Chamber and committees

Since 2016, the Scottish Government has invested around
£39 million in peatland restoration through the Peatland Action programme (delivered by NatureScot) and the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme under the Scottish Rural Development Programme. The annual figures are shown in the following table:

We are committed to community wealth building in Scotland that will help deliver a stronger, more resilient and sustainable wellbeing economy.

One of the five pillars of community wealth building is the socially productive use of land and property which considers land not solely for its economic use, but also its social and ecological potential. More progressive use of land and property assets can have a significant impact on the fortunes of local people and enterprise, empowering communities to develop the land or asset as they see fit for the benefit of their local area. This requires us to think not just in terms of ownership and use, but also about stewardship for future generations.

The Scottish Government are committed to community wealth building and for the first time have appointed a Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth. The Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform and Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, who will lead on community wealth, will work together throughout this Parliamentary session. The Programme for Government commits us to grow community wealth building (CWB) in Scotland as part of our commitment to building a stronger, more resilient and sustainable economy.

We plan to double the Scottish Land Fund to £20 million per year by the end of this Parliament. This can facilitate more opportunities for communities seeking to explore the acquisition of land/assets and also the actual acquisition of land/assets.

As set out in our manifesto, we will introduce a new Land Reform bill in the current session.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00258 on 7 June 2021. 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 Scottish Government places great importance on the range of services Arms Length External Organisations (ALEOS) provide and believes everyone should have access to these services as we move towards recovery. However, as independent corporate bodies it is for local authorities to decide when and what services will be offered, and it is for the locally elected representatives to make these decisions. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to assess the financial viability of their own ALEOS.

The Scottish Government for our part have allocated Scotland's local authorities an additional £1.5 billion in direct support through the local government finance settlement and councils have also been granted additional financial flexibilities to address the financial pressures caused by COVID-19.

Furthermore, the 2021-22 Local Government Settlement of almost £11.7 billion provides a cash increase in local government day to day spending for local revenue services of £375.6 million or 3.5 per cent.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of occasions police have responded to a call regarding a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport (DfT) are continuing to engage regularly to align their work to enable a shared understanding of the cross border benefits and challenges of options to extend Borders Rail to Carlisle. As committed to within the £350 million Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, the Scottish Government, through Transport Scotland, is progressing the evidence base for extending the Borders Railway through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review. Alongside this, the UK Government’s Department for Transport is progressing complementary work with a wider UK perspective.

The amount spent by the Scottish Government on woodland creation in the years 2016-2021 is set out in the following table:

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme housing subsidy is flexible and is able to respond to the challenges reported recently by the Federation of Master Builders. In this respect, the amount of grant funding that individual projects require continues to be a decision for Registered Social Landlords and local authorities which – as part of the application process – are required to self-certify that the grant that they are requesting is the minimum necessary to allow a project to proceed once homes are designed and tender prices have been received. The amount of grant requested is then compared with the applicable Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark to determine how the funding application will be assessed. Projects that can be delivered with grant funding at or below the relevant benchmark follow a streamlined application and approval process, with projects which are seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant benchmark following a more detailed value for money assessment.

The Scottish Social Housing Tender Price Index measures the movement in the prices paid by clients to contractors for the construction of affordable housing in Scotland. The index is based on analysing the costs in accepted tenders or agreed prices for housing projects. Price increases will be reflected in the tendered costs of developments and will therefore be accounted for in the Index.

The ‘Information for Use’ leaflet that is provided with each lateral flow test kit states that those who are unable to upload their test results can instead register them by calling the Freephone number 119.

On the wider issue of poor internet and mobile signal, the Scottish Government’s £600 million Reaching 100% (R100) contracts will deliver universal superfast broadband access across Scotland, regardless of remoteness or rurality, and the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) will ensure that everyone can access a superfast broadband connection by the end of 2021. This builds on the Scottish Government’s strong track record of delivery, demonstrated by the £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme.

Through the Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme, we are also investing £28.75 million to deliver future-proofed, 4G mobile infrastructure at up to 55 mobile ‘notspots’ – providing connectivity in remote, rural and island areas.