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The Office for National Statistics confirmed Scottish Canals as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) effective from April 2020. Scottish Canals has a responsibility to ensure that it conducts its core business of maintaining and improving Scotland’s canal network and is resourced by the Scottish Government to do so. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital Grant in Aid allocation has increased by 87% and this is enabling the Organisation to plan, progress and successfully complete projects of large scale as an NDPB.

Scottish Canals also retains the ability to operate commercially when appropriate and work is currently being undertaken by the Organisation to analyse the success of its investment activities in recent years. This analysis will be shared with the Scottish Government in due course alongside recommendations to Ministers on how the Organisation takes forward its investment activities as an NDPB.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals are required to seek approval from the Scottish Government for funding proposals above agreed threshholds. This ensures that larger projects are both affordable and in the best interests of wider public funds spend.

Proposals relating to Stockingfield Bridge will be subject to this process and will require Scottish Government approval before any undertaking can be made. I have yet to receive such a proposal from Scottish Canals but will of course give any such proposal full consideration.

Following the first Oversight Group meeting in June, David Strang, former chair of the Drug Death Taskforce, has accepted my offer to become Chair of the group, ensuring its independence from government. I will of course continue to attend as a member of the group. This will begin from the next meeting scheduled for 22 September 2022.

To ensure independence from government, a steering board of members has been nominated to co-ordinate the agenda for Oversight Group meetings.

It is for Glasgow City Council as the statutory housing and planning authority to set out local housing requirements. The Glasgow Local Housing Strategy 2017 sets a Housing Supply Target of 15,000 new homes over five years, including 7,500 new affordable homes. Scottish Government published new housebuilding statistics, based on private-led completions data provided by Glasgow City Council along with social sector housing association new build completions data from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, and these show a total of 4,923 all-sector completions over the four year period 2017-18 to 2020-21, with more than half of these being social sector housing association homes.

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown significantly impacted the construction sector across Scotland with associated delays to delivery of homes.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals has to comply with the requirements of the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting Guidance Framework which does not allow for underspends to be carried over financial years.

Scottish Canals is allocated a Grant in Aid budget for the year based on expenditure forecasted by the Organisation and balanced by the income it expects to generate. Any operating surplus that the Organisation generates should be used to reduce the Grant in Aid requirement.

Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in Grant in Aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding. In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish Canals benefitted from additional funding of £1.7m to meet a reduction in its revenues.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.

The National Mission Oversight Group met for the first time on 30 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2022. The Group will meet every three months and dates of meetings will be agreed in advance for the following year. The National Mission Steering Group will advise accordingly.

In the lead-up to Scottish Canals’ formal recognition as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) in April 2020 and continuing since then, the Scottish Government has sought to provide as much assistance as possible to assist the Organisation in familiarising itself with the financial reporting processes and accountancy practices that all NDPBs have to follow. In addition to providing advice on a number of related areas, Transport Scotland officials facilitated meetings with the Office for National Statistics, Audit Scotland and Scottish Government finance colleagues to assist in this process.

Support was mainly provided around how NDPB status would impact on Scottish Canals preparing its annual accounts, the authority delegated to its Accountable Officer, the change in the Organisation’s ability to carry across reserves from one year to the next and its investment strategy. Officials also highlighted the need for Scottish Canals to familiarise itself with the requirements of the Scottish Public Finance Manual, the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) and the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting guidance.

The National Mission Oversight Group is supported by many areas of expertise including; academics, lived and living experience representatives, international expertise, clinicians and third sector organisations

Three members of the group are specifically appointed as lived and living experience representatives, but we should not presume that other members of the Oversight Group do not have their own lived and living experience alongside their professional expertise and experience they are bringing to the group.

The Group will link in to lived and living experience networks such as the National Collaborative to ensure that the perspective and experiences of living and lived experience are embedded in the work of the Group.

We continue to see Common Housing Registers as a key way of simplifying and maximising access to social housing. It is up to individual local authorities and housing associations to determine the most effective application process and allocation policy for allocating their housing stock. Guidance on Common Housing Registers can be found on the Scottish Government’s website: Common Housing Register (CHR) - building a register: a practitioner's guide - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We have no plans to provide support to Glasgow City Council to expand their Common Housing Register which is a matter for them.