Chamber and committees

In 2016 the Scottish Government committed to invest up to £125 million in the Aberdeen City Region Deal, matched by the UK Government. Alongside the Deal, the Scottish Government announced an additional £254 million of investment in the North East’s Infrastructure.

This includes £200 million to help improve journey times and increase capacity on key rail links between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, and £24m for a new grade separated junction at the Laurencekirk A90/A937 south junction. The rail improvement project is on course to conclude option selection by early next year and we expect to complete the project by the end of 2026. We also continue to push forward with the statutory authorisation stage for the A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme. Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory procedures, at which point a timetable for the construction phase can be set.

In addition, up to £10 million was committed to help extend digital infrastructure across the City Deal region and the City Network Extension project, which is delivering full fibre connectivity to a number of public sector sites across the city of Aberdeen, is expected to complete later this year while the Full Fibre Project in Aberdeenshire is expected to complete next year.

To date no eligible housing infrastructure projects have been submitted as part of the £20m indicative allocation referred to in the 2016 agreement.

The Scottish Government has committed to deliver the National Transitions to Adulthood strategy as part of the 2021 Programme for Government and within this Parliamentary term. Our priority is to start early discussions with disabled children and young people to have their voices clearly heard across developing policies that impact on their daily lives, which we plan to undertake by January 2022. In addition we will review responses to the National Care Service consultation on the inclusion of children's social work and social care services as a route to reduce complexity and improve transitions and support for those that need access to a range of services.

We will carry this out in the context of wider work that has a direct impact on these children and families including United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) / United Nation Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD), Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) Refresh, the Promise, the Review of Additional Support for Learning Implementation on Support for Learning: All our Children and All their Potential , Fair Work, and Mental Health.

The cost of energy remains a significant issue in terms of tackling fuel poverty and can discourage switching to electric zero emissions technologies for heating. As energy pricing and obligations are reserved, we must see action by the UK Government if we are to meet both our emissions and fuel poverty targets.

The Scottish Government is engaging broadly to raise our concerns for the people and businesses of Scotland. A letter has been sent this week from the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport to the BEIS business secretary highlighting the need for affordable energy and Ministers are engaging with industry and consumer groups, including fuel poverty organisations.

We note the publication of Shelter Scotland’s Understanding the True Cost of Evictions in Scotland report and will study the details as part of our wider consideration of evidence around this area. We have reservations about the report’s treatment of rent arrears costs as part of the analysis and will engage with Shelter Scotland to gain an understanding of the work that has been carried out.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that eviction for rent arrears is a last resort. A social landlord must have exhausted all attempts to resolve rent arrears with the tenant before taking action to evict. The Scottish Government and Social Landlords reaffirmed our joint commitment to supporting people to keep their homes and avoid eviction where tenants are struggling through no fault of their own to manage their rent in our Shared Statement: Social landlords working together with tenants to avoid evictions: https://www.gov.scot/publications/joint-working-on-evictions-social-housing-shared-statement/ published on 25 June 2021.

Historic Environment Scotland has undertaken surveys of Scotland’s historic environment sector to evaluate the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic on heritage businesses and community groups and is working on further plans to empower and enable a resilient and robust recovery for the sector.

Historic Environment Scotland has also been conducting targeted and direct engagement with communities around its Properties in Care closed either by the pandemic or by recent health & safety precautions.

The primary responsibility for dealing with planning applications and local planning matters rests with Glasgow City Council as local planning authority.

It is for the planning authority to interpret and implement relevant planning legislation and guidance as it deems appropriate given the circumstances of a case and to ensure that the provisions of the planning system are applied properly. Planning applications should be determined in accordance with the terms of the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, each proposal being considered on its own merits. In reaching a decision on the planning application the planning authority is expected to have regard to all material factors, including consultee views and representations submitted to them.

As this is a live planning application it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of the case so as not to prejudice the decision making process.

Our priority is to ensure a successful, safe and secure COP26 in November and Ministers and officials are working with UK Government counterparts, our partners in Glasgow and the relevant public health bodies to achieve this.

We are continuing to work closely with the UK Government, Glasgow City Council, and all our partners to ensure that strong COVID mitigation measures are in place that will support the full and active participation of international delegates, and protect public health.

Further details on vaccine certification for registered COP26 delegates will be announced shortly.

The Scottish Government’s policy is to replace vehicles when they reach the end of their operational life cycle, with fully electric replacements, wherever possible.

During the last 3 years we have procured 63 Ultra Low Emitting vehicles (ULEV’s). 40% of the purchases were zero-emission electric vehicles.

This replacement strategy allows us to increase the number of electric vehicles on the fleet, year on year, implementing the targets set out in the 2019-20 Programme for Government, where we outlined our commitment to phase out the need for all petrol or diesel cars in the public sector fleet by 2025 and for all other new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

The Scottish Government collects information on households who apply to Local Authorities for homelessness assessment. This includes information on reasons for homelessness, including evictions, but does not include information on the time between evicted households having their tenancy terminated and formally presenting to the local authority. There are currently no plans to assess the feasibility of collecting this data.

Not all evicted households experience homelessness and approach their local authority for help, and not all who do will necessarily be assessed as homeless.

Landlords and lenders are legally required to inform the relevant local authority when they take action that puts a household at risk of homelessness due to eviction by completing a Section 11 Notice. On receiving notification, the local authority should take the most pro-active approach possible to prevent homelessness occurring appropriate to the particular case.

All current Scottish Government Homelessness data collections, their guidance and the resulting publications can be found here .