Chamber and committees

The funding of around £145,000 was announced to establish specialist support, counselling and the introduction of peer support groups.

We have introduced a working group to assist with the implementation of peer support groups. The group includes people with lived experience, and representatives from Health in Mind and the Scottish Recovery Network. Both organisations have extensive knowledge and experience in setting up and maintaining peer-support in many different areas across the country.

The local flood risk management plans, which are due to be published by December 2022, will provide more detail on how the actions set out in the flood risk management plans for 2022-2028 will be delivered including who will lead them and how the actions will be coordinated with other organisations. They will also provide further information on when the actions will take place and how they will be funded.

As with all infrastructure projects, it can take many years for flood schemes to progress from option appraisal to completion . Given the impacts on individuals, communities and the environment, it is right that flood protection schemes are carefully and thoroughly planned - and balance the interests of the whole community.

The Scottish Government will publish the new Global Affairs Framework today.

The Global Affairs Framework sets out the values and principles underpinning the Scottish Government’s international work and the basis on which the Scottish Government will prioritise its international activity.

The framework aligns our international activities with our overall approach and priorities, notably: supporting progress to meet our child poverty targets, addressing climate change and securing a stronger, fairer, economy. We are also determined that Scotland should be a good global citizen, making a constructive contribution to addressing global challenges.

For any government, the global and regional context inevitably impacts on the achievement of domestic objectives. That is why it is imperative that Scotland becomes more active internationally.

Scotland's Household Recycling Charter currently lists acceptance of cartons within recycling services as an essential requirement of a consistent collection model.

Though the Scottish Government currently has no plans for a specific mandatory carton recycling target, as part of our Programme for Government commitments, we are reviewing Scotland’s Household Recycling Charter’s Code of Practice. The Charter and Code of Practice are designed to make it easier for people to recycle the right things, and the review will help develop a future model of recycling collections, aligning with Scotland’s new deposit return scheme to drive further consistency.

In May we will publish our consultations for a circular economy bill and waste route map, which will set out further proposals to facilitate Scotland’s transition to a zero waste and circular economy, and meet our waste, recycling and emissions targets.

The following schemes are under construction.

Heat networks have an important role to play in meeting the targets set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, including contributing to ensuring that at least 1 million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings are connected to zero emission heating systems by 2030. Our climate change targets are supported by the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021, which sets out a target of supplying 6 terawatt hours of thermal energy through heat networks by 2030.

Funded by the Scottish Government and West Dunbartonshire Council, the Queens Quay District Heat Network is already being held up as an excellent example, having won multiple industry awards. It’s important that the lessons learned and successes are carried forward to future heat network projects by the partners and contractors involved, including the Scottish Government. However, we should also remain open to other types of heating systems utilising other sources of heat, such as recovering waste heat, to ensure our heat networks are as efficient and affordable as possible.

We are providing a platform for this by increasing our investment in heat networks with the launch of the £300 million Scotland’s Heat Network Fund. The Fund offers long-term support to enable the rollout of new zero emission heat networks and aims to stimulate investment. We have recently launched Scotland’s Heat in Building Development Funding Invitation, making £1 million of pre-capital support available. This will close to new applications on 31 st May 2022. We recognise the importance of providing this development support and will establish a fuller heat network support unit later this year.

We recognise that our targets for heat network deployment will require a substantial growth in supply chains. Our significant investment through the Heat Network Fund will help kick start the supply chain in Scotland, creating high quality and green jobs.

The Heat Networks Delivery Plan, published March 2022, outlines further steps that the Scottish Government will take to accelerate the development of heat networks across Scotland. We will work with local government to put in place Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies which identify areas particularly suitable for heat networks, and to designate heat network zones for development. We will also implement the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021, putting in place a functioning regulatory regime by early 2024.

The following formal flood protection schemes are complete.

The Scottish Child Payment is one of seven benefits that the Scottish Government has introduced which are not available elsewhere in the UK. We are committed to extending Scottish Child Payment to children under 16 and increasing to £25 per week, per child by the end of this calendar year.

To make payments it is essential we have data on qualification for reserved benefits that establish eligibility, which we will not have until later this year. We are reliant on the UK Government providing us with this data, because we do not have powers or controls over reserved benefit areas. Work is ongoing with the UK Government to ensure the necessary data is in place as quickly as possible, to deliver the extension of our Scottish Child Payment by the end of this calendar year.

We delivered at pace the Scottish Child Payment for under 6s in recognition that 60% of families with children in poverty have a child under 6. We also introduced our innovative Bridging Payments worth £520 across 2022, to support an estimated 144,000 children and young people of school age. This is an investment of more than £76 million.

We are taking a range of actions, within our devolved powers and with our limited resources, to help people facing the current cost of living crisis. Through our cost of living support measures, spend on Scottish social security payments that are not available elsewhere in the UK, and mitigating the UK Government’s bedroom tax, we are set to invest almost £770 million to help households tackle the cost of living pressures this year. This includes £290 million to give 1.85 million (73%) Scottish households £150 of extra support in April and we continue investment in our Fuel Insecurity Fund.

The Scottish Government Heat in Buildings Strategy was published in October 2021 and aligns with wider Scottish Government policy on housing, energy and climate change; the actions it sets out are reflected in our Housing to 2040 Strategy. In February this year the Scottish Government launched a new £300 million fund to support the development and rollout of low or zero emission heat networks across Scotland.

We understand that the intention was for the Dalmarnock development to connect to the district heating network serving the former Commonwealth Games Athletes' Village. However, after consideration, the Council concluded that a cost effective business case could not be made to achieve this. Connecting to the Clyde Gateway system was not possible due to timing; the design work for the Dalmarnock project was undertaken in 2017, which was before the Clyde Gateway District Heating system was developed.

Alternative methods were considered and the project by the Link Group therefore includes a separate communal heating system, which the 178 flats already completed are connected to, and which is managed and run on Link's behalf by Switch 2. The communal system supplies heat to all of the dwellings in the flatted blocks from a common source, providing scope to offer easy adoption of low and zero carbon technology in the future. Connecting the 57 houses in the development to the communal heating system would have required significant infrastructure work spread across the site which the Council and Link concluded was not financially viable. A further 72 flats being delivered in the current Phase 3 development and 148 flats planned in Phase 4 will also use a communal heating system.

SEPA remains impacted by the cyber-attack and significant work is ongoing to build back. SEPA’s approach is to accelerate improvements already underway by building new systems and ways of working that will set it up for long term success. This includes a digital transformation that enables services to be more accessible online, making it quicker and easier for communities and businesses. SEPA will shortly publish its 2022-23 Annual Operating Plan setting out its priorities for the year ahead.