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It is unacceptable that there is a fire risk from these and any other white goods. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's website provides clear advice on how to reduce the risks of fire from white goods. Everyone should use the "register my appliance" website to get alerts should faults be identified. Whirlpool consumers can check whether their appliance is affected by visiting the Whirlpool recall website https://washingmachinerecall.whirlpool.co.uk. Advice can also be obtained from https://consumeradvice.scot , which is a consumer helpline funded by the Scottish Government.

Information relating to residential accommodation care and support charges for older people are available in the Care Home Census for Adults in Scotland , Figures for 2007 – 2017, which was published on the 11 September 2018.

Under Section 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, local authorities charge for the care it provides. This information is available at local levels and is not collected by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government updates and issues the Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (“CRAG”) each year. This guidance provides information in relation to charging for care and support in residential care settings.

The guidance is provided to Health and Social Care Partnerships and Local Authorities as well as a number of other organisations.

COSLA produces charging guidance for non-residential social care support , which is reviewed and updated annually. Under Section 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities may charge for the care it provides, such as day centre services, however the charges to these services should not exceed the cost of the service.

The Scottish Government also provides separate guidance to health and social care partnerships relating to Free Personal Care .

The Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (“CRAG”) provides advice to local authorities relating to assessing the ability to pay for residential care home charges.

The National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Amendment Regulations place a duty on local authorities to assess a person’s ability to pay for residential accommodation.

The COSLA Non-residential charging guidance provides equivalent advice on financial assessments for determining non-residential care charges.

The number of planning practitioners employed in planning departments in local authorities is not held centrally. The member may be interested to know that the RTPI has published research which states that the number of staff members in planning authorities has reduced by over 25% since 2009.

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/3314972/Resourcing%20the%20Planning%20System%20-%20RTPI%20Scotland%20Key%20Trends%20and%20Findings%202019.pdf

However, Planning Authorities have from 2012-13 up to 2017-18 provided information on the number of staff employed in planning departments in their Planning Performance Framework (PPF) Reports. It should be noted that the information provided is inconsistent due to different interpretations and structures of Planning Authorities across Scotland. For this reason Planning Authorities stopped providing this information as part of the PPF in 2018-19.

The latest ISD statistics for quarter ending September 2019, show the median wait for ongoing ENT outpatient appointments for patients aged 16 and under is 27 days and for inpatient/daycase treatment is 159 days.

The Commission published an updated Decision Paper on Asset Replacement in summer 2019 which highlighted the need for increased investment in the 2021-27, and subsequent regulatory periods, to renew Scottish Water’s assets in order to maintain current levels of service and meet the climate change challenge. Following this, further work was required with industry stakeholders to establish the impact on prices of these levels of investment and the developing understanding of Ministers’ expectations for the industry and the challenges Scottish Water faces. The Commission has therefore proposed a further update on the prospects for prices in February 2020, following the publication of Ministers’ final draft Principles of Charges and Objectives, and Scottish Water’s Strategic Plan.

I have included the most recent proposed timetable for work for the next regulatory period which I hope you will find helpful.

The amount of grant funding allocated to FareShare in the
‎ 2019-20 financial year is:

The Scottish Government has not purchased any food from Asda on behalf of FareShare.

Due to the uncertainty around the UK’s proposed EU Exit, The Scottish Government has provided FareShare with funding to purchase additional food to supplement the quality and volume of food supplies to organisations to responding to food insecurity across Scotland. This food is being made available to community organisations free of charge.

The purchase of food was undertaken by FareShare, following negotiation with a number of suppliers. The Scottish Government understands that as a result of these negotiations, Asda have offered to purchase food from their suppliers on behalf of FareShare at cost price, enabling FareShare to access higher volumes of food. Asda have forfeited any profit on the products requested by FareShare and have provided an in-kind donation of staff time to coordinate the purchasing and delivery of products.

The Scottish Government is supporting communities to respond to food insecurity in a way that promotes dignity and helps to move away from emergency food aid as a primary response.

Our Fair Food Fund has been increased to £3.5 million in 2019-20 to underpin this work, with £2 million being focused on tackling food insecurity in the school holidays. Around £1 million of our £11.5 million Investing in Communities Fund in 2019-20 will go to organisations responding to food insecurity as a primary aim.

The Scottish Government has also made an additional £1 million available for FareShare to support organisations responding to food insecurity to manage pressures arising from the uncertainty around Brexit.

In 2019-20, the former £1 million Fair Food Transformation Fund became part of the multi year £11.5m Investing in Communities Fund, which brought together several funds to give community organisations a more cohesive, streamlined opportunity to access funding.

As funding decisions for this new fund were made midway through the 2019-20 financial year, former Fair Food Transformation Fund organisations, regardless of making an application to the Investing in Communities Fund, were provided with interim funding in order to continue their projects. 33 formerly funded Transformation Fund organisations received interim grant extensions, these are listed below.

The Investing in Communities Fund is in the process of administering preliminary technical checks, the amount of funding that will be provided specifically to organisations responding to food insecurity will be available once these have been completed.

Due to the UK General Election, the Scottish government agreed with the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee on 14 November that our 2020-21 Budget will not now be published before the Christmas recess. Scottish Ministers are focused on introducing a Scottish Budget for 2020-21 at the earliest practical opportunity. We therefore cannot at this time confirm the amount of direct financial assistance that will be available to organisations responding to food insecurity in 2020-21.