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The national acquisition programme will be funded from existing Resource Planning Assumptions (RPAs) and it will be for local authorities to consider and assess how much of their 2023-24 RPAs they target towards property acquisitions.

The national acquisition programme will be part of the overall Affordable Housing Supply Programme and will be managed and co-ordinated on the same basis through continued close working with delivery partners and reporting and monitoring of progress.

The eligibility criteria of the Tenant Grant Fund was extended in September 2022 to enable local authorities to use the fund to prevent homelessness for households who had built up more recent arrears, including as a result of the cost of living crisis. National monitoring of this fund was completed in June of this year.

Any local authorities with remaining funds are no longer limited to the criteria of the fund, and can use any remaining monies in ways that best meet the needs of tenants in their area.

We are in discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, COSLA and Shelter Scotland to agree how to increase the number of allocations to homeless households in the next two to three years to support our commitment to reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation. We welcome this positive engagement and we will report on the outcomes in due course.

As set out in our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, there are a number of reasons a property can become void. We will therefore work with each local authority, starting with the areas facing the greatest temporary accommodation pressures, on the solutions to accelerate void processing that are right for them.

We are in discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, COSLA and Shelter to agree what changes could be made in the next two to three years that would reduce the turnaround time for vacant social homes. We will confirm specific actions in due course, once agreed.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives the lead management role for access to local and National Park Authorities (“access authorities”). Access authorities have a statutory duty to uphold access rights and have various powers with which to do this, such as serving written notices requiring remedial action where a land owner puts in place an obstruction to access. The Scottish Government attends as an observer of the National Access Forum which is a national body that provides advice and develops guidance on access rights and access management as well as facilitating national liaison about access rights.

All access authorities have now adopted core paths plans. The access authority may take appropriate action to maintain a core path and keep it free from obstruction. Access authorities may review and amend their core paths plan.

The 2023-24 Local Government Finance Settlement of nearly £13.5 billion provides a cash increase of over £793 million, which represents a real terms increase of £376 million or 3 per cent. The Scottish Government’s policy is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The National Park Authorities’ budget allocation of £20.9 million in 2023-24 will enable them to continue to deliver the statutory aims of both National Parks and undertake their statutory functions and duties, including as access authorities. The allocation represents a 13% increase on the budget for 2022-23.

A series of meetings, both at a political and official level, are underway to engage with local authorities on the Scottish Government’s response to the recommendations of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group. We are aware that there are some areas of the country where this work is less urgent, such as local authorities where registered social landlords (RSLs) have a low supply of stock or the type of stock is not in demand.

We are working with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations and other partners to identify ways to target action on the local authorities with the greatest temporary accommodation pressures, including some stock transfer authorities. We will report on outcomes from these discussions in due course.

The answer to S6W-20289 on 16 August 2023 makes clear that we are currently unable to say how many households will be directly lifted out of temporary accommodation.

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

The national acquisition programme is expected to be informed by local authority Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans. In preparing their Local Housing Strategies, local authorities should ensure that equality is central to housing and housing service delivery and be underpinned by an Equalities Impact Assessment which should inform the priorities and objectives set out in the Local Housing Strategy, including local housing investment priorities. In preparing their Strategic Housing Investment Plans, local authorities should draw on the finding from their Equalities Impact Assessment when considering the implications flowing from the translation of strategic aims into housing priorities.

Information about the levels of introgression in rivers flowing into Loch Shin is contained in the first assessment of genetic introgression in wild salmon in 2021: A national assessment of the influence of farmed salmon escapes on the genetic integrity of wild Scottish Atlantic salmon populations | Marine Scotland Data Publications – see pages 26/27.

Rivers from the Kyle of Sutherland area were included in the National Introgression Programme for Scotland (NIPS) survey as additional targeted sites within the Shin system. No introgression was detected in rivers in the Kyle out with the Loch Shin system, but introgression was detected in 3 of the 7 sites in the Loch Shin system itself. These three sites were those closest to freshwater smolt rearing facilities. Sampling around Loch Shin was repeated in 2021 and further sampling is being undertaken in 2023 with survey sites within the Loch Shin system now included as an integral part of the NIPS survey.

The source of escaped fish in the Shin system was examined by Marine Scotland in 2018 with the results published in a peer-reviewed scientific paper: Identification of the farm of origin of Atlantic salmon smolt escapees in a freshwater Scottish loch using single-nucleotide polymorphic markers | ICES Journal of Marine Science | Oxford Academic (oup.com) .

At this time the loch contained two fish farms which each used salmon from different strain/hatchery origins. Genetic analysis was able to identify escaped fish from both farms within the system. The non-random nature of fish collection and trapping locations prevented determination of either absolute proportions of escapees in the entire Shin system or escape proportions from each site. However, it was clear that fish from both farms had escaped.