Chamber and committees

We are delighted with the progress on the reopening of the DigitalBoost Fund and will meet the 100 days deadline that we have set. This will be a national fund supporting businesses to increase their digital capacity and capabilities and we would encourage businesses in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area to apply once it reopens. We will work with our enterprise support partner, Business Gateway, and delivery partners, LESL (Lancashire Enterprise Services Limited), to successfully administer and deliver this fund.

The use of the local authority discretionary funding was entirely at the discretion of local authorities and we do not currently hold data on applications by or allocations to individual type of business.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes statistics and management information relating to its Covid-19 business grants on its website which can be found at Coronavirus (COVID-19): business support funding statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The HMICS Assurance review of Police Scotland demand analysis and management offers a positive outlook on Police Scotland’s efforts to develop its understanding of demand put on its resources. Its recommendations are for the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to consider.

The HMICS Assurance Review - Policing of COP26, published on 26 June 2021, provides a high level of confidence in the preparation and planning to date for COP26 and I have no doubt this work will continue at pace. The single recommendation in that report and the areas for continued development are for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to consider and where appropriate, act upon.

The Scottish Government provides a wide range of Covid-19 recovery funding support for town centres in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area.

To support sustained longer term renewal for our towns, villages and cities we have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over five years from 2021-22. The allocation for 2021-22 to East Ayrshire Council is £1.31m. The programme will help to link and align place based funding initiatives and progress our ambitions for town centres, community led regeneration and 20 minute neighbourhoods. It builds on the £34 million economic stimulus for regeneration and towns and other funding specifically for town centres, smaller settlements and Business Improvement Districts delivered in 2020-21.

To further support local businesses and promote keeping local spend local we launched the next phase of the Scotland Loves Local (SLL) campaign on 5 July. The £10m SLL Programme includes a new national platform for the SLL loyalty card scheme that will help revitalise town centres and high streets hit by the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses including those in town centres have directly benefitted from £3.6 billion in support. This includes over £13 million, through the Strategic Framework Business Fund and Restart Grant, to businesses in East Ayrshire (as at 25 June 2021) and we continue to work closely with councils to ensure businesses subject to restrictions for a longer period of time remain supported.

Grants of up to £7,500 for retailers and up to £19,500 for hospitality and leisure businesses were paid in April to help businesses, including town centre businesses, re-open. These one-off re-start grants replaced the Strategic Framework Business Fund payments made between November and March and provided more money up front to help with the costs of re-opening. Data on business support funding and other local authority support schemes are available here .

Local authorities were also empowered to support local businesses through the Discretionary Fund, with over £1.7 million awarded to businesses in East Ayrshire from that Fund.

We have extended 100% Non-Domestic Rates relief for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22 – this is a more generous package than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations. This relief benefited over 500 businesses in East Ayrshire saving them over £11 million in 2020-21, according to the latest data available.

Housing Options Scotland receives funding from the Scottish Government to provide housing advice and advocacy services to older and disabled people in Scotland. This includes support for the Military Matters project aimed specifically to help veterans and which also attracts funding from other sources.

Scottish Government funding is set in a framework of annual budgets. The Scottish budget is an annual Act of the Scottish Parliament. Annual budgets are set under the terms of the Fiscal Framework agreed between the UK and Scottish Governments to implement the Scotland Act 2016 powers. The size of the Scottish Budget is determined by a number of elements, including the block grant allocation from the UK Budget, which is also set in single year budgets.

Due to this framework being set in single year budgets, SG funding is allocated to Housing Options Scotland on a yearly basis. SG has provided funding to Housing Options Scotland over many years and we are fully supportive of ensuring this unique and important service continues.

Ministers will consider the Scottish Veteran’s Commissioner report, Housing: Making a Home in Civilian Society as a whole and formally respond in due course.

The Permanent Secretary wrote to the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee on 19 February 2021 on how the Scottish Government is strengthening its approach to providing support and managing its on-going interests in businesses. Please find a link to the letter here .

Transport Scotland has published guidance to enable people to travel as safely as possible during the Covid-19 pandemic. The guidance includes car sharing and is applicable to all protection levels. On 22 June 2021, the First Minister confirmed the intention that, provided the data supports it, all of Scotland would move to protection level 0 from 19 July and that all legal requirements for outdoor physical distancing would be lifted from this date. The First Minister also confirmed the intention that, data permitting, Scotland would move Beyond Level 0 from 9 August, on which date all legal requirements for physical distancing in indoor settings will be lifted. Transport Scotland is reviewing its guidance to consider what changes may be required in line with the updated Strategic Framework and move Beyond Level 0. The guidance is available at: Advice on how to travel safely (transport.gov.scot)

The Scottish Social Housing Tender Price Index measures the movement in the prices paid by clients to contractors for the construction of affordable housing in Scotland. The index is based on analysing the costs in accepted tenders or agreed prices for housing projects. Price increases will be reflected in the tendered costs of developments and will therefore be accounted for in the Index.

Boundaries Scotland’s final proposals have been submitted and Scottish Ministers now have a legal duty to lay regulations giving effect to the proposals as soon as is practicably possible.

The Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 removed ministerial discretion to modify or reject Boundaries Scotland’s proposals. However the regulations will now be subject to affirmative procedure in the Scottish Parliament. This gives Parliament an enhanced role in scrutinizing the Boundary Commission’s proposals and brings the procedure into line with that already in place for Scottish Parliament constituency boundaries.

The regulations are due to be laid in the Scottish Parliament in late August. The lead committee will take evidence from witnesses ahead of a debate on the motion to approve the regulations.

Due to the presence of new and emerging COVID-19 variants of concern, vaccine efficacy is continuously monitored and assessed. Public Health England (PHE) monitors the efficacy of COVID 19 vaccinations currently approved for use in the UK.

On 14 June PHE published its most recent analysis on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admission with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, first identified in India. The analysis suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses.
‎ Note: These data remain subject to peer review.

Table 1: Estimated vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation