Chamber and committees

The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 specifies that before NatureScot can apply to Scottish Ministers for a Land Management Order, they must first have sought to agree a Management Agreement with the respective land manager. It is for this reason that Land Management Orders are only used as a last resort. Since 2019, 58 Management Agreements have been put in place to restore natural features on protected areas and no Land Management Orders have been used.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13092 on 10 January 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

No engagement has taken place between any Ministers who used the statistic and the UK Statistics Authority since December 2022.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes were introduced to deal with the problem of landlords and letting agents who unfairly withheld deposits from tenants. In Scotland a custodial scheme is operated by 3 schemes approved by Scottish Ministers.

Tenants benefit from having deposits safeguarded by an independent third party. Section 33 and 34 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 sets out the requirements for all approved schemes to provide a free and independent dispute resolution service, so that the deposit can be returned quickly and fairly.

Scottish Government cannot intervene with individual deposit disputes and cannot intervene in decisions made by the independent adjudicator in relation to a tenancy deposit case.

The Scottish Government, in its Scottish Connections Framework, committed to engage with Scottish heritage organisations internationally, supporting these organisations to broaden their appeal to young people, including supporting appointment of Youth Officers and establishing scholarships and youth exchanges.

The Scottish Government will not appoint diaspora Youth Officers but will support and encourage diaspora organisations in their efforts to broaden their membership and appeal to younger generations.

As set out in our 2021 manifesto and confirmed in the Framework for Tax 2021, we are committed to reducing the Higher Property Rate, ensuring that the largest businesses pay the same combined poundage in Scotland as in England by the end of this parliamentary session.

Since the Barclay Review made this recommendation, we have introduced the Intermediate Property Rate on 1 April 2020. On 1 April 2023, we increased the rateable value threshold at which the Higher Property Rate applies, from £95,000 to £100,000. As a result, over 95% of properties are liable for a lower poundage rate in Scotland than in anywhere else in the UK.

Budget decisions are made annually in light of affordability.

Local authorities were responsible for the administration of the Tenant Grant Fund given their knowledge of local need. Each local authority provided the Scottish Government with quarterly returns showing spend against their funding allocation. Data on full versus partial mitigation of arrears was not provided routinely by all local authorities.

The quarterly information collected was published on the Scottish Government website here: Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and is summarised below.

The City Centre Recovery Taskforce was established in 2021 to identify actions to support city centre recovery from the effects of the COVID pandemic. It was wound up following publication of its report in March 2022 and the Scottish Government is now working with the Scottish Cities Alliance and city leaders to deliver on the report’s recommendations.

The Office of the Chief Statistician and Data Officer engaged directly with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in December 2022, setting out the steps that have been taken to ensure the statistic is not used further, and provided an update on the analytical work that is underway to produce a replacement statistic.

Ministers are not aware of any meetings, discussions or consultations made by the OSR that the Scottish Government has not been able to attend or convene.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS anticipates publication of the policy review in Autumn this year. This will include the revised policy, guidance, Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment (EHRIA) and the evidence which underpins the policy position.