Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the heavy impact of the pandemic on city centres.

We have supported many city centre businesses through our investment of more than £3.7bn in business support across Scotland.

The City Centre Recovery Task Force started its work in March this year, as a partnership between the Scottish Government and our seven cities. We kick-started that work with investment of a £2m City Centre Recovery Fund, which has already supported a range of projects including virtual cultural events, marketing campaigns and support for businesses to make more use of outdoor areas. That is in addition to our £2m Regional Recovery Fund, which cities also benefitted from.

The Task Force will allow our cities to put forward proposals that meet their own individual needs, and it present its recommendations for action this autumn. In the meantime, we continue to work with the cities individually as well as collectively. I will attend a meeting of Glasgow’s own City Centre Task Force on 27 October, following engagement by the Deputy First Minister who has attended previously.

The Scottish Government supports Scottish Canals to conserve Scotland’s canals as part of our heritage, and transform them to play a vital role in local communities and as an asset for all of Scotland.

Scottish Canals is engaged in regeneration projects across the canal network as part of how it delivers wider public value and is a key partner working with local authorities, local communities and funders to deliver projects that will bring about a wide range of benefits for many communities which sit along the canal network. Recent projects include The Claypits, Bowling Harbour and the Ardrishaig Egg Shed.

Our Position Statement, published in November 2020, confirmed that we expect National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) to contribute to meeting our target of net-zero emissions within an overarching goal of addressing climate change. The draft NPF4, which will be laid in the Scottish Parliament this autumn, will set out a draft spatial strategy and proposed national planning policies to achieve this.

Heating engineers are vital to the success of our Heat in Building Strategy which sets out how we will achieve our Net Zero Emissions in Scottish buildings by 2045. Ensuring heating engineers are sufficiently trained in the repair and installation of zero emissions heating are a key part of this. Our support for this includes:

• A doubling of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund to £20m - enabling employers to access up to £15,000 each to address skills gaps in their workforce. This fund is available to all Scottish employers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

• Providing funding to support apprentices with zero emissions heat skills with 95 apprentices applying for funding across five Scottish colleges.
‎• Funding zero emissions training equipment (e.g. heat pumps) for colleges in the north of Scotland to ensure pan-Scotland training provision (colleges in the south of Scotland have benefited from Scottish Power’s Green Economy Fund). By the end of this financial year there will be 13 training centres - including the North East Scotland College (currently installing their equipment) - across Scotland covering repair and maintenance of heat pumps.

In addition, we have also been working with industry, the sector skills bodies and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to develop skill requirements for zero emission technologies that will help professionalise the sector and provide career pathways for young people. We have also set up an independent group to provide recommendations to Scottish Ministers on the potential scope and content of a heat pump sector deal with an interim report published in June and we will respond to final version once published.

Finally, we are working hard to unlock workforce investment by driving up the demand for products and services in the zero emissions heat and energy efficiency sector. This includes investing almost £1.8bn to build upon, expand and improve our heat and energy efficiency funding programmes over the next five years, and a proposed framework of regulations to require action from building owners.

This information is not held centrally.

As part of our ongoing review of existing land value capture mechanisms, we commissioned independent research on the value of developer contributions in Scotland. The research, which was published in July 2021, estimated that the value of contributions agreed by Scottish authorities in 2019-20 was approximately £500m.

However, the research highlighted a lack of consistency between authorities in terms of the way information on planning obligations is recorded at the local authority level.

Scottish Ministers have powers under the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 to require the publication of, and annual reporting on, planning obligations entered into by planning authorities. The implementation of these powers forms part of the Scottish Government’s planning reform programme, much of which has been delayed by the pandemic. Nevertheless, we remain committed to introducing new reporting requirements for planning obligations in order to improve transparency around their use. We are currently in the process of updating the implementation programme for the remaining aspects of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and will publish this in due course.

We will lay the draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in the Scottish Parliament this autumn and will consult widely on it. We recognise that we need to act now to reduce emissions, adapt to a changing climate, and to protect, restore and better connect Scotland’s biodiversity.

Our approach to NPF4 will ensure that climate change and nature recovery are at the heart of the new spatial strategy.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. The data we receive from Police Scotland for production of the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up. We do not receive further details on the characteristics and circumstances of individual crimes, therefore we are unable to identify how many crimes of vandalism were in relation to graffiti. Time series information on the total number of crimes of vandalism recorded by the police is available from the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics (a link to the latest publication is found here: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2019-2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The 2020-21 Bulletin will be published on the
‎ 28 September 2021 here: Recorded Crime in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of Neighbourhood Watch schemes before 2012. In 2012, there were approximately 1,500 Neighbourhood Watch Schemes in Scotland and the most recent figures to June 2021 show that there are now 1,976 Schemes registered.

Since March this year, 36 new Watches have been registered. Additionally, there has been an increase in the number of people signing up to receive free ALERTS, both as individuals and as points of contact for organisations, with total current figures at 26,832 individual registrations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00245 on 4 June 2021, which highlights the actions delivered in the Suicide Prevention Action Plan (Every Life Matters) . 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

A full update on the delivery of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan will be included in the annual report of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, which is due to be published later this month.

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Loan and Cashback scheme, provides interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback grant funding for homeowners to replace fossil-fuel heating systems such as gas with low or zero emissions heating systems such as heat pumps alongside insulation measures.

To further support households to make their homes greener, we provide:

• free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
• HES loans with up to 40% cashback for energy efficiency measures;
• the Green Homes Network which allows households to find out about the experience of others who have already installed measures; and
• the Renewable Installer Finder Tool which helps households find installers and suppliers in their area.

Under the HES Loan and Cashback scheme, homeowners can borrow up to £17,500 for a total of two renewables measures. If applying for a heat pump, then a maximum of up to £10,000 is available (either air source to water, ground source to water, water source to water or hybrid air source to water (£2,500 loan & £7,500 cashback)).

These advice and support schemes can be accessed through Home Energy Scotland, managed on behalf of Scottish Government by the Energy Saving Trust.