Chamber and committees

No. Tenant Hardship Loan Funds will not be converted to grants.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02112 on 7 September 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

As indicated in the response provided in answer S6W-04126 on 12 November 2021, the Aerospace and Defence Industry Group (ADIG) is the industry-led successor body to the Ministerial-led Aerospace Response Group (ARG) and membership of ADIG was extended to all members of the previous group.

Secretariat to the ADIG is provided by the industry body ADS Scotland, therefore information regarding membership of ADIG is a matter for them.

The Scottish Government has made clear its support for our indigenous languages, including Scots. It is essential that those that wish to use the Scots language are given every opportunity to use the language of their choice. For many, Scots is the language of home and community and its use in other areas of Scottish life should be encouraged.

The Scottish Government provides around £460,000 of funding to various Scots organisations and Scots projects such as the Scots Language Centre, Dictionaries of the Scots Language, Association of Scottish Literary Studies, Scots Radio and Scots Hoose to develop and promote Scots and deliver high quality Scots language learning and resources to open up the educational access to Scots for young people. In addition, the Scottish Government works alongside Education Scotland and the SQA and they have worked to standardise, promote and make the Scots language more readily available in schools.

The Scottish Government is committed to taking the forward the manifesto commitments for a new Scottish Languages Bill which takes further steps to support Gaelic, acts on the Scots language and recognises that Scotland is a multilingual society. This work is at an early stage and we intend to consult in 2022.

Revenue Scotland is responsible for the collection and management of the fully devolved taxes. As such, it has no role in any aspect of the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-34739 on 5 February 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

We work closely with the childcare sector representative bodies and appreciate the challenges faced by settings in relation to recruitment and retention. We are already providing support to all parts of the childcare sector with regard to recruitment and retention challenges. For example, we have invited those whose registrations to work in childcare have lapsed in recent years to re-join the sector; we are providing work experience in the sector via the National Transitional Training Fund; and our national recruitment campaign provides resources to assist with local recruitment. We continue to support the childminding sector as set out in Our Commitment to Childminding Report, which can be found at: Our commitment to childminding: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We will work in partnership with all parts of the childcare sector to develop delivery plans for school-aged childcare and funded early learning for one year olds and to ensure that the appropriate support is in place. We have also committed to developing a new, five-year Workforce Strategy for the childcare sector. The strategy will address recruitment and retention challenges to build on the support already available, taking into account our commitments to build a system of wraparound childcare and further extend early learning.

The Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (NDRHI), which supported district heating development, closed to new applicants on 31 March 2021. However provisions were made to allow some applicants to commission up to 31 March 2022, in response to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) we have awarded over £20 million of capital grant funding to help unlock seven heat network projects, all of which intended to apply for the NDRHI. Since the closure of the NDRHI to new applications the LCITP has provided grant support for the development of Investment Grade Business cases for zero emission heat networks being taken forward without RHI support.

A Non-Domestic Rates Relief of 90% for new heat networks run by renewable sources was introduced in April 2021, around the same time that the Non-Domestic RHI closed to new applicants. This relief will remain in place until 31 March 2024. This is in addition to the existing 50% relief for all heat networks which has been extended to remain in place until 2032.

As set out in our Draft Heat Networks Delivery Plan, we are committed to providing capital support to heat networks. The successor to the LCITP will launch this year, and we have committed to investing at least £400 million through this programme for large-scale heat infrastructure including heat networks.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund has not been administered by local authorities so I have assumed that you are referring to the £10m Tenant Grant Fund announced in June and have responded to your question on that basis.

The following table sets out the allocation each local authority has received from the Tenant Grant Fund:

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund has not been administered by local authorities so I have assumed that you are referring to the £10m Tenant Grant Fund announced in June and have responded to your question on that basis.

The purpose of the Tenant Grant Fund is to mitigate the short to medium term financial challenges being experienced by tenants adversely impacted by restrictions and regulations introduced since March 2020, to control the spread of Covid-19.

The fund enables local authorities to prevent homelessness and sustain tenancies by directly reducing, alleviating or paying off rent arrears altogether where a tenant is in either the social or private rented sectors, and has faced difficulties due to Covid-19.

On timings, the non-statutory guidance issued to support local authorities in their administration of the grant fund sets out that it is to be used specifically to help repay rent arrears that have arisen due to the Covid-19 pandemic between 23 March 2020 and 9 August 2021; and that arrears before 23 March 2020 cannot be covered.

However, local authorities have discretion as to payment in individual cases and should consider whether the payment is a necessary or justified action to avoid the tenant becoming homeless. This recognises the experience that local authorities have in supporting people in a housing crisis, and will help identify where funding would be most effectively provided.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund and the PRS Landlord (non-business) Covid-19 Loan will close to new applications at the end of December allowing final loans to be paid before the end of 31 March 2022, in line with the allocation of the Tenant Grant Fund.

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 may be affected by difficulties with imported components. However, 90% of the market share is met by manufacturers with a UK base using European components, and they have assured us 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.

However, I would emphasise that when the legislation comes into force, it says that work should be done within a reasonable period, which takes into account individual circumstances. No home owner will be penalised if they are unable to do the work within that timescale.