The £10m Tenant Grant Fund is part of a package of measures available to local authorities to prevent homelessness, alongside other support such as Discretionary Housing Payments and advice on maximising income. The grant will co-exist alongside the £10 million Tenant Hardship Loan Fund and be open to eligible private and social tenants.

As there is no one single solution, both the loan and grant can provide support to different people in different circumstances, to assist them during the pandemic recovery period.

The Grant is available for local authorities, who can consider all the circumstances and support available, to pay rent arrears for those most in need with the aim of preventing homelessness and creating sustainable tenancies.

In comparison, the Loan fund will continue to offer loans responsibly to applicants who can demonstrate that they can afford to make future loan repayments spread over a number of years. The loan is not suitable for all but, where it is, the interest free terms and long repayment period can help tenants who are struggling but not necessarily at risk of losing their tenancy, to get back on their feet.

We want people to access the most appropriate form of support for them and encourage tenants in difficulty to seek advice and assistance on their housing circumstances as soon as possible.

No date has been set to close the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund (THLF) to new applicants. The THLF will continue to be part of the range of support available for tenants, alongside the Tenant Grant Fund, to help those struggling to pay their rent due to the pandemic.

We engaged closely with islands communities as part of the policy-development process for DRS, culminating in an Islands Communities Impact Assessment ( Deposit return scheme for Scotland: islands communities impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).

We consider that our design for DRS takes full account of the needs of businesses, including retailers, operating in islands communities. In particular, the DRS scheme administrator will be required to collect containers free of charge from retailers to ensure they do not incur costs associated with transporting scheme articles for recycling.

In 2019, the First Minister announced a programme of investment over 4 years to improve perinatal and infant mental health services across Scotland.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board was established to drive forward this work by providing oversight and strategic direction. This includes supporting boards to develop services and ensure that recruitment happens in a timely manner.

Since March 2019, the Scottish Government has invested over £16 million in perinatal and infant mental health.

This figure includes;

• funding for community specialist mental health services in every health board in Scotland and inpatient services for women and families with the highest level of need,
• investment in the third sector across 33 organisations providing perinatal mental health support to women and families, and
• funding to support the voices of lived experience to shape the development of policy and services, and raise awareness of perinatal and infant mental health among professionals, policy makers and the public.

Scottish Government will continue to invest in these services over the life of the Programme Board. We will continue to invest in perinatal and infant mental health to extend our investment in these services beyond the life of the Programme Board. This funding will enable boards to recruit the required staff, fully establish specialist community perinatal and infant mental health services and deliver on Scottish Government commitments towards perinatal and infant mental health in the long term.

The Programme Board has incurred £423,044 in costs since 2019-20. This includes fees for Programme Board management, research and publishing, as well as the administration and development of the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health third sector funds.

The BSL National Plan Progress Report will be published today in British Sign Language, English and Easyread versions. This Report details the progress made since the Plan was published. I am pleased to report that the majority of the actions in the Plan have been put into effect, and have either been completed, or are ongoing as this Report is published. In almost all areas of public life in Scotland, significant progress has been made in promoting BSL, in making the language better understood and respected, and in improving access to services and support for BSL signers. We will continue to promote and support the use of BSL as one of Scotland’s vibrant indigenous languages.

We have worked closely with CoSLA and others to develop this fund. Local authorities will report progress with administering the Tenant Grant Fund to the Scottish Government, on a quarterly basis. This means the first official reports from local authorities on their use of the Tenant Grant Fund, will be available early next year. In the meantime, we will remain in close contact with CoSLA to ensure that this new grant fund reaches those in need.

We listened closely to small retailers in designing Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Under the DRS Regulations, return-point operators including small retailers will be able to claim a reasonable handling fee from the DRS scheme administrator for each container returned. This fee must cover costs including the rental value of space used to collect or store scheme packaging and will ensure small retailers are not out of pocket for operating a return point.

Retailers will also be able to refuse returns where the quantity of material is disproportionately greater than the volume of containers they would usually sell as part of a single transaction.

We are confident that these protections will ensure that small retailers can successfully operate a return point. Nevertheless, the DRS Regulations do allow a retailer to apply to the Scottish Ministers for an exemption from the obligation to operate a return point where they meet certain criteria. Further information is available at: https://depositreturnscheme.zerowastescotland.org.uk/ .

I can confirm that I have laid a report in Parliament today that provides an update on the Scottish Government’s renewable heat target. The report is now available on the Scottish Government website (at www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802015348 ).

Renewable heat generated in Scotland in 2020 was equivalent to 6.4% of non-electrical fuels consumed for heat. This represents a slight decrease in useful renewable heat generated since 2019. This reduction in renewable heat was largely due to reduced output from large biomass systems at industrial sites, and should be seen in the context of a difficult year for the Scottish economy due to the pandemic.

Reaching 6.4% renewable heat means we missed the 11% target, and is clearly disappointing. Deployment of renewable heat has seen challenges over the past decade. For example, the delay in introducing tariff guarantees for the Renewable Heat Incentive resulted in uncertainties for businesses in Scotland and delays to investment in new capacity. Challenges to deployment have been accompanied by outturn data on higher than anticipated demand that indicate that around a third more non-electrical fuel is consumed for heat than had been anticipated in 2009.

Beneath the headline statistic we see continued growth in the deployment of building-level renewable heat systems, particularly heat pumps. The Heat in Buildings Strategy, published earlier this month, makes clear we must accelerate deployment of zero emissions heat technologies so that by 2030 over 1 million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings are converted to zero emissions heat. The Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out an ambitious policy package to achieve this, including our commitment to invest at least £1.8 billion over the course of this parliament to help kick-start growth in the market and support those least able to pay; our intention to bring forward legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that provides the regulatory framework for zero emissions heating and energy efficiency; and actions to expand our work with the supply chain to create new investment opportunities and create and support high value, local jobs.

We are maximising effort in devolved areas, but there are limits to what we can achieve on our own and critical policy areas remain reserved to the UK Government. While the UK’s new Heat and Buildings Strategy includes measures which will complement the comprehensive support package already available in Scotland the overall plan for action does not go far or fast enough. We will continue to work with the UK Government as it implements its strategy and call on it to accelerate action to support and enable delivery in Scotland, such as reforming the energy markets and amending the Gas Act.

In addition to the report I laid today, the Energy Savings Trust have published the report Renewable Heat in Scotland 2020 , which provides further insight into these figures. The Energy Savings Trust report is now available at https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/report/renewable-heat-in-scotland-2020/

The Scottish Government has released almost £5.3 million to NHS Highland to support the Health Board to support planned care for 2021/22. Of this more than £822,000 was allocated to support the delivery of orthopaedic procedures.

A further £701,000 was allocated to NHS Highland to enable the Health Board to deliver an additional day case procedures, a proportion of this activity will be utilised for orthopaedic procedures.

People who received their vaccination during the early stages of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme started to receive booster injections from 20 September. This follows advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which advised that the booster dose can be given alongside the flu jab and should be offered no earlier than six months after completion of the primary vaccine course.

Frontline health and social care workers were able to book their appointment online at NHS Inform from 20 September. Residents in care homes for older people were also being offered both flu and COVID-19 boosters from this date. Adults aged 70 years and over and adults aged 16 and over who are on the highest risk list (previously known as the shielding list) are being contacted, either by letter or by their GP.

All those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions, adult carers, unpaid and young carers, adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals and all adults over 50 will be able to book online soon.

As most younger adults will only receive their second COVID-19 vaccine dose in late summer, the benefits of booster vaccination in this group will be considered by the JCVI at a later time when more information is available.