Chamber and committees

The way in which land is owned, managed and used is centrally important to many of our national priorities, especially in meeting the twin challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises and supporting thriving communities and a green recovery. Everyone has a stake in Scotland’s land and everyone should benefit from Scotland’s land.

Community ownership has long been a key focus for land reform, and the Scottish Government continues to support communities to take ownership of land and assets. In the last parliament, we implemented legislation to extend community rights to buy to include a right to buy land to further sustainable development. Communities in Scotland now have more options than ever before to take ownership of land and assets, including several distinct rights to buy, and they can now choose which route to community ownership best suits their aspirations.

We are committed to a further Land Reform Bill in this Parliament and a full and comprehensive public consultation will be run prior to its introduction in order to allow key stakeholders and the public an opportunity to provide their views. We are beginning the work necessary to progress this in the new Parliamentary session and will update Parliament of timings in due course.

There were three cases of pupils being 'removed from the register' of their school in 2018-19. When this occurs a pupil does not return to their original school and will be educated at another school or in some other educational provision.

More statistics on exclusions from school can be found in the following publication: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-exclusion-statistics/

Information on exclusions is not available for 2017-18 or 2019-20 as this data is collected biennially. Information on exclusions in 2020-21 has yet to be collected.

The Scottish Government is currently exploring the potential to establish an office of the Climate Change Committee in Scotland.

Financial expenditure data relating to Fair Start Scotland is broken down by contract area, rather than by Local Authority area. For a breakdown of these contract areas, please refer to Annex A of the Fair Start Scotland Annual Report .

The anticipated spend on Fair Start Scotland is regularly published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission and is based on performance levels set within provider contracts. As this is dependent on provider performance in supporting people into sustainable employment this figure is subject to some variation.

The Scottish Government proactively publishes information relating to the annual spending on Fair Start Scotland. Annex B of the Fair Start Scotland Annual Report published on 9 th November 2020 outlines the total expenditure in its first two years of delivery. Further information on annual spend will be published in future publications.

The Scottish Government also publishes annual Evaluation reports that fully assess the effectiveness of the service. These reports include commissioned research with service users, delivery partners and providers, as well as ongoing analysis of performance. Links to the first two Evaluation reports can be found below. The next Evaluation report is due to be published in September 2021.

Fair Start Scotland evaluation report 2: overview of year one - November 2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Fair Start Scotland - evaluation report 3: year two - overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government is taking action across the board to reduce marine litter including via preventative as well as removal initiatives, legislation and policies under our Marine Litter Strategy.

Preventative measures to reduce plastic pollution sources have included introducing bans on rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads in 2018, and on plastic-stemmed cotton buds in 2019. We have also drafted regulations to restrict many other problematic single-use plastic items such as expanded polystyrene cups and containers, cutlery, plates, stirrers, straws, balloon sticks and all oxo-degradable products. Legislation is expected to be introduced at the end of 2021.

Many behaviour change initiatives have also been supported to reduce marine litter sources. In May 2020, regulations were passed by parliament for our ambitious Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), covering drinks in glass, PET plastic, and metal containers. We are the first UK administration to develop a Deposit Return Scheme and we believe that DRS will help raise recycling rates, cut emissions, and reduce littering.

In addition, we supported the Trial Period Campaign in 2019 promoting reusable sanitary products over single-use items. We have also supported behaviour change within industry to reduce the second largest direct source of microplastic pollution which is in the form of plastic pellets, powders and flakes, commonly known as nurdles. This has been achieved with the development of a Publicly Available Specification with the British Standards Institution to prevent loss at sites handling or managing pellets and will be published in July 2021. Future work includes building on pellet loss prevention measures and improving waste management in our fishing industry to reduce this source of litter and increase recycling rates.

To support removal, we have funded KIMO’s Fishing for Litter project which helps fishers to responsibly dispose of waste passively caught during fishing operations. We have funded the annual bulk removal of waste at Arrochar, a marine litter sink case study area where the local shore area is subject to a disproportionate level of plastic pollution. To target riverine litter which contributes to the marine plastic pollution problem, we also fund Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project. The Scottish Government also recognises the important role of volunteers in removing beach litter before it is washed back to sea, and funds Local Coastal Partnerships to support local communities in organising beach cleans. The refreshed Marine Litter Strategy will increase focus on marine litter removal and target rivers which are major pathways for plastics into our seas.

A number civil service jobs in the Scottish Government and associated Agencies and bodies are already undertaken outwith Edinburgh and Glasgow. For example, Social Security Scotland has an office in Dundee, Scottish Public Pension Agency and Accountant in Bankruptcy are based in Galashiels and Kilwinning respectively, and the Scottish Prison Service and Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service have a number of locations across Scotland.

Working from home remains the default position for the majority of Scottish Government staff during the pandemic. As noted in the Strategic Framework published on 22 June 2021, there will be a phased return to more office working from Level 0 onwards but with continued support for working from home where possible and appropriate. Once the easing of restrictions allows more staff to return to buildings, our expectation is that we will introduce a hybrid working model which will enable Scottish Government staff, where the role allows, to have more flexibility in their work location across Scotland and include a mix of home and office working.

In March 2021, the Scottish Government’s Population Strategy recognised that these changes to working norms may offer new opportunities to support civil servants who wish to live and work in locations outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow. As part of this, the Scottish Government committed to actively considering its workplace footprint and exploring the opportunities of distributing its workforce in greater detail. This work is in its early stages. However, as a first step, the Scottish Government will be piloting local hubs outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow so that staff can work at office locations closer to their home.

The Scottish Government welcomes the study, which was carried out to support Scotland’s response to climate change and will help identify the rivers most at risk from water shortages and prioritise the development of resilience.

Scotland is a water rich nation but we need to use water wisely and build resilience to the impacts of climate change including drought and water scarcity. We are working with key business sectors, SEPA, Scottish Water, local authorities, and other stakeholders to make sure water is used efficiently; the first line of defence against droughts and climate change.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has just consulted on a Water Resources Management Plan, which highlights the risk of climate change and the need to work in collaboration to develop a series of practical actions to deliver a more sustainable and resilient use of water. This builds on the approach taken under the National Water Scarcity Plan, which focuses on making early information available to allow water users to manage supplies during prolonged dry periods without harming the environment.

The response provided to S6W-00515 confirmed the Scottish Government’s position with the UK Government's Events Research Programme. In common with the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government did not hold events as part of the ERP.

Specific procedures that were part of the ERP, for example testing as means of entry to EURO 2020 matches, were considered for the event in Scotland as part of our gateway process for flagship events – however, clinical advice cautioned against mandatory testing and checking on arrival, in this instance, as the knock-on effect on flow may have created more risk of mixing.

The final report of Phase 1 of the UK Government's ERP has now been published – Events Research Programme: Phase I findings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – and we will continue to engage with the UKG and on a 4 Nations basis, with the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, to identify learnings from the ERP and help inform the route ahead for the events sector.