Chamber and committees

We are continuing to make progress within this age cohort. With 582,135
people aged 18-29 (70%) having their second dose of the COVID -19
vaccination, and 659,241 people aged 18-29 ( 79%) having their first dose
of the vaccine, as at 30 November.

The latest figures on vaccinations are published and can be viewed at: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19
DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview

We have encouraged uptake by utilising a range of communication channels,
including TV, radio, digital and social, to encourage younger people to get
vaccinated and we have also shared messaging and resources with
organisations, such as Young Scot and the Scottish Professional Football
League (SPFL).

Engagements and events are an essential part of official government business. Ordinarily, the Scottish Government will routinely publish this information online. However during the Covid response it has been necessary to reprioritise staff resources to support the Covid recovery and the publication schedule has been delayed.

The Scottish Government are working hard to address this and anticipate that transparency data publication will return to normal mid-December.

The following table provides a breakdown of the fleet by fuel type.

The ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) Single Framework Agreement with Charge Your Car Ltd (now named BP Pulse and previously BP Chargemaster), who ran CPS on behalf of the Scottish Government, expired in summer 2021. A new Single Framework Agreement was put out to tender in 2020 and following the Scottish Government procurement process a new operator (SWARCO eVolt Ltd) was appointed.

Since 2013 we have invested over £50 million in Chargeplace Scotland (CPS), Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2000 publicly available chargepoints. Figures show that Scotland is leading the way on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The latest figures show that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from almost 40 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to fewer than 30 in England, Just over 20 in Wales and less than 20 in Northern Ireland.

We also provide funding for the Domestic Chargepoint fund which supports the people of Scotland by providing grant funding of £250 (£350 for those in remote parts of Scotland) to install a Domestic Chargepoint at their home. To date this fund has supported the installation of almost 12,000 Domestic Chargepoints to a value of just over £4m.

Our Business (non-Public) Chargepoint fund has helped almost 1300 businesses to install chargepoints for the sole use of occupiers, staff and visitors to a value of just under £10m.

We are currently consulting on draft policy options for the installation of electric vehicle charge points in a number of different buildings types, including an option that sets out a minimum requirement for all new residential buildings with parking spaces.

Transport Scotland are working with Scottish Futures Trust and industry to consider the most appropriate structures and approach to growing and developing charging infrastructure, lever commercial investment and engaging commercial operators to develop the public electric vehicle charge point network at scale and at speed across all of Scotland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to regulate the sale or installation of interlinked fire alarms. The best way to avoid scams is to use trusted sources of information, to not deal with cold callers, and to be wary of any company that says their products or services have been endorsed by the Scottish Government. We have included messages on the importance of using reputable tradespeople including signposting to local government Trading Standards in our awareness campaign for the new fire alarms standard.

The Scottish Government does not have information of the rate of manufacture of interlinked fire alarms. We are aware that, following our successful public awareness campaign, there is significant public interest in carrying out work to comply with the new standard for fire alarms in all Scottish homes. It is, therefore, possible, that some retailers will have short term supply issues. We are also aware that some manufacturers are dependent on import of components, and that has been affected by Brexit, and this may also have affected their production. However, we have been assured by manufacturers that there is a sufficient supply of alarms available to meet the expected demand by 1 February 2022, when the new standard comes into force.

It is not possible to determine exactly how many properties have alarms of the prescribed type installed as this information is not currently collected as part of the Scottish House Condition Survey.

The pandemic has had a detrimental impact on people's finances, particularly those in low income households. Families who were already struggling before the pandemic have been pushed further into financial insecurity. For this reason, the Scottish Government has prioritised the financial security of low income families in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Manageable debt is a normal part of many households’ financial management. The Scottish Government’s approach is to tackle problem debt in a supportive and empowering way. In 2021-22, the Scottish Government has allocated over £7 million from the debt advice levy to support frontline provision of free debt advice services for the people of Scotland. This advice is delivered face to face, over the phone or online.

In addition, the Scottish Legal Aid Board oversees over £2 million of funding on behalf of the Scottish Government, through projects that support people dealing with personal debt problems, including debt created by rent or mortgage arrears.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy administers Bankruptcy, Protected Trust Deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which provide statutory debt solutions to people struggling with their personal debt. In response to the pandemic, the Scottish Government made changes to personal insolvency to provide better support to people facing financial difficulties. A stakeholder led policy review of statutory debt solutions is underway with recommendations expected by the end of the year.

There are many other Scottish Government policies and funding streams that have an indirect but positive impact on problem debt, such as support for tenants struggling with rent arrears, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and our wider support for low income households.

Since the launch of the Young Person's Guarantee in November 2020, we have invested an additional £130 million which aims to provide at least 24,000 new and enhanced opportunities to support young people find and sustain employment.

The Guarantee is not a standalone programme and is building on our already significant investment into education, employability and skills. Therefore we are working with partners to produce a rigorous Measurement and Evaluation Framework that will support our understanding of the Guarantee's impact across a range of economic, education and equalities outcomes.

The framework will build upon a range of existing reporting mechanisms, including Skills Development Scotland's (SDS) Participation Measure, which recently reported a record annual participation measure figure , with 92.2% of 16-19 year olds participating in education, training or employment from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021. Other sources of information underpinning the framework include the regular reporting of Apprenticeships statistics from SDS and work completed by the Scottish Funding Council on Further/Higher Education provision.

As part of this work, we published the Guarantee's Key Performance Indicators on 28 July 2021 alongside the Implementation Progress Report . We also expect to shortly restart publications of the Local Authority Youth Labour Market Dashboard and Snapshot Participation Measure.

We will be announcing more details on the framework in the coming weeks.