Chamber and committees

Each successful Green Freeport applicant will have the opportunity to access up to £25 million of capital funding to assist with site infrastructure costs. In addition, they will also have the opportunity to access up to £1 million of revenue funding to assist with set-up costs. Release of revenue funding will be subject to Green Freeports adequately demonstrating a need for this funding, and to suitable governance arrangements being established.

The successful Green Freeports will also benefit from a package of reserved and devolved incentives, including tax reliefs and customs easements.

Officials from both the Scottish and UK Governments will work with the successful applicants to support them to develop robust business cases which, once approved, will allow the Green Freeports to open for business.

Meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and securing positive effects for biodiversity are two of six high level outcomes for the National Planning Framework set out in The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

The draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) currently subject to Scottish Parliament scrutiny, alongside public consultation, is clear that we must rebalance our planning system so that climate change and nature recovery are the primary guiding principles for all our plans and decisions. Its four overarching themes work together towards net-zero, adaptable places and addressing the nature crisis.

Our radically improved and new policies contained in draft NPF4 include new universal policies addressing the climate emergency and nature crisis, to be applied to all planning decisions. These policies create a requirement to give significant weight to the global climate emergency in plans and decisions. They also aim to deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity from development without the need for overly complex metrics.

Our draft NPF4 gives spatial expression to a wide range of Scottish Government plans, programmes and strategies. It sets out a vision for how our places will change in the future and reflects priorities across Scottish Government portfolios, including how our approach to planning and development will achieve a net zero, sustainable Scotland by 2045.

Draft NPF4 includes green energy policies which support renewable energy development other than in National Parks and National Scenic Areas, subject to an assessment of their impacts on a case by case basis. Through the draft NPF4, we are also proposing to designate a national development which would establish the need for a large increase in renewable energy generation and substantial reinforcement and expansion of grid infrastructure throughout Scotland.

We laid the draft NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament on 10 November 2021. Alongside Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, we are running a public consultation, supported by an extensive engagement programme, and comments are invited by 31 March 2022. Following this period, we will consider the responses received and any appropriate amendments to the draft NPF4 before presenting a final draft to the Scottish Parliament for its approval, in advance of adoption by the Scottish Ministers.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland (PHS). The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Build to Rent Sector is subject to the same regulatory requirements as other private rented sector accommodation. For example, complying with Landlord Registration and Houses in Multiple Occupation licensing. From 1 December 2017, new tenancy agreements for most Build to Rent properties would be Private Residential Tenancies and tenants will also therefore be afforded the rights and protections flowing from that regulatory framework (as set out in Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016).

Our New Deal for Tenants consultation, which runs until the 15 April, makes clear that all tenants should live in properties where quality and standards are high, and people have clear rights. It also seeks views on our vision for the future regulation of the rental sector - setting out that regulation should seek tenure neutral outcomes for tenants in all sectors, empowers tenants through routes to redress failures and support good standards across the rented sector.

While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective, person-centred care at a local level.

The Scottish Government published the National Personal Footcare Guidance https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/ , which sets out clearly the difference between personal footcare and clinical podiatry in NHS Scotland and offers help and support to individuals, carers and families in the provision of personal footcare, including older and at-risk people.

People with the most urgent clinical need are seen by a registered podiatrist to ensure they are prioritised for treatment, and those that require personal footcare are advised how to self-manage their footcare or are signposted to other more appropriate services. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, those with the most essential or urgent clinical podiatry needs continue to be seen. We are working with NHS Boards to remobilise and reform services, including the development of services across Scotland to support future service sustainability and addressing the backlog of treatment.

The Scottish Government believes it is important to ensure young people build skills in the positive use of social media. In December 2021, UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom published its approach to online media literacy, setting out the need to build media literacy skills, including identifying misinformation on social media platforms.

There are no specific creative sector projects on social media being funded by the Scottish Government at this time but there are a number of projects and initiatives funded from other areas of the Scottish Government that seek to develop skills in the positive use of social media. Those relevant to youth workers and community groups are set out below.

In 2021-22, the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit provided funding to Civic Digits CIC of £35,550, complementing funding from Creative Scotland, to deliver The Big Data Show to 2,400 children in schools and to a community organisation working with young people from black and minority ethnic communities.

In 2020, the Scottish Youth Parliament, with Scottish Government funding, also developed a digital resource called Mind Yer Time, to help children and young people use screens and social media in a healthy way.

The Scottish Government is very committed to the delivery of two Greenports in Scotland, which will create new, well-paid jobs, deliver a just transition to net zero and support economic transformation based on fairness.

As an Annex to the Bute House Agreement, freeports is listed as an excluded matter to the Agreement and is therefore a policy which is not subject to co-operation between both our parties.

We plan to proceed with plans to deliver two Greenports in Scotland with the UK Government, working on a partnership basis. All details will be set out in a finalised joint applicant prospectus to be published later this month.

The Scottish Government is represented on the Indigenous Minority and Lesser Used Languages Work Stream where we promote and support the links between our languages and language bodies. In recent times the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Scots Language Centre have both worked to ensure there are better links with the Scots and Ulster Scots Communities.

Through Colmcille 1500, there has been a partnership between Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland to celebrate St Columba’s legacy and 1500 years since his birth. There have also been many projects supported through a Creative Scotland funding stream set up to encourage activity linking Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic language and culture projects.

It is important, in line with the principle of healthcare being free at the point of use, that lateral flow device (LFD) tests should remain free of charge for any circumstance in which testing is required as part of clinical care.

The COVID-19 Strategic Framework Update, published on 22 February, sought input from public health specialists who support a move to focus on protecting those at highest clinical risk, supporting patient care and responding to outbreaks, as we move towards the endemic phase.

A transition plan setting out the next steps for Test and Protect in Scotland will be published later this month.