Chamber and committees

We have no current plans to provide further support to Nightclubs and Soft Play centres. In October 2020, the first phase of the Business Contingency Fund provided grants of up to £50,000 to eligible Nightclubs and Soft Play centres, depending on the rateable value of the business property. From November they were also eligible for Strategic Framework Business Fund grants every four weeks of either £2000 or £3000, again depending on the rateable value of the business property, and a linked top-up award for retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Further support was provided through one-off Restart Grant payments in April of up to £19,500.

Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of workers, other than frontline health and social care workers. We are inviting those of working age in all sectors for vaccination, in line with advice on clinical risk of severe disease and hospitalisation.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority lists represents 99% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme. The JCVI advice is that an age-based approach is the best way to quickly protect those who have not yet had the vaccine but who are at increased risk due to occupation or other factors.

The Scottish Government has met its target to offer all of those in JCVI groups 1 to 9 an initial dose of COVID vaccine, with over 99 per cent of those aged over 50 having received their first dose. Those aged over 40 are now in the process of being invited for vaccination. Beyond that we will aim, supplies permitting, to have offered first doses to the entire adult population by end July, rather than September as previously anticipated.

The Scottish Ministerial Code outlines a code of conduct for members of the Scottish Government (the First Minister, Cabinet Secretaries and Law Officers) and junior Scottish Ministers, including on the use of personal social media accounts. No other Scottish Government guidance has been issued to Ministers in this regard.

Further information

The Scottish Ministerial Code outlines a code of conduct for members of the Scottish Government (the First Minister, Cabinet Secretaries and Law Officers) and junior Scottish Ministers.

Section 10 concerns Ministers And The Presentation Of Policy. There is reference here to the use of social media, which states:

10.10 Ministers may retain personal social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), provided that any activity on their account is not at variance with their obligations to Parliament or their duty to observe the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility. It is Ministers’ personal responsibility to ensure that social media activity in their name does not breach these requirements or bring the Government into disrepute.

10.11 If Ministers wish to use social media for official policy communications, they should use an appropriate Government account.

The Scottish Ministerial Code can be found online at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-ministerial-code-2018-edition

Currently 2089 single track kilometres of Scotland’s Railway are electrified. This allows some 75% of Scottish passenger journeys to be made by electric train.

Works to electrify the East Kilbride and Barrhead Routes have commenced, though electrification of these routes will not be completed within 2021. Development work for electrification of the Borders Line and Fife Circle routes is also underway.

The Scottish Government supports the development of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) as a common whole-system decarbonisation infrastructure with the flexibility to adapt over time to play a central role across the decarbonisation strategies of key sectors such as heat, industry and power. A proven technology, there are more than 50 CCUS facilities worldwide, with an estimated combined capture capacity of 96 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The Committee on Climate Change describes CCUS as a “necessity, not an option” to achieve net-zero emissions; indeed, the swift development of CCUS as a cornerstone of our energy transition is vital to achieving Scotland’s net zero emissions reduction targets.

Scotland is the most cost-effective place to begin CCUS in the UK, with existing oil and gas infrastructure available to repurpose for CO2 transport and storage. The development of CCUS could offer a range of transition opportunities for Scottish oil and gas firms and domestic supply chain companies.

We are already supporting efforts to deploy CCUS in Scotland, including through our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, which will provide £80m over the next five years to support the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies. We have also provided funding and policy support to the Acorn CCS project in Aberdeenshire, considered the most advanced CCS project in the UK.

There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of General Dental Practitioners (GDPs) under this Government. As at March 2021 the number of GDPs in Scotland was 3,039 compared to 2,186 in 2007, an increase of 39%. This means that there are 55.7 dentists per 100,000 of the population providing NHS care and treatment in 2021, compared to 42.3 in 2007.

The release of red-legged partridges and pheasants is a legal activity and is expressly permitted under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.

At present there is no evidence that gamebirds are having an impact on the features of protected areas as shown by NatureScot’s Site Condition Monitoring work and little information to suggest that they are having an impact on Scotland’s wider natural heritage. The Scottish Government therefore has no current plans to legislate in this area.

Social Security is integral to my Social Justice, Housing and Local Government portfolio . It’s importance is reflected in the fact there is both a Cabinet Secretary and a Minister with responsibilities for it.

We are doing everything we can with the limited powers available to us to support the tourism sector.

We have extended 100% NDR relief, which is more generous than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations, for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22. In addition, Tourism businesses on Non Domestic Rates have been supported by the Strategic Framework Business Fund.

We also launched a £129 million package of business support measures over December and January as part of our short term response to the Scottish Tourism Recovery Taskforce recommendations and followed engagement with industry to target support where it was needed the most.

We also invested £14 million in the Hotel Support Programme to secure up to 3,000 jobs in the hotel sector, and through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund we awarded over £8.9 million to hotels and other accommodation last year – there was no equivalent fund in England.

Over the past year we have worked closely with sectoral organisations like the Scottish Tourism Alliance on support for the tourism and hospitality sectors and we will continue to do so. This includes £25 million, which we announced in March, to implement the Phase 1 recommendations of the Scottish Tourism Recovery Taskforce.

This fund will support domestic and international marketing to rebuild visitor demand, leadership and skills training, development of a net zero pathway for tourism, and social tourism and days out vouchers.

Development of phase 2 recommendations (years 2 through 5) is underway by the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group and proposals will be considered by the Scottish Government very shortly.

The National Public Bodies Directory provides information on all Scottish Government public bodies, including those bodies constituted as limited companies. The directory was last updated on 26 January 2021.

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts also include a complete list of all nationalised companies where Scottish Ministers are the sole shareholder as well as providing information on other organisations and companies where the Scottish Ministers have an interest. The accounts are published on an annual basis with the most recent accounts published on 17 December 2020.