Chamber and committees

Scotland has a long history of welcoming people of all nationalities, including those from Hong Kong. We recognise the positive contribution of people who choose to make Scotland their home. They are assets to our society and communities: sharing their culture, building businesses, working in our public services, volunteering their skills and making friendships. We have recently published a British National (Overseas) Welcome Pack to support people in their integration into our communities.

The Chinese Government’s decision to implement the National Security Law in Hong Kong is of deep concern to the Scottish Government. This action seriously undermines the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, which guarantees Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, and will irreversibly diminish the rights and freedoms of its people.

We support the UK Government’s commitment to providing a bespoke pathway to citizenship for British National (Overseas) citizens from Hong Kong and their dependants and we welcome those who have chosen to move to Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains committed to maintain or exceed the environmental standards in place upon EU exit. Provisions in the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 give a discretionary power to align devolved law with EU law. The Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party’s Shared Policy Programme also commits that, where practicable, we will stay aligned with new EU measures and policy developments.

However, the UK Internal Market Act 2020 risks undermining devolved decision-making across a wide range of areas, including environmental policy. The Act’s market access principle means that despite decisions we may make in Scotland to protect and advance the high standards we enjoyed as part of the EU, Scotland could be compelled to accept goods and services coming from other parts of the UK regardless of differing standards.

Local authorities received funding amounting to £21,000 per authority over 4 years from 2018 to 2021, as part of the Local Government Finance Resettlement, to facilitate on-going dialogue with their local BSL-using community to support the creation of their first-ever Authority BSL Plans.

The British Deaf Association are funded through the Equality and Human Rights Fund to support local authorities to develop and monitor their Authority BSL plans, and to engage with their local BSL-using community.

The Scottish Government intends to publish the British Sign Language (BSL) Progress Report by the end of October 2021, which will outline progress being made towards implementing the BSL National Plan.

The co-operation agreement between the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party seeks to provide effective and responsible leadership in the interests of the people of Scotland.

A number of machinery of government changes are being made to reflect the agreement:

• The membership of the existing Cabinet Sub-Committee on Legislation will contain a minister from the Scottish Green Party.
• A Cabinet Sub-Committee on the Climate Emergency will be established.
• A working group will be established to oversee the development of effective, deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, culminating in a citizens’ assembly.
• To support growth in Active Travel, a task group will be formed to plan the most effective route for the implementation of the 20 mph speed limit on all appropriate roads by 2025.
• The previous Ministerial Working Group on Food will be reinstated

Scottish Ministers have kept the UK Government updated on our plans for a public inquiry on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and look forward to receiving further details of the UK Government’s plans. These exchanges have been in the course of routine ongoing contact between the two governments on COVID-19, and not the subject of separate, minuted, meetings.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government allocated £11.7 billion to authorities and it is the responsibility of individual councils to manage their own budgets and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Some planning applications will have longer decision times due to their scale and complexity. Planning decision timescales have also inevitably been affected by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020-21, despite these impacts, authorities determined 149 planning applications for electricity generation developments.

The performance of the system is not the sole responsibility of planning authorities and everyone involved in planning must play their part in ensuring that the system functions effectively and efficiently.

The resourcing and performance of the planning system remain key priorities. That is why in 2019 we published a consultation which proposed making changes to the planning fee regime to increase the financial resources available to authorities. That work was paused during the pandemic but has recently been recommenced and we will work with the High Level Group on Planning Performance to take it forward.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the current number of specialist teaching staff vacancies. The results of the most recent teacher vacancy survey, undertaken in September 2019, are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-vacancy-survey-2016-to-2019/

The number of teachers by subject is shown in Table 3.

The 2016 to 2019 vacancy surveys were jointly administered by the Scottish Government and COSLA. The surveys were suspended in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. Vacancies are now advertised on “myjobscotland” which allows for easier continual monitoring by local authorities in line with their responsibilities for teacher employment.

The Scottish Government work in partnership with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities to negotiate a financial settlement that ensures local authorities can continue to provide the high quality frontline services that the people of Scotland expect and deserve.

The vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets, including those that are influenced by external markets forces, and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

A number of our existing commitments already contribute towards this goal and will ensure that we deliver a just transition, with economic and social opportunity shared across the country.

For example, the recent Programme for Government outlined our commitment to help three islands become fully carbon neutral by 2040. We are currently engaging with stakeholders to ensure the voices of islanders are heard from outset. This builds on previous commitments, such as the Island Communities Fund, which has supported businesses and community groups to build sustainable island economies.

We are also investing at least £1.8 billion over this Parliament to decarbonise Scotland’s homes and buildings, helping us eradicate poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty. This commitment will benefit communities across the country, including rural communities where we know fuel poverty is a particular concern.