Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19946 on 3 August 2023. 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 .

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has not held any Ministerial meetings with Sky UK Limited.

Within this period, Scottish Government culture officials have also not met with Sky UK Limited on either a formal or informal basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09277 on 4 July 2022. 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 .

Through the Corra Foundation, a Research Programme Fund was developed by the independent Drug Deaths Taskforce. The requested information is publicly available at Taskforce Funded Projects - Drug Deaths Taskforce (knowthescore.info) .

The capital funding provided by the Scottish Government to individual local authorities is included in the Local Government Finance Circulars.

Local government finance circulars - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Local authorities in Scotland also have a statutory power to borrow for their own capital expenditure and a duty to determine and keep under review the maximum amount which it can afford to allocate to capital spending.

Capital spending by local authority is included in the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS). SLGFS is an annual publication that provides a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities based on authorities audited accounts.

Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Information relating to the independent Drug Deaths Taskforce, that concluded in July 2022 after publishing its final report, is publicly available at: Homepage - Drug Deaths Taskforce (knowthescore.info) .

I met with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen on 20 July to discuss the review of the Scottish Government’s Fiscal Framework.

Following a series of negotiations, we have agreed on an updated Fiscal Framework, which will be published today. This follows the completion of an independent report into the Scottish Government’s block grant adjustments, which will also be published today.

This agreement updates the 2016 Fiscal Framework following a Parliament’s worth of experience and helps to keep the Scottish Government’s devolution settlement up to date.

Alongside this agreement both governments acknowledged the important independent work undertaken by Audit Scotland and the Scottish Fiscal Commission in providing scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s finances. Both Governments reaffirmed their support for these bodies and the calls from the Finance and Public Administration committee to increase this reporting as set out in their letter to the Commission of May 2023. Both governments noted that the Framework for Audit and Accountability which sits alongside the Scottish Government’s Fiscal Framework will also be reviewed in due course.

I would also like to thank the Finance and Public Administration Committee for its contribution to the public discourse on the Framework since 2016, including the evidence submitted to the call for stakeholder input to the Independent Report, and which have informed this revised agreement.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that the Registers of Scotland does not collect information that is meant to identify land as publicly owned. Estimates are highly dependent on how public bodies are defined and searched for (by name) in the Land Register of Scotland and the Registers of Scotland Unlocking Sasines dataset.

Using available data sources, we estimate that on 21 July 2023, public sector bodies (including local authorities) held approximately 32,882 holdings across all tenure types, covering a combined area of approximately 884,350 ha.

288 holdings exceed 500 ha.

The Scottish Government has written to all 14 Territorial Health Boards and Police Scotland to determine the extent of these issues across Scotland. The responses are now being complied and the conclusions will be sent to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee shortly. I am clear that access to the right treatment at the right time for each and every person is vital to the implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment Standards across our nation and is at the very heart of our national mission on drugs.

The most recent information on spending on housing and community amenities for Scotland is set out in the Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland (GERS) 2021-22 publication, which shows that spending on these services for Scotland was £479 per person in 2021-22. This compares to spending of £185 per person for England and £380 per person for Wales in 2021-22. The England and Wales figures are taken from HM Treasury's Country and Regional Analysis publication, available at: Country and regional analysis: 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Cross-country comparisons of the level of public spending are affected by which services are provided by the public and private sectors. Excluding spending on water supply, which is provided by the private sector in England and Wales and the public sector in Scotland, the level of spending per person on housing and community amenity services was £371 per person in Scotland, £185 per person in England and £380 per person in Wales in 2021-22.