Chamber and committees

Across Scottish Government we are working with partners to support people and communities, including the community resources sector throughout this crisis. On 18 March 2020 the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government announced an additional £350 million of communities funding directed to local authorities, community groups and the third sector to support people and communities affected by COVID19.

Our work to fund and support communities, particularly those most disadvantaged, builds on the close working relationships, knowledge and understanding we have developed with partners through, for example, the Empowering Communities Programme (ECP). The majority of ECP funding (£15.8m) for 2020/21 directly supports disadvantaged communities to tackle poverty and inequality on their own terms. The remainder of the programme (£2.2m) funds critically important activity which promotes and shares ideas and solutions to assist local community organisations.

Partners across Scotland, such as Foundation Scotland are using their resources to support local charities and grassroots organisations respond to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and recover from its impact. Whilst the Coronavirus Third Sector Information Hub provides information and advice to support the sector through this crisis.

This information is not held centrally.

The data that has been provided by local authorities indicates that overall around 1% of the relevant school and early year’s population have been attending local authority hubs since schools were asked to close.

The Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change held its first Stewarding Group meeting on 2 March 2020. Since this meeting, the Assembly’s Secretariat has been developing proposals on how the Assembly will operate including the size and duration of the Assembly, how to recruit Assembly Members and what selection criteria to use to ensure the Assembly is representative of the people of Scotland and also governance arrangements for the Assembly. Consideration is also being given to options to adapt proposals in line with evolving understanding of the Covid-19 pandemic. These proposals will be discussed at the second Stewarding Group meeting which is scheduled for 30 April 2020.

The Secretariat is preparing contracts for procurement of professional design and facilitation services, member recruitment and communications. Some work to identify venues has been completed, but procurement is paused in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is too early to assess whether there will have been any implications for crimes involving persecution of raptors from the introduction of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance which is helping to slow down the spread of the virus, protect the NHS and save lives.

Police Scotland’s Wildlife Crime Officers continue to operate and to investigate reported wildlife crimes.

We are clear that fly tipping is illegal, dangerous and unnecessary. Responsibility for responding to such behaviour rests with local councils as part of their wider role in the management of local waste services. We are committed to working with councils to support the resilience of those services and to monitor the impact that any temporary, necessary, disruption is having on illegal activity.

We recognise the importance of communicating with the public about how best to manage and dispose of waste at this time and, on 27 April, we launched a waste management marketing campaign and web resource that sets out how the public can manage waste at this difficult time, including messages on fly tipping prevention. Local authorities continue to play an important role in providing advice on changes to services at a local level.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring void properties in the social housing sector are made available to those in most need at this time. That is why we have jointly with COSLA issued allocations advice and information to support the housing sector.

This incorporates the most recent public health guidance to help landlords mitigate the challenges they face as a result of Covid-19 and supports them in making allocations safely.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-allocations-advice-and-information-for-the-housing-sector/ .

On 9 April 2020, the Scottish Government released a statement setting out what exercising rights of responsible non-motorised access to land under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 means during the Covid-19 emergency. The full statement is available here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/ministerial-statement-on-access-rights-during-covid-19/ .

This statement makes clear that responsibility in exercising access rights has always been at the core of access policy. Exercising access rights responsibly means respecting the needs of other people and we have advised access takers that they will need to adapt their behaviour in the national effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Under The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2020, people are only allowed to leave their homes for certain reasons. These include taking exercise, once a day, locally. When taking exercise, time spent outdoors should be minimised and people should stay two metres apart from anyone outside of their household.

People should make use of paths, open spaces and quiet roads in their own local area, for example a short walk, a run, or a short bike ride. People should not be driving to other locations to exercise.

For some people, their daily permitted local exercise might involve taking a short bike ride using a mountain bike. This is permitted providing that people comply fully with the Regulations and the published Coronavirus guidance.

The Scottish Government has no powers to compel supermarkets to use home delivery services only for specific groups of people.

There is unprecedented demand for online supermarket deliveries and we are working closely with supermarkets to provide priority access for those at the highest clinical risk from COVID-19 - those who are ‘shielding’. From 9 April, people in this group have been able to request that their details are passed to supermarkets so that they can be offered priority access if they need it, and these deliveries have begun.

There are many people who are not in the clinically highest-risk ‘shielded’ group, but are otherwise vulnerable, for example people aged over 70 and people who receive the flu jab for health reasons. Supermarkets have increased their delivery capacity however it is not sufficient to cater to the size of this group, and so we are working to ensure other support is available, for example through the £70m Food Fund.

We are in continued dialogue with retailers to see what further action may be possible in relation to supporting vulnerable groups, and we are also aware that some supermarkets are already offering priority delivery slots for older people.

The Scottish Government is determined to support businesses during this time, and we are offering a package of support worth £2.2 billion for businesses who can now claim rates relief and apply for one-off grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

Estate agents will be able to benefit from the 1.6% universal rates relief in 2020-21, which will apply automatically to their non-domestic rates bills.

Small estate agents claiming the Small Business Bonus Scheme or Rural Relief may also be eligible for a £10,000 one-off business support grant in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland have put in place a system to support the shielded population; that is those that are high clinical risk living in Scotland.

This service is being provided by two food distribution companies – Brakes and Bidfood - and Local Authorities via local resilience partnerships. We are also working with supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s, Iceland, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s along with National Health Service colleagues, to facilitate priority access to online supermarket delivery slots for those that fall within this high clinical risk group. Text messages were issued to shielded individuals on 9th April and the process of priority online deliveries has commenced.

Vulnerable people can also contact their Local Authority via an established helpline to facilitate local access to food.