Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no current plans to change the legislation in this area.

In relation to flatted properties, section 17 of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 gives homeowners reasonable access for maintenance and other purposes through the property of other owners. Section 17 may be viewed at:-

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2004/11/contents

There is no equivalent legislation for non-flatted properties. In some cases, title deeds, servitude rights over neighbouring land or the common law may provide the necessary access rights. Access to neighbouring land might also be permitted by way of a private arrangement between individuals. Where parties are in dispute, mediation can sometimes provide assistance.

If however, the member has evidence that a change in the law would be helpful, I would be happy to consider the issue further.

The £41 million will be distributed as follows:

• £10 million for a Fuel Insecurity Fund to provide direct support with fuel costs for low income households, delivered through a range of organisations including registered social landlords, Advice Direct Scotland, Energy Action Scotland and the Fuel Bank Foundation.
• £25 million to Local Authorities to tackle financial insecurity and respond to emerging need. This will include providing help with food, fuel and other essentials with a strong steer in favour of a cash-first approach and proactive and preventative action for those who are known to be at risk.
• £6 million for trusted third sector partners, allowing support to be provided by local charities and community groups to families in financial need all across Scotland.

We are currently in discussions with Local Authorities and partners and the funding will be made available as soon as is reasonably practicable.

The Scottish Government provides Sustrans with funding to maintain and extend the National Cycle Network (NCN) in Scotland, with £4.065 million this financial year alone. And where the NCN interacts with the trunk road network, Sustrans and Transport Scotland work in partnership to ensure the best possible outcome is achieved for specific projects. Intentions to explore improvements to the National Cycle Network in the south west are included within Sustrans Scotland’s 30 year National Cycle Network Plan. See link: Paths for Everyone - Sustrans.org.uk

Also, the South West Scotland Transport Study, published in January 2020, included a recommendation to develop the Strategic Active Travel Network in the South West of Scotland. This option included proposals to better connect communities to key destinations, including cycle paths parallel to trunk roads and improvements to the National Cycle Network. This intervention is currently subject to detailed appraisal as part of Phase 2 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

Once complete, STPR2 will inform strategic transport investment in Scotland for the next 20 years, including decisions on new active travel infrastructure. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and be followed by the appropriate statutory consultation period.

Further the government’s answer to question S6W-01541 by Shona Robison on 10 August, my officials have now received a complete response from members of the Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review panel.

Of those responses:

• 1 member of the 2018-19 panel (21 members) and 3 members of the 2020-21 panel (26 members) had a role in designing BS 8414; and
• 1 member of the 2018-19 panel (21 members) and 3 members of the 2020-21 panel (26 members) have worked for organisations that carry out BS 8414 fire tests on behalf of commercial sponsors.

In November 2020, we announced that the Rural and Island Housing Fund would be extended beyond March 2021 with up to £30 million made available to support development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term.

The fund is part of the wider Affordable Housing Supply Programme which supports delivery of affordable homes across Scotland including in rural and island areas.

The recently announced Social Security Scotland recruitment campaign will support the effective national roll-out delivery of Child Disability Payment and, in due course, Adult Disability Payment in line with our values of dignity, fairness and respect. This will also provide capacity to process new claims and support the transfer of existing cases from the Department of Work and Pensions. In 2022-2023 alone this will ensure that payments in excess of £2.2 billion are made safely and securely to over 400,000 people with lasting health conditions or disabilities. In addition, we are also building capacity for the introduction of further benefits beyond Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment, including Scottish Carers Allowance.

The Scottish Government only holds data on chargepoint installation on our ChargePlace Scotland network. Data is available by local authority and not at a community or settlement level. The following table sets out the breakdown of charging by local authority as at September 2021.

accines are approved through an established four nations basis framework and the current approved vaccines are those used by the NHS as part of the UK rollout, as well as those approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or from an eligible country using the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines. We do not currently accept others such as the Sinopharm vaccine at this time. This is based on clinical advice and represents a consistent approach across the four nations.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers
• an approved programme in one of the programmes found on the link below

Approved COVID-19 vaccines and countries with approved COVID-19 proof of vaccination - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Those who do not meet the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility criteria must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers

Approved COVID-19 vaccines and countries with approved COVID-19 proof of vaccination - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

We are committed to ensuring that police and local authorities continue to have the powers and resources needed to further reduce antisocial behaviour in our communities, including investing in prevention and early intervention.

Criminal Law (Consolidation) Scotland Act 1995 Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, section 96 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 18 - 22 of the Public Order Act 1986 and section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 provide both Police Scotland and local authorities with sufficient existing powers to tackle instances of antisocial behaviour. The Scottish Government continues to support Police Scotland and local authorities in using these powers appropriately and proportionately.

The Scottish Government is always open to looking at how we can improve the approach being taken to tackle antisocial behaviour for the benefit of all communities and we are currently engaging with the Scottish Community Safety Network (which has links into all of Scotland’s local authorities and Community Planning Partnerships) to use their expertise and knowledge to help to inform our approach to tackling antisocial behaviour.

We know that schools play a key role in supporting children and young people’s mental health. We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school across Scotland has access to counselling services, which our local authority partners have confirmed is now in place across Scotland. Counselling can help children and young people explore, understand and overcome issues in their lives and improve resilience, including responding to loss and grief.

During the planning of the counsellors in schools provision, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland advised that the requirements for working with children under the age of 10 is very different to that for older children. This is why our commitment is only for children aged 10 and over. Schools and education authorities have the capacity to identify specific measures to support children under the age of 10. For example, some local authorities may have staff trained to deliver ‘Seasons for Growth’, a programme widely used in primary, secondary and special sectors across Scotland to support children and young people suffering from loss and grief.