Chamber and committees

We recently reviewed progress against the new and existing actions in the October 2020 Ending Homelessness Together action plan. We published our findings in the October 2021 annual report to Parliament: Ending Homelessness Together: annual report 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government has never issued any guidelines on measuring low-frequency noise.

Our Ending Homelessness Together action plan sets out actions we are taking in the short to medium term to end homelessness. Some actions have timescales associated with them while others involve system-wide reforms. There are timescales for the funding that supports the action plan, however. The £50 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund announced in 2017 is for five years (2018-23) and the new £50 million announced in Programme for Government 2021 to end homelessness is for this parliamentary term (2021-26).

Recruitment for the Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel has now been completed and we will announce the successful candidates in due course, once the necessary processes to establish this new Advisory Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) have been completed.

The participation of competitors, including Scottish competitors, at the Olympics and Paralympics is a matter for the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association, which are required to operate independently of Government under International Olympic Committee regulations.

The Scottish Government shares the concerns which have been widely expressed in relation to China’s human rights record, including the reports of serious, widespread and systematic human rights violations being committed in Xinjiang.

Forecasts relating to future requests for award reviews and reassessments are set out by the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC). The most recently published forecast of 26 August 2021 stated that 8,700 additional people could request that their award be reviewed due to their circumstances changing over the course of case transfer.

On the assumption that around 72% of these individuals could request their mobility award is reviewed, based on the current share of PIP award types, such requests could therefore be around 6,300 people following transfer to ADP from PIP.

The Scottish Government will set out a strengthened framework of support in the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan in 2022, to support the growth of the marine renewables and offshore wind sectors, focused on funding for the infrastructure these sectors need, such as port upgrades.

The Scottish Government committed in the Programme for Government to develop an Export Plan for Renewables . This Plan will be developed in partnership with the industry and stakeholders, including Scottish Renewables. Consideration of an energy skills and services export target will be included as part of this process.

The most recent Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts, published on 26 August 2021, estimate that an additional 209,000 people, who are not in receipt of Personal Independence Payment, will apply for Adult Disability Payment between 2022-23 - 2026-27.

We have started the transfer of approximately 52,000 DLA Child awards from DWP to Social Security Scotland. We will begin the transfer of approximately 300,000 awards of Personal Independence Payment in summer 2022.

Our aim is to safely and securely complete case transfer for all people in Scotland in receipt of disability and carer benefits by the end of 2025. We will do so sooner if possible, as long as we do not risk the process being anything other than safe and secure for this significantly large number of people, and will do so jointly with the UK Government as case transfer is a joint programme of work.