Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09651 on 19 July 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Figures for the area of woodland and the areas of new planting / restocking in Scotland on land owned by the Scottish Government and/or its agencies are published annually as National Statistics by Forest Research and are available from the Forest Research web site at https://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8w3lv3 .

People living in Scotland in receipt of Personal Independence Payment do not need to make an application for Adult Disability Payment. Social Security Scotland will transfer their awards for them, and in such circumstances before the person would otherwise be asked to undergo a DWP style assessment. We will write to people to tell them when the process has started to safely and securely transfer their award to Social Security Scotland. The transfer will happen automatically, ensuring there are no gaps in entitlement and ensuring that people continue to receive the right amount and their payments on time.

Should a person in Scotland in receipt of Personal Independence Payment make a new claim for Adult Disability Payment, on receipt of Part 1 of the application Social Security Scotland will make a determination that they are not entitled to Adult Disability Payment. This is to ensure that there are no duplication of awards and no gaps in payment. Their Personal Independence Payment award will continue to be paid by the DWP until it is selected for transfer to Social Security Scotland.

We are putting in place robust plans to deliver our replacement for Winter Fuel Payment from winter 2024 and we will consult on the proposals for this replacement in due course. Our priority in taking on full responsibility for all the devolved benefits is a safe and secure transition so that people continue to receive support at the right time and right amount.

From this coming winter (2022-23) the Scottish Government’s new Winter Heating Payment will guarantee an annual £50 payment to around 400,000 low-income households each winter. This is not dependent on age but will be targeted, reliable financial support to those most in need, including those in receipt of Pension Credit.

The commitment to the 2021-22 Programme for Government ambition to double the amount of land used for organic farming by 2026 is still firmly in place, alongside our commitment to establish a new Organic Food and Farming Action Plan by the end of this parliamentary session. We will extend the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme up to the end of the period of stability in 2024, which will continue to underpin the ambition for organic farming.

The Scottish Government is aware that the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) now recommend that the four UK countries should move toward the implementation of a targeted screening programme for lung cancer in adults aged 55-74 with a history of smoking.

The Scottish Government welcomes this recommendation, though notes that the UK NSC also acknowledges the significant complexities that must be worked through ahead of implementation. Scotland will play an active part in that work. The Scottish Government will also follow the advice of the National Screening Oversight (NSO) and Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) who will consider how the recommendation can best be taken forward in Scotland.

In the meantime, we have agreed to fund a one year extension of the University of Edinburgh’s feasibility study, LungScot, into targeted lung health checks for high risk individuals. This will help to inform future approaches.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10989 on 3 October 2022. 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 .

Tree planting in Scotland is supported through the Forestry Grant Scheme, managed by Scottish Forestry.

To be eligible for support, proposals for tree planting must be developed in line with the Woodland Creation Application Guidance published in 2018. Stakeholder and community engagement is an essential part of this development and assessment process. This helps to ensure that planting proposals take community concerns into consideration and select the right trees to be planted in the right places.

Our commitment to enhance the Forestry Grant Scheme in the latest Programme for Government includes measures to improve public engagement over woodland creation.

All tree planting proposals need to follow published guidance, which seeks to avoid large scale planting on better agricultural land and requires assessments to be carried out for projects with planting on better land.

Where projects involve significant planting on agricultural land, the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division are consulted to help determine whether proposals are acceptable or whether they need to be amended.

Local Authority spatial strategies have been prepared to identify where woodland creation may be appropriate and these strategies follow the Woodland Expansion Advisory Group’s recommendations to direct woodland creation away from better agricultural land. These strategies are considered when making decisions around the suitability of tree planting proposals.

Farming and forestry can co-exist, forestry is not extensively replacing agricultural land across Scotland. Analysis of the Forestry Grant Scheme shows that in the twelve months to the end of August 2022, Scottish Forestry received 331 new applications to plant 9,931 hectares of new woodland, which is equivalent to less than 0.2% of farmland.

As the tax authority with responsibility for the collection and management of Scotland’s devolved taxes, Revenue Scotland publishes monthly and annual data on its website regarding the number of property conveyances and non-residential leases subject to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) and the associated tax liabilities. These are available at https://revenue.scot/news-publications/publications/statistics .

Local authority level data is published on an annual basis, as part of Revenue Scotland’s Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes. The report for‎ 2020-21, which provides data for the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2021, is available at: Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2020-2021 | Revenue Scotland . The report for 2021-2022 is due to be published in November or December 2022.

In particular, the ‘Data for Figure 19’ tab in the figures and tables file of this publication includes estimates of gross ADS declared due for qualifying conveyances by local authority and year. This tab also includes information on the proportion of ADS revenue which taxpayers did or did not intend to reclaim in each local authority area.

Adult Disability Payment opened for new applications across Scotland on 29 August 2022, following successful pilots that began in March.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting spending on Adult Disability Payment and publishes estimates on the number of people expected to receive Adult Disability Payment in each financial year. In their May 2022 forecast, the Scottish Fiscal Commission estimated that there would be 34,000 recipients of Adult Disability Payment in 2022-23 in Scotland. This would include successful new claims and cases transferred from Personal Independence Payment and Working Age Disability Living Allowance. They attached a high degree of uncertainty to their estimates and they have indicated they will revise the assumptions as more data becomes available.

The Commission does not forecast the number of new claims per month for Adult Disability Payment. However, internal Scottish Government analysis estimates that approximately 44,000 new claims for Adult Disability Payment will be received by the end of February 2023.