals, card replacements and all other cardholder management are the responsibility of the Improvement Service for online applications and of individual local councils for all other applications. All local councils have been given the option of coordinating applications through schools on behalf of their pupils with the necessary information having been provided to them by the Improvement Service late last year.

The Individual Training Accounts (ITAs) replaced the Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) and were launched in October 2017. Since their launch in 2017 the following numbers of individuals have received funding and training through the scheme: