Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government plan for its first 100 days includes the commitment to agree the first allocation of funding to councils for refurbishment of play parks. We are currently working with COSLA to confirm how the funding will be allocated and to set the parameters and principles of this work.

As per the Scottish Government statement in May 2021, we will take action to ban single-use plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), as well as other problematic single-use plastic items such as plates, straws, balloon sticks, stirrers and expanded polystyrene food and beverage containers and cups for beverages.

The Scottish Government is committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive and recently concluded a public consultation on our draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products and Oxo-degradable Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 . The draft regulations will now be made available to the World Trade Organisation for comments, in compliance with our commitments under the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement. Final regulations will be laid before Parliament later this year.

Available evidence on the level of rent arrears in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic is included in the two-monthly reports on the Coronavirus Acts, in which the Scottish Government sets out the status and operation of the necessary legislation to respond to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The latest published report (at the time of writing) can be found at Coronavirus Acts: seventh report to Scottish Parliament - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The report outlines that information published by the Scottish Housing Regulator shows that the total value of rent arrears in the social sector increased substantially from £150.0m to £165.0m in the four months between the end of April 2020 and the end of August 2020, an increase of £15.0m (10.0%). The value of arrears has subsequently stabilised across most months since then, and has decreased in the most recent month to stand at £160.7m as of the end of March 2021.

The report also outlines that in terms of evidence on rent arrears, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that, as of June 2020, no sharp increase in rent arrears for private renters was identified, with fewer than one in ten private tenants in Scotland estimated to be in arrears as of June 2020.

A separate analysis carried out by PayProp, based on the data that it holds from the processing of rent payments from tenants in Scotland, shows that the percentage of tenants in arrears increased at the start of the pandemic period from 5% in the quarter January to March 2020 up to 9% in April to June 2020. Since then this proportion has remained relatively steady, although it has increased slightly in the latest quarter from 9% in October to December 2020 up to 10% in January to March 2021.

On 23 July 2021, the Scottish Government set out the catch limits that would apply in the various management areas for the North Sea handline mackerel fishery. The notifications took effect on 0001 hours on 25 July 2021.

This change was a routine adjustment for these longstanding fisheries and did not constitute a new activity or change in policy in Scottish seas. No new licences were issued.

Catch limits for the handline mackerel fishery and the other 10 metre and under non-sector fisheries are managed in line with the strategic objectives of the Scotland’s Future Fisheries Management Strategy (Scotland’s Future Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030) and the National Marine Plan.

The handline mackerel fishery is a distinct pool fishery. Due to the nature of the fishery, including the migratory nature of the species, Marine Scotland allocates and manages this stock by four separate geographic areas to take account of variation in the pattern of the fishery and the level of uptake. The fishery is an important income source for many hundreds of inshore vessels across the east coast and Northern Isles of Scotland.

Our long-standing policy intention in the management of the 10 metre and under handline mackerel fishery is to balance the requirement to ensure that we do not fish outwith sustainable limits with maximising socio-economic return in the fishery. The Scottish Government attempts to ensure that the fishing opportunity is utilised while seeking to ensure the opportunity extends as long as possible throughout the year and maximise market conditions for the fishery.

To deliver this, the Scottish Government analyses the uptake for the various areas and where necessary seeks to engage with local stakeholders.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by
‎ 2031-32, 70% of which will be for social rent.

Local authorities have a statutory function to assess local housing requirements and to set out in their Local Housing Strategy (LHS) how this will be met.

Priorities and outcomes identified in the LHS inform local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) which are prepared annually and which set out affordable housing investment priorities over a five year period. These are expected to be publicly available.

Our 2021 campaign to raise awareness of the climate crisis is a core part of our approach to engagement, as set out in the draft Public Engagement Strategy (PES). As with all marketing activity, the Scottish Government has set objectives and evaluation plans from the outset of activity. In this case we will use quantitative research with our target audience to measure awareness and message recall of our domestic climate change campaign, as well as measuring the motivation by the public to take action as a result. In particular, we will identify whether there is a change in the proportion of the public agreeing that there is a climate emergency and, if so, assess changes in agreement that we all need to take action to tackle climate change.

Alongside this, we will use quantitative metrics to monitor the reach of paid for media associated with the campaign and supporting digital content.

The Scottish Government works with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), NatureScot, fisheries boards and trusts, and other stakeholders to protect the natural environment and wildlife from water shortages.

Our River Basin Management Plans identify areas in Scotland already impacted by abstractions and set out objectives to improve those watercourses. SEPA licences and regulates abstractions to ensure that water use does not exceed the available capacity. At times of water scarcity, SEPA has the powers to temporarily stop abstraction, to protect the environment.

The National Water Scarcity Plan sets out how SEPA and other key stakeholders will prepare and respond to water shortages. SEPA works closely with NatureScot and other environmental organisations to provide advice and information on water scarcity so they can act to protect wildlife.

The legislative requirements for an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) are set out on the Road Traffic regulation Act 1984 and the relevant procedures as contained in the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1999 (for local roads) or the Secretary of State’s Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1987 (for trunk roads).

If a Roads Authority wish to make an ETRO a permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), the procedures set out in the relevant regulations shown above must be followed.

As part of the ongoing review into TRO procedures we have published a public consultation to gather feedback on some proposed changes to the Experimental Order Procedures and this can be found at Consultation on Traffic Regulation Orders - Scottish Government - Citizen Space ( https://consult.gov.scot)

The draft Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out that the Scottish Government will legislate to require the installation of zero emissions heating systems in existing buildings, subject to the Scottish Parliament having devolved competence to do so.

The draft Strategy proposes that such legislation would begin to take effect from 2025, with the intention that all building owners are regulated to meet the requirement for zero emissions heating by 2045.

The exact phasing and operation of the proposed regulations is still to be determined, but as set out in the draft Strategy, and where within competence , could include requiring certain buildings to install zero emissions heating systems earlier than 2045. This may include those buildings using high emissions fuels (which are more prevalent in off-gas grid areas), or those buildings which reach a natural trigger point (such as the replacement of an existing fossil fuel heating system).

The Scottish Government plans to consult on detailed proposals on this issue in 2022.

The full Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS) data set has been available for free download from the Scottish Forestry open data web pages since January 2020.

Prior to that it has been available on the Forestry Commission Scotland web pages since 2014.