Chamber and committees

A response to question S6W-02293 was issued on 4th October 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

Our regulatory proposals will give local authorities powers to strike a balance between the needs and concerns of their local communities, with the wider economic and tourism benefits of short-term lets.

We published a draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) on 25 June 2021 for consultation. The economic and Scottish firms impact of the legislation is discussed at paragraphs 120 to 131 of the BRIA. We are now in the process of updating the BRIA as part of preparing the Licensing Order for laying in November 2021.

We have conducted an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) which we published in December 2020 and will update to reflect the revised Licensing Order. The ICIA can be found in our December 2020 consultation report: Short-term lets – licensing scheme and planning control areas: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution and External Affairs and I met with the then Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts on 16 June 2021 to discuss the New Plan for Immigration. This was prior to the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Bill at Westminster on 6 July. Scottish Government Ministers have had no subsequent discussions with UK Government Ministers on the Nationality and Borders Bill.

The First Minister wrote to the Home Secretary on 26 July, setting out significant concerns about the implications of the Nationality and Borders Bill, including measures which propose to differentiate between refugees and treat them differently based on their journey to the UK and not their protection need.

I wrote to the Home Secretary in further detail on 1 September. That letter is available on the Scottish Government website: Nationality and Borders Bill: letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to Secretary of State for the Home Department - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Local authorities have discretionary powers under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 to provide assistance to any home owners. Funding for this, and other housing activities, is included in the general capital and revenue grants provided to local authorities, and the allocation to assistance is at the discretion of the local authority.

We have provided £0.5 million additional funding for Care and Repair Scotland to provide help installing alarms for older and disabled homeowners on low incomes. We have also provided £1 million to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to provide alarms for owners who are considered most vulnerable to the risk of fire.

Our regulatory proposals will give local authorities powers to strike a balance between the needs and concerns of their local communities, with the wider economic and tourism benefits of short-term lets.

We published a draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) on 25 June 2021 for consultation. The economic and Scottish firms impact of the legislation is discussed at paragraphs 120 to 131 of the BRIA. We are now in the process of updating the BRIA as part of preparing the Licensing Order for laying in November 2021.

We have conducted an Island Communities Impact Assessment which we published in December 2020 and will update to reflect the revised Licensing Order. The ICIA can be found in our December 2020 consultation report: Short-term lets – licensing scheme and planning control areas: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The level of funding approved by Scottish Government through the Housing Infrastructure Fund for loan and grant between 2016-17 and 2020-21 is shown in the following table.

The Programme for Government 2020-21 commits the Scottish Government to consult on legislation to extend the new framework that came into force on 1 September for the licensing of animal welfare establishments, dog, cat and rabbit breeding and pet sales to performing animals and animal care services. This could include dog walking and grooming, as well as boarding services which are currently regulated under the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963.

We plan to bring forward consultations in this area in due course after allowing a period of familiarisation with the recent licensing changes, so that the practical experiences of local authorities in implementing these can be considered in any future proposals.

The Scottish Government has undertaken a comprehensive awareness raising campaign across a range of channels including TV, radio and digital to ensure people are aware of the new legislation and to encourage compliance. This includes material to support third sector stakeholders and leaflets in public libraries. The target audience is all adults in Scotland and the campaign was forecast to reach 95.2% of those.

Because this is a safety measure, we hope most people will see the benefits of it. Local authorities have broad statutory responsibility for tackling substandard housing in their area, and for major defects they can require home owners to carry out work, but any intervention must be proportionate and we do not expect them to go beyond advising home owners about fire alarms. Legislation allows people a reasonable time for bringing homes up to standard. No home owner will be penalised for non-compliance. We will however collect data on fire alarms in Scottish homes in future iterations of the Scottish House Condition Survey.

Any firm wishing to advertise their products and services as being approved or endorsed by the Scottish Government is required to obtain the formal approval of Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government has not provided any such approval and as such does not permit any firm to advertise interlinked fire alarms as approved or endorsed by the Scottish Government.

The National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) is being delivered through various sector-based projects which will have different application procedures. The data below sets out information on course participants in Year One as far as it is currently available.

In Year One of the NTTF, support for the Aviation sector was provided through Scottish Union Learning. Unite the Union developed a programme which continues this year to enable Aviation workers – many of whom were furloughed - to upskill to help support job retention. This provided a variety of training opportunities for ground and air crew.

In addition, Strand One of NTTF, which was managed by Skills Development Scotland, supported driver training, including Driver CPC, LGV with CPC and PCV with CPC.

In terms of NTTF college delivery, The college figures for 2020-21 are yet to be finalised as collection of college data only concluded on 12 October 2021 and still require to be quality assured before publication as Official Statistics in January 2022.

I have previously advised that a final report on NTTF Year One will be made available this year. As the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will not publish data until January 2022, I intend to issue a report immediately after the SFC publication is released. I do however, intend to update Parliament in November on anticipated outturns.