Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has already been taking action to improve business cash flow and annual farm payment dates are to be brought forward to September. Subject to the approval of the Scottish Parliament, farmers and crofters will receive their advance payment for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening around a month earlier than originally planned, and we remain committed to delivering over 70% of payments by the end of December and over 95.24% of payments by the end of February 2023.

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund (RHIF) has been described as a ‘game changer’ for community-led housing development helping increase the supply of affordable housing in rural and island areas. Taken together with our Affordable Housing Supply Programme, this Fund helped deliver more than 6,000 affordable homes in these areas between 2016-17 and 2020-21.

In November 2020, we announced that the RIHF would be extended beyond March 2021, with up to £30 million made available to support the development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term. Given this is a demand led fund, the monies made available in each year reflect the level of activity requiring to be funded in that year.

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund (RIHF) provides an additional funding route for organisations, such as community trusts, who are not able to access traditional affordable housing funding to further increase the long term availability of affordable housing in rural Scotland.

The RIHF has been described as a ‘game changer’ for community-led housing development helping increase the supply of affordable housing in rural and island areas. Taken together with our Affordable Housing Supply Programme, this Fund helped deliver more than 6,000 affordable homes in these areas between 2016-17 and 2020-21.

In November 2020, we announced that the RIHF would be extended beyond March 2021, with up to £30 million made available to support the development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term. Given this is a demand led fund, the monies made available in each year reflect the level of activity requiring to be funded in that year.

The following table shows the monies allocated by year to the fund and the actual spend:

The announcement of funding to support the development of Hospital at Home followed a round of engagement between Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland with all Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships. Initially Argyll and Bute and NHS Highland were one of a number of areas that did not submit an expression of interest in relation to national support and funding.

Following a further demonstration on Hospital at Home at the recent NHS Scotland Conference, Argyll & Bute’s Health and Social Care Partnership have expressed their interest in developing Hospital at Home, and Healthcare Improvement Scotland are facilitating a workshop to explore this opportunity further.

We continue to fund community led local activity through the domestic budget whilst we await clarity from the UK government on replacement LEADER funding. The £11.6 million of funding confirmed in the Scottish budget for 2022-23 is not a like for like replacement for LEADER, but a new programme that builds on the £3 million invested in 2021-22 to test new approaches to delivering CLLD in Scotland. This took on board learning from delivery of previous LEADER programmes and encourages Local Action Groups (LAGs) and community groups to deliver funding in a less bureaucratic, less risk averse and more innovative way.

As a result of EU Exit, we no longer have long-term certainty of funding and unilateral choices imposed by HM Treasury provide insufficient replacement EU budget. While political commitment has been made by UK Government for the contested funding levels through this UK Parliamentary term, allocation is on a yearly basis with no commitment set out for future years.

This has direct implications on the management of the overall agricultural and rural development programme as agriculture requires future funding certainty due to its multi-annual funding commitments and long lead-in time for farmers, crofters and land managers. Communities alike need clarity for planning.

The Scottish Government has been clear and consistent in our position that we expect full replacement of EU funds to ensure no detriment to Scotland’s and Scottish communities’ finances, and we expect the UK Government to fully respect the devolution settlement in any future arrangement.

NatureScot, in conjunction with the Scottish Government, and in their capacity as Scotland’s Nature Agency has recently launched a pilot community deer management scheme at Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve. Creag Meagaidh is managed by NatureScot and is a 4000 hectare property at Kinlochlaggan, Newtonmore.

The pilot scheme brings together a number of local people who are involved in the design of a community scheme to deliver sustainable deer management, which will include access to deer stalking opportunities. The scheme was advertised locally in May 2022 and has been offered to those resident in local Community Council areas.

A number of local people who noted interest in the trial are now in the process of assisting NatureScot in final co-design of the scheme and the trial is likely to commence fully in the Autumn. Whilst details are still to be confirmed, the intent of the scheme is to offer those who have appropriate qualifications and are competent the opportunity to undertake deer stalking. This will support the delivery of site management objectives through the sustainable management of deer with the associated biodiversity and climate benefits of doing this.

They are also developing the approach so that those interested but with little or no experience in deer stalking will be supported by a training and experience pathway to allow them to progress to harvesting wild food for their own consumption.

This scheme will be supervised by NatureScot staff and will ensure full compliance with Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance, ensuring animal welfare, firearms safety and public safety.

The Scottish Government has read BASC Scotland’s report on Community Integrated Deer Management in Scotland with interest. We greatly value the contribution of local deer stalkers, their skill set and those involved in the management of deer across Scotland.

We are focusing our efforts on progressing the recommendations made in the independent Deer Working Group (DWG) report, published in December 2020. The DWG report made recommendations to improve Scotland’s systems of deer management and included consideration of the points made in BASC Scotland’s report such as, training for deer managers, availability of deer larders and engagement with local communities.

A project board has been established under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme to progress these recommendations. As the board sets priorities and works to progress these recommendations we will be working with stakeholders, such as BASC, for their views on key issues.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has provided £80,000 via the Scotland Food & Drink Covid Recovery Fund to support development of local chills and/or primary processing (deer larders). We expect that up to three projects could be supported from the fund as part of a pilot exercise.

Many refugees resettled in Scotland have skills and experience developed through their trade or occupation in their home country, including in the construction industry, and may want to resume their profession here.

In Scotland, everyone working on a building site must first pass a health and safety test and be certified through the UK wide Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS).

The Building Skills for Construction Certification Project has developed supporting ESOL materials, to help ESOL learners to prepare for the computer CSCS test. Pilot courses are being delivered to test the resources. The project started on 1 September 2021 and will run until 30 November 2022. Pilot courses are running in Fife, Clackmannanshire and Dundee, as well as a national online pilot for candidates across Scotland to enable those who cannot access such training in person to benefit, particularly those in remote and rural communities where a pilot course would not be viable due to numbers.

There are seven Arabic speakers enrolled in this course across Dundee, Fife and Clackmannanshire. Throughout the rest of Scotland there are an additional thirteen learners on these courses, eleven of whom are Arabic speakers.

The CSCS ESOL course resources will be a lasting legacy of the project. At the end of the project, these resources will be freely available for any learning provider or training organisation to use, allowing courses to be run across Scotland to prepare refugees for work in the construction industry. There will also be a webinar at the end of the project which will cover how these resources should be used in practice.

This project has been funded through the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project which is part funded through the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The Scottish Government is supporting communities who are impacted by water scarcity with an emergency scheme which is providing free bottled water. It is also funding a non means tested grant of up to £800 per household to fund improvements. Households whose Private Water Supply has run dry or who wish to secure grant for improvements should contact their Local Authorities to request assistance.

The Scottish Government is also undertaking five pilot projects to understand the complexities involved in the extension of existing water networks to allow households affected by water scarcity to connect. Results from these pilots are expected in the next few weeks and will inform future investment decisions