Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government received £199 million in Barnett Consequentials in respect of the UK Government’s 75% relief for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government needs to consider its funding availability in totality and not by isolating each and every line of UK consequential funding. Decisions in the budget are taken in that context and the Scottish Budget delivered the number one ask of the business community by freezing the non-domestic rates poundage.

Delivering the freeze in the poundage came at a forecast cost of £308 million, in contrast with only £169 million of Barnett consequentials received for the equivalent policy in England. Despite this, the Scottish Government continues to deliver a number of other reliefs that are not available to businesses in England including Day Nursery relief, Fresh Start relief, the Business Growth Accelerator relief, and the UK’s most generous relief package for the renewable energy-generating sector.

In relation to the allocation of funding for the national parks and local authorities, I refer the member to S6W-09126 on 29 June 2022, in response to Mark Ruskell MSP. In reference to (b), the distribution methodology for the 2022-23 ‘Edinburgh Process’ below was approved through the formal financial governance process including political sign-off from Scottish Ministers and COSLA political Leaders:

• 50% on ‘area of natural greenspace’ (as defined by PAN 65 and calculated by reporting on the State of Scottish Greenspace); and
• 50% on the composite green indicator defined by NatureScot (including local nature reserves, area of reserves) and used in the annual redetermination on Biodiversity and Ranger Services.

In addition, Local Authorities and National Parks were eligible to participate in partnerships that applied to the competitive element of NRF in 2022-23.

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

Monitoring is conducted via returns which local authorities and the National Parks are required to complete, following the end of each financial year, setting out how Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) money has been used.

The detailed schedules to collect scheme products, and pay deposits and handling fees are a matter for Circularity Scotland, the not-for profit scheme administrator, their logistics partner and return point operators.

Working with partners we have refreshed the system-wide governance for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland (DRS) for the implementation stage of the programme. This now includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group which will meet for the first time during May 2023 and sectoral groups representing producers, retailers, hospitality and the public sector, most of which have already had their first meeting.

Hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to prepare for the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme across a range of businesses and the value of this is now at risk unless an Internal Market Act exclusion is put in place urgently to enable the final preparations for a launch on 1 March 2024.

The exact figures on investment are held by industry themselves but various published estimates suggest that retailers will invest up to £200m, and producers have invested around £100m for the scheme. Alongside this contractors to Circularity Scotland, such as Biffa, will have invested significant funds with some estimating this at around £80m.

The Scottish Government is currently working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the services offered to cancer patients, including those diagnosed with ovarian cancer, through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC).

This joint partnership with Macmillan is worth £18 million, and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme looks to ensure that every cancer patient in Scotland has access to specialist key support workers, who can provide emotional, financial and practical support to those who need it most.

Further to this, the Single Point of Contact (SPoC) approach was introduced in the 2020 National Cancer Plan.

The SPoC ensures cancer patients have dedicated person-centred support that can discuss their specific circumstances. This will help ease any anxieties related to their care and treatment plans, and relay the support available to them and their families.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17748 on 18 May 2023. 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

Work on the Special Support Payment has commenced and is in the initial stages of development and a timeline for introduction will be detailed in due course. We remain committed to introducing the Special Support Payment within the parliamentary term.

We recognise the significant impact that long COVID can have on the health and wellbeing of those most severely affected across Scotland and welcome the COVID-19 Recovery Committee's consideration of this very important issue.

We are carefully considering the report and its recommendations in full, and will provide a response to the Committee in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we are making available £3 million from our £10 million long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to support NHS boards to increase the capacity of existing services supporting those with the condition, develop these into more clearly defined local pathways and provide a more co-ordinated experience for those accessing support.

Discussions between the Scottish Government and COSLA took place in April 2023 regarding the allocation of funding through the Edinburgh Process strand of the Nature Restoration Fund.