Chamber and committees

Right now, unless you have an essential reason to go out, everyone must Stay at Home in order to slow the spread of the virus, to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed and allow time for the vaccine rollout. These essential reasons include activities in connection with moving home or essential maintenance of residential property. In the circumstances where it was not possible to stay in the home due to issues with utilities, it would be allowable to leave the home and stay in a hotel or other accommodation. While all holiday accommodation is closed to tourism. Hotels, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation can remain open for essential customers only. This includes anyone who is unable to return to their main residence.

The Stay at Home Guidance ( Coronavirus (COVID-19): stay at home guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )

The Scottish Government does not intend to extend the existing rates relief any further in the current financial year. In designing the COVID-19 reliefs, we aimed to help as may business as possible. Like all governments we were constrained by affordability and consequently it was necessary for difficult decisions to be taken, and for lines to be drawn.

It is important to recognise that rates relief is not the only support available. The Scottish Government has continued to listen to business and on 9 December announced £185 million for new and additional business support. This will provide support on a sector-by-sector basis so that it is appropriately targeted. This package of support will provide additional support to:

• the wedding sector and its supply chain;
• travel agents, visitor attractions, and coach companies and tour operators;
• taxi drivers;
• mobile close contact services; and
• travelling show-people ineligible for other support.

This announcement can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/news/new-gbp-185-million-package-forbusiness/ . We are developing the detail of these schemes with a range of partners, including local authorities. More information will be published on the find business support website when it becomes available.

The Scottish Government are working closely with Events industry partners on the Events Industry Advisory Group, which was created in response to COVID-19, to support the future of the events sector and help ensure its recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

Over the summer we put in place a funding package of £10 million, with the first funding scheme being the £6m Events Industry Support Fund which was targeted at the events supply chain and which closed on 14 September. More recently we put in place the £2.75m Events Recovery Fund, to help Scotland’s events sector plan and deliver events through to the end of 2021, supporting with additional costs which may be incurred as a result of new hygiene and health and safety requirements, which in turn will allow communities and the public to have confidence in hosting and attending events.

On the 15 December Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture announced £13 million to provide further support for the events sector in Scotland, recognising that much of it remains closed. The first tranche of this new funding, the Pivotal Event Businesses Fund will provide grants from £25,000 up to a maximum of £150,000 to support approximately 50 to 100 event businesses whose primary role as organisers, suppliers, contractors and venues is critical to the survival of the events sector in Scotland, and upon whom the wider events industry and supply chain are most reliant for their own business and operations.

The remaining funding will be used to set up a separate fund to provide broader support to businesses across the full range of the events sector, including the supply chain. officials are working with EventScotland on the detail of the fund including the eligibility criteria, an announcement will be made by the end of January. Information will be available through the EventScotland website - https://www.visitscotland.org/news .

To make an asset transfer request for ownership, a Community Controlled Body must be incorporated as a company, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation or a BenCom (Community Benefit Company). The Body’s constitution, Articles of Association, or registered rules must include a minimum of 20 members and provision for transfer of its assets on winding up. This is in order to ensure that the remaining property is transferred to another body with similar structures and aims. There are no current plans to review this requirement which is set out in section 80 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

To make an asset transfer request for lease or other rights (such as management) the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 does not require a community transfer body to be incorporated and it does not stipulate a minimum of 20 members. This is because the property remains in the ownership of the relevant authority.

The Scottish Government are following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus. Individual members of the police force as with other occupations will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts.

(a) This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or Police Scotland.

(b) Freshwater pearl mussels are a UK wildlife crime priority species, with a dedicated sub-group within the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland. Their work includes projects to install cameras on freshwater pearl mussel colonies considered to be at high risk from criminal activity, deterrent signage at key locations and awareness-raising activities including joint river patrols between Police Scotland and local fishery boards.

In addition, Police Scotland have held training and awareness days for officers on threats to freshwater pearl mussels.

The overall package of measures within each level of the Strategic Framework is designed to suppress the virus as far as possible whilst minimising broader harms. The Scottish Government will keep the protective measures in all levels under review to ensure that they remain necessary and proportionate to address the ongoing public health emergency. The new COVID-19 variant means the level of the virus overall is much higher than we need it to be and therefore restrictions have had to be strengthened.

The Scottish Government has invested over £32m in public charging infrastructure, throughout the country, to build a diverse vehicle charging network (ChargePlace Scotland); in close collaboration with Scotland’s Local Authorities. Scotland has one of the most comprehensive EV charging networks in Europe, with consumers benefiting from a variety of developments in charging technologies, including rapid chargers and contactless payments.

Funding is continuing to be made available to ensure the network is upgraded where appropriate and fit-for-purpose. We are also supporting innovation in the sector, through initiatives such as Project Pace, a joint project with Scottish Power networks to deliver state of the art electric vehicle charging in a way that also optimises investment in the electricity grid.

The electric vehicle market is evolving quickly, with increasing opportunities for commercial investors and new business models to support the deployment of emerging technologies, which we will continue to encourage alongside our own investments in ChargePlace Scotland.

The Scottish Government commissioned Blake Stevenson to carry out the independent evaluation of the Scottish Autism Strategy.

Blake Stevenson plan to hold workshops in local authorities to evaluate the impact of the strategy at local level. The local authority areas invited were proposed by Blake Stevenson’s independent research team though a desk-based review to include a balanced representation of geographical areas across Scotland.

Local authorities participating in the evaluation are as follows:

1. North Lanarkshire

2. Fife

3. Edinburgh

4. Highland

5. East Dunbartonshire

6. Midlothian

7. Dumfries & Galloway

8. Glasgow

9. Area yet to be confirmed.

If any unselected local authority wants to participate in the evaluation then they should contact Blake Stevenson, directly. The evaluation will be published in May 2021.

The Scottish Government will provide the necessary funding across health and care services to recognise the additional costs of responding to COVID-19, to support remobilisation of services, and to ensure that patient and staff safety remains the top priority at all times.

We have extending asymptomatic testing for designated visitors as an added measure alongside PPE and Infection Prevention Control. We are distributing testing kits, and associated training, to all care homes across Scotland.

In addition, we have allocated a total of £150 million this year to support care homes with the additional requirements of PPE, testing and safety reporting.

Our Winter Plan recognises that to ensure winter preparedness this year, that additional resources will be required and the Plan is being supported by further funding of up to £112 million. We are working with COSLA, and wider partners, immediately on effective allocation of this funding through mechanisms that promote additionality of services and value for money.