Chamber and committees

Continued partnership is at the core of delivering and improving the Super Sponsor Scheme. The Scottish Government is grateful to the continued work of local authorities, including City of Edinburgh Council, in their support to displaced people who have had to flee their homeland.

The Scottish Government understand that arrangements underpinning the Super Sponsor Scheme have incurred costs which could be considered out of scope of the various UK tariffs. We continue to urge the UK Government to have parity of funding no matter the route through which someone arrives.

Officials are in discussions with COSLA to finalise a framework through which local authorities will be reimbursed for costs incurred due to the super sponsor scheme as well as engaging directly with City of Edinburgh council to understand and agree costs incurred by the council since the scheme opened for applications.

The Scottish Government would like to offer reassurance that reasonable costs associated with the super sponsor scheme will be met by the Scottish Government.

Funding decisions will be set out in the 2023-24 Scottish Budget later this year.

The announcement of the emergency budget review, as noted in the response to question S6W-11144 on 19 October 2022, confirmed a pause to all non-contracted spend, which included the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget.

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

Non-contracted spend, including the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget, was considered as part of the cost of living emergency budget review following the announcement of the review by the First Minister on 11 August, which was further outlined in the Deputy First Minister’s statement to Parliament on 7 September.

We know that households using prepayment meters are at particular risk of self-rationing and self-disconnection this winter.

While many of the powers in relation to price setting in the energy market remain with the UK Government, the Scottish Government is using all of its available powers to help these vulnerable consumers. The Emergency Budget Review will extend our Fuel Insecurity Fund through 2022-23, making available a further £10million to Third Sector Organisations to support those facing fuel insecurity. We have also provided an additional £1.2million to advice services across Scotland to enhance support available to those seeking advice on paying their bills and energy efficiency.

The Scottish Government is determined to maximise the economic opportunity for the Scottish supply chain from our offshore wind potential. That is why we asked Crown Estate Scotland to introduce the Supply Chain Development Statement as part of the ScotWind leasing round to demonstrate how serious the Scottish Government is about holding developers to account if they do not honour their supply chain commitments and create green jobs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09994 on 16 August 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

The R100 contracts set out which premises Openreach will deliver to. Openreach has no flexibility to remove premises from contractual build without prior agreement from Scottish Government. To date, no premises have been removed from the R100 contracts.

Prior to contracts being awarded, commercial broadband infrastructure providers were invited to share details of their existing and planned build through an Open Market Review. The responses to this were then tested through a Public Review to ensure that only premises which were not in commercial build plans would be eligible for the build through the R100 contracts.

Our Internationalisation Plans take an evidence-led approach to trade and investment policy and delivery, focusing on those sectors and opportunities where Scotland strengths align to global trends in trade and investment. All of our plans were developed in collaboration with our key delivery partners including Scotland's enterprise and skills agencies. Implementation of the Plans align our priorities around trade and investment with those countries and markets where Scotland already does well, but could perform better. This evidence base enables Scottish Development International, on behalf of the enterprise agencies and Scottish Government, to align their resources, including international offices and specialist staff.

For details of the specifics in this question, I have asked Scottish Enterprise to write to you directly with the information you seek.

£25m digital inclusion funding was made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21 for local authorities to use to support learners, in line with their own local needs. This funding supported the provision of 14,000 internet connections and 72,000 tablets or laptops for learners across all local authorities. This included 2,905 devices in West Lothian.

A number of local authorities have also invested their own funding in technology and have distributed connections and devices to learners in line with their own digital strategies.

This is a complex and ambitious commitment, and we are currently undertaking preparatory work, including looking in detail at the available infrastructure in schools. We continue to work with local authorities on plans to ensure every school-aged child has access to a device and connectivity by the end of this parliamentary term.