Chamber and committees

The Scottish Wildfire Forum, which is chaired by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, includes Local Authorities, Regional Resilience Partnerships and other Agencies as members to assess wildfire risks and consider what mitigating actions might be taken.

Alongside the Forum, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continue to work closely with land managers and local communities prevent wildfires ever occurring.

Work is also ongoing within our National Parks to address concerns around the risk and impact of wildfires. The Cairngorms National Park (CNP) consultation on Fire Management, which ran from February to April of this year, sought views on proposals to reduce fire management byelaws which aim to reduce the risk of wildfires being ignited, and on how the Park Authority might enhance its communication and education approach.

Both the CNP and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park also engage with key stakeholders through Visit Scotland’s Visitor Management Strategy Group Visitor Management: Scotland's Plan & Objectives | VisitScotland.org t o develop messaging around visitor related fires.

The Scottish Government’s public agencies are running promotional campaigns to support responsible enjoyment of the countryside, as part of the wider national visitor management strategy co-ordinated by VisitScotland. This includes messaging which relates to responsible lighting of fires, strongly emphasising for example the use of camping stoves. It also highlights the need to follow any relevant local guidance and promotes sensible behaviours. The campaigns are being taken forward through both traditional and social media, including work with online influencers to help reach audiences that are otherwise difficult to engage.

Figures show there has been widespread public engagement with these campaigns over previous summer periods. For example, in 2023 NatureScot's social media influencer videos on responsible camping and fires had over 82,000 plays, and media campaigns by Forestry and Land Scotland and Cairngorms National Park Authority had a combined readership of over 3.1 million. It seems likely that the presence of rangers at key hotspots is important in allowing regular face to face interaction with visitors.

In addition, land managers have been advised to use time limited local signage or other communication methods to inform people when there are high risk conditions, working with local authorities and National Park Authorities. The fires messaging framework has recently been refreshed.

Our 110,000 affordable homes target includes that “at least” 10% of those homes will be delivered in rural and island areas. We allocate Affordable Housing Supply Programme funding to local authority areas based on our Strategic Housing Investment Framework agreed with COSLA in 2012. Local authorities then prioritise the use of this funding as outlined in their Strategic Housing Investment Plans. This includes the size, tenure and location of homes.

We are investing in rural and island areas through both our mainstream Affordable Housing Supply Programme as well as demand-led funds including the Rural and Island Housing Fund and the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund which are part of our approach to addressing the specific housing issues that rural and island areas face. From 2016-2017 to 2022-23 we have supported the delivery of 10,094 affordable homes in rural and island areas. This accounted for 16% of homes delivered over this time period.

We will invest nearly £600m in affordable homes this year including our demand-led Rural and Islands Housing Fund and Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.

The number of premises that are either due to be delivered or have been delivered on the 15 islands that have had new subsea cables installed as part of the Scottish Government’s £600 million R100 contracts are in the following table.

The BT Subsea Team has confirmed that there have been no recorded faults or repairs required to the R100 subsea cables to Scottish islands since deployment in 2022.

The contents of the report remain under consideration by Ministers and Transport Scotland. The report will be published once that process has been completed.

As set out in the Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach, good rehabilitation happens when health care, social care, leisure and third and independent sectors work together to support individuals to access the right kind of rehabilitation for them, at the right time.

The Approach describes the standards expected of NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships, working together with these partners, to develop and deliver community-based rehabilitation services using their collective resources. We also encourage and support self-management to help improve individuals’ functional abilities and live well with long-term conditions.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a top priority for the Scottish Government.

We continue to provide £16 million a year to ensure that every secondary school has access to school counselling services. Our guidance makes clear that local authorities should consider how links between schools, and their local community health and social services, and relevant third-sector organisations can be made to ensure a holistic child-centred approach.

The Scottish Government is also providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children and young people. Our supporting Framework for this funding advocates a whole-system approach and makes clear that community supports and services should work closely with schools to ensure that there are clear and streamlined pathways to support for children and young people, and that local partnerships should be explicit about how different services should work together.

It is a matter for local authorities to decide how services work together in individual areas.

The Nature Restoration Fund has not been frozen.

The competitive strand of our Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is currently supporting more than 65 projects, and has offered support to over 200 projects, collectively worth more than £15 million, delivering exciting on the ground activity to protect and restore Scotland’s biodiversity. You can view the Nature Restoration Fund story map to see the range of projects supported across Scotland.

There has been a tremendous response across Scotland in terms of applications to the NRF such that the capital budget for delivery projects in 2024-25 is currently fully committed. NatureScot are, however, accepting applications to the NRF for development projects and for delivery projects starting in April 2025 (up to one year).

In addition, the Edinburgh Process strand of the NRF has so far directed over £17 million to support nature restoration projects directed by local authorities and our National Parks. A further £5 million of funding will be provided in 2024-25.

There are three early retirement options available to members of the Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme who have reached normal minimum pension age:

• Premature Retirement is an option if a member is made redundant or retires in the interest of efficiency. The pension would be actuarially reduced because the member is retiring early and employer must agree to make up the shortfall to the full pension amount. Therefore, there is no impact on the final pension amount the member receives.
• Voluntary Early Retirement is where the member chooses to receives an actuarially reduced pension. The benefits are reduced to take into account the fact the pension will be paid over a longer period of time than a normal retirement pension.
• Phased Retirement allows members to take up to 75% of their pension while reducing their working commitment. To do this, members must reduce their pensionable salary by at least 20% for a minimum of 12 months. Any percentage of pension benefits taken before normal pension age would be subject to an actuarial reduction.