Chamber and committees

We will not be piloting these proposals. We want to make progress in this Parliament to address a pressing issue for some of our communities and, to do this, we are aiming to lay secondary legislation in December. However, we will be encouraging and facilitating local authorities to learn from each other’s experiences in establishing control areas and operating a licensing scheme.

We will monitor and evaluate the impact of our proposals to ensure that they are effective and targeted. We are willing to bring a Bill to Parliament in the next session if we continue to see issues, but to do so now would result in unnecessary delay.

The Scottish Government has been working on proposals for the regulation of short-term lets since 2018. We first consulted in summer 2019 for twelve weeks, and published the results of both that consultation exercise and the independent research we commissioned in October 2019. We announced our proposals for a licensing scheme, planning control areas and a review of taxation in January 2020. Unfortunately, work on implementing these proposals had to be suspended from March to July 2020 to deal with the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We had originally planned for a longer period of engagement on our proposals in autumn 2020 but the timetable has had to be compressed in order to ensure that the secondary legislation could still be laid at the Scottish Parliament in this session.

We have set out detailed proposals for secondary legislation in this second consultation paper and, despite the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, officials are managing to hold effective virtual workshops with stakeholders representing all interests. These workshops are flushing out useful points for consideration and we had already received over 500 consultation responses on-line by close Monday 12 October.

We have to balance the need to have as fulsome consideration of the proposals as possible against the need to make progress, all in the context of a pandemic. On balance, we are not convinced that extra time is merited to consider the proposals further. We want to use the powers that we have to make progress in this Parliament to address this issue.

The Scottish Government has been supporting the tourism and hospitality sector through the pandemic in every way possible, given the limits of devolved power. We are planning for a recovery of the tourism sector. Regulation of short-term lets is part of ensuring a responsible and sustainable approach to tourism, which better balances the benefits of tourism with wider community needs and concerns. This regulation is important irrespective of COVID-19, which is why the detailed proposals make no reference to it. We have been engaging with a wide range of tourism and other stakeholders on our detailed proposals so that we can ensure they are robust but proportionate and fair.

Responsibility for delivering the Seasonal Flu Vaccine in 2020-21 rests with Health Boards and Integration Authorities with support from GP practices. The administration of vaccinations provided in General Practices will depend on each Health Board’s individual delivery model. Boards will use the delivery model which is most suitable for their local circumstances, whilst maintaining a Covid-safe environment.

The Scottish Government is working closely with Health Boards and other delivery partners to achieve the aim that everyone eligible for a free flu vaccination will receive an appointment invitation for the programme, which commenced on 1 October.

Independent Licensing Boards are responsible for the day to day administration of the alcohol licensing regime as set out in the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (“the 2005 Act”) and associated statutory instruments. While the maximum fee levels for the annual premise fees are set by legislation, discretion lies with each Licensing Board to decide on the fee levels for their own local area.

Fees help to cover the cost of running the licensing system in a board area, including Licensing Board staff costs. Failure to fully provide for the costs to Licensing Boards of operating the alcohol licensing regime risks undermining the objectives of the 2005 Act The absence of any fees, or fees set at too low a level, would create a funding gap that would need to be met from other local authority budgets, to the detriment of other public services. It is best therefore such decisions are made locally and the legislation permits this. In July, Aberdeen City Licensing Board capped the premise licence annual fee to two-thirds of the maximum permitted level for on-sale premises reflecting the situation with Covid-19. The Scottish Government would expect all Licensing Boards to take a pragmatic and sensitive approach to the setting of licensing fee levels at this time.

We are actively looking at how we fully remobilise NHS dental services as soon as possible and we have been increasing the range of dental treatments available with each phase of the remobilisation plan. This has culminated in reintroducing certain aerosol generating procedures (AGPs), including fillings for patients in need of urgent dental care, into NHS practice from 17 August.

All dentists are subject to the same requirements to control the spread of coronavirus and take all reasonable measures to ensure safe practice in the controlled environment that we are currently operating. In a letter to private healthcare providers on 1 June the National Clinical Director and the Chief Dental Officer highlighted the importance of all independent dentists, whether carrying out NHS work or working privately, following the spirit of the route map and supporting key public health measures.

The Scottish Government does not have the power to disband the Nith Navigation Commission.

Scottish Ministers may make Harbour Closure Orders to remove statutory powers from a harbour authority, but it is up to the authority to initiate the process while following appropriate legal advice.

Ports are deemed to be independent commercial entities. Therefore, it is not possible for the Scottish Government to dictate business decisions made by a harbour authority on how its port is run or on how to best utilise its resources.

We are aware that the restarting of business as usual (non-COVID) disclosure services by Disclosure Scotland in early June has seen some disclosure applications taking longer than during the full lockdown period.

Over the past month, the average processing time for COVID-related PVG applications from registered care services (the category that includes care home staff) has been 6.1 days, with the average processing time for business as usual applications being 9.3 days.

The Scottish Government recognises that planting more trees on riverbanks is good for water quality, good for fish and good for the climate and natural environment. High river temperatures during the summer are a pressure on wild salmon in particular, and we encourage the improvement of our rivers and burns through riparian tree planting. We have already supported over 500 such schemes through the Forestry Grant Scheme in the last three years.

Through the Marine Scotland River Temperature Monitoring Network Scotland leads the way in providing management tools which are able to pinpoint where rivers are hottest in the summer and where trees can reduce temperature most. Scottish Forestry and Marine Scotland will be working together as part of the development of the Wild Salmon Strategy to increase riparian tree planting in order to protect wild salmon.

Each year approximately 200 farming businesses are selected for a cross compliance inspection. The 25 businesses that have had a penalty applied to their payments for removing hedgerows represents a very small proportion of the approximately 3000 businesses that have been inspected since cross compliance was introduced in 2005. The value of the penalty and the geographic location (Local Authority) for the 25 businesses are shown in the following table -