Chamber and committees

Scotland has well established approaches and sources of funding which enable our communities to do things for themselves, as well as to make their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services.

We are targeting similar outcomes to those of the community booster share schemes in England with our Place-Based Investment Programme which is being backed by £325 million of capital funding over 5 years for a variety of place-based investment initiatives, including support for 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community wealth building and community-led regeneration. We also have our £50 million Vacant and Derelict Land investment programme. These initiatives are complemented by our Empowering Communities Programme which supports community led projects and strategic partnerships, enabling communities to tackle poverty and disadvantage on their own terms. We also provide funding to Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) totalling over £400,000 between 2021 and 2024 to continue their Community Shares Scotland programme.

The Scottish National Investment Bank has been established to invest in Scottish business, projects and communities with the objective of delivering positive environmental and social impacts, and positive financial returns for the people of Scotland. The Bank operates on a commercial basis, providing repayable debt and equity. This investment is available to Third Sector and community organisations for specific commercial projects.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role that co-operative business models play in our economy and there is a significant and increasing interest in co-operative business models in Scotland.

Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise to support company growth through collaborative, co-operative and employee ownership business models. CDS raises awareness of the value of co-operative and employee ownership models, and provides specialist advice. Its services are integrated to those of Scottish Enterprise (SE), Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway.

Scotland for EO is the industry leadership group for employee owned businesses in Scotland, established in 2018 to empower the employee owned sector to direct its own development. Led by industry working in partnership with the public sector, the group champions employee ownership in Scotland and drives industry-wide collaboration and alignment.

Co-operative business models including Trusts, Partnerships and Community Interest Companies have all been eligible for the Covid-19 financial support made available to support businesses impacted by restrictions, including the Strategic Framework Business Fund, Sector Top up Funds and the Business Restart Grant.

There is a significant and increasing interest in co-operative business models in Scotland. Co-operative models are collaborative vehicles that play an important role in creating sustainable growth. They enable employees, businesses and communities to work together to fulfil shared interests. This unlocks creativity and capacity and there is growing evidence that they increase productivity, innovation and growth whilst achieving wider societal benefits.

Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise to support company growth through collaborative co-operative and employee ownership business models. CDS raises awareness of the value of co-operative and employee ownership models, and provides specialist advice. Its services are integrated to those of Scottish Enterprise (SE), Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway.

Scotland for EO is the industry leadership group (ILG) for employee owned businesses in Scotland, established in 2018 to empower the employee owned sector to direct its own development. Led by industry working in partnership with the public sector, the group champions employee ownership in Scotland and drives industry-wide collaboration and alignment.

Working with the industry leadership group the Scottish Government is committed to increasing the number of employee owned businesses in Scotland to 500 by 2030.

The projected cost of the overall campaign is £800,000 which is being funded by the Scottish Government‘s ‘Reducing Drug Deaths’ budget. We are working in partnership with Scottish Drugs Forum to deliver the campaign which will run until mid-November 2021.

In addition to widening awareness of naloxone, one of the main objectives of the campaign is to ensure that the general public know that overdose deaths are preventable and to address stigmatising attitudes regarding the lives of people who use drugs. Stigmatising attitudes impact on people’s sense of self-worth and therefore the likelihood that people engage with treatment which is an evidenced protective factor against overdose deaths.

The campaign is national and every area in Scotland will have an access to multiple elements of the campaign resource. However, it was crucial that lower socio-economic areas, areas with high rates of drug deaths, were identified and particular parts of the campaign, such as bill-board or bus-stop adverts, were closely located to community pharmacies where naloxone would be available.

We believe that Naloxone should be available to anyone who might witness an overdose. Our overall aim is to widen the access to it as much as possible.

Since the inception of the NNP the Scottish Government has commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to report on take-home naloxone (THN) kit distribution using monitoring data supplied by NHS Boards, this report is produced quarterly. The last report (covering 1 January to 31 March 2021) stated that coverage was now estimated to be 57.47% (an increase of around 1.5% compared to the previous quarter – 56.04%).

International evidence suggests that focus should not only be on the distribution but also on encouraging carriage and accessibility of Naloxone.

To improve awareness of naloxone, and to ensure people would recognise the signs of a drug overdose, we launched a nationwide marketing campaign on International Overdose Awareness Day (31 August), in partnership with Scottish Drugs Forum.

CPS has transitioned to a new charge point network operator (CPNO), with all charge points and members being migrated from BP Pulse to SWARCO on the 27 th July. This was the outcome of a rigorous tender exercise to find a new operator to manage CPS on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Migrating over 2000 charge points and 32,000 driver accounts is a significant undertaking which required months of planning and preparation by a range of technical and operational specialists.

The process of bringing the entire ChargePlace Scotland estate online for the first time under one operator has been a huge undertaking. And while some interruptions had been expected, the level of disruption many drivers have faced was regrettably on a scale we did not foresee. Transport Scotland officials understand how critical it is for EV drivers to have access to a comprehensive and reliable network and we fully appreciate the service levels members expect from CPS.

I am pleased to update you that the network has now been stabilised and significant progress has been made in resolving some of the key issues which initially affected drivers, including RFID card access, customer account set-up and, above all, charge point availability. The network now has over 1800 publically available charge points connected and in working order. We are now in a second phase of the CPS migration programme, with the team endeavouring to resolve outstanding charge point repairs as a matter of urgency.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring Covid testing is as accessible as possible and we have put in place a number of initiatives to encourage the use of lateral flow tests for routine asymptomatic testing. Our communication campaign recommends that members of the public use the lateral flow tests to test themselves twice a week. Our aim is to ensure that lateral flow tests are widely available and accessible to anyone who wants to use them. A target would not be helpful to deliver this.

As stated previously, the Scottish Government has used a number of approaches to promote regular testing; this includes targeted campaigns and guidance on how to access test supplies and the introduction of Pharmacy Collect. We will continue to develop campaigns to promote the importance of regular testing in preventing the transmission of Covid-19.

Our Alcohol Framework 2018: Preventing Harm is in line with the World Health Organization’s recommended approach of reducing the availability, attractiveness and affordability of alcohol. On treatment, our Rights, Respect and Recovery: alcohol and drug treatment strategy clearly sets out that individuals have the right to health and life - free from the harms of alcohol and drugs, are treated with dignity and respect and are fully supported within their communities to find the type of recovery which works for them.

We are undertaking a range of work to improve Alcohol Treatment Services, including implementation of the UK Wide Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment.

While the Scottish Government keeps legislation under review, we have no current plans to introduce a social responsibility levy.