Seòmar agus comataidhean

Since the Scottish Government's £50m Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund was launched on 22 September 2022, there has been two successful applications:

Aberdeen City Council has been awarded up to £6.150m for up to 500 void properties on 28 October 2022.

North Ayrshire Council has been awarded up to £0.486m for up to 30 void properties on 6 October 2022

This follows on from a pilot project, where we awarded £5m to North Lanarkshire Council for the refurbishment of up to 200 homes on 6 July 2022.

My officials are continuing to work closely with Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords as they come forward with other proposed projects.

The outer boundary maps of the successful Green Freeport bidders will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government is in the final stages of preparing a Carers Strategy which will set out our long-term approach to unpaid carers’ social and financial inclusion. This will apply to different caring situations, including unpaid older carers of adults with a learning disability. The strategy will include a focus on support made available through social security policies, the Scottish Welfare Fund and action taken by the Scottish Government on fuel poverty, employment and education. This will help support carers who are likely to be disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis.

We are using all the powers and resources available to us to support families with cost of living and have already invested almost £3 billion in a range of measures for households. That includes supporting energy bills, childcare, health and travel, as well as social security payments that are either not available anywhere else in the UK or are more generous, such as the Scottish Child Payment and Bridging Payment.

In addition, we uprated 8 Scottish benefits by 6% in April. Eligible carers in Scotland receive the Carer’s Allowance Supplement, funded from the Scottish Government budget and paying up to £491.40 this year on top of Carer’s Allowance. We will double our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million in 2022-23, to help households at risk of self-disconnection or self-rationing energy use and to ensure support continues to protect people affected by rising energy costs.

We know that the current situation is causing anxiety for many households – and that many people may be missing out on support that is available to them. To help people understand the significant range of support that they may be able to access, we have also launched a Scottish Government “cost of living” website: https://www.gov.scot/cost-of-living-support/ . The website will help people find out what support may be available depending on their own personal circumstances, for example, unpaid carers of adults with a learning disability.

The Family Liaison Charter for bereaved families sets out our commitments on access to information and liaison with the Procurator Fiscal and applies to any death reported to COPFS since 1 September 2016.

Bereaved families are provided with the assistance of a Victim Information and Advice (VIA) officer who will offer a personal meeting initially followed by contact every 6 weeks to update or will otherwise communicate according to the needs and wishes of the family. This continues for the duration of the investigation. If at any stage there is a significant development, contact will be made immediately with the family to advise them unless this would be likely to prejudice any potential prosecution.

Bereaved families are entitled to expect COPFS staff who are involved in the process of investigation, preparation and prosecution of criminal proceedings to respond appropriately to their needs, to answer questions which they may have and to keep them informed of progress. Throughout the court process COPFS staff will do their best to ensure family members understand what is happening in court and in every homicide case we aim to invite families to meet with the allocated Advocate Depute and VIA officer prior to the case calling in court for a Preliminary Hearing. At that meeting we strive to share as much information as possible with the families whilst preserving the sanctity of the prosecution especially where family members are or may be witnesses. Our staff at court do their utmost to ensure families are contacted immediately with updates of relevant information before this becomes publicly available in the media.

In December 2021 at the Criminal Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament I announced that COPFS would carry out a review of its VIA service to ensure COPFS can continue to deliver the high levels of support and advice to all victims and witnesses and their families and can advise that the VIA Modernisation programme which is led by a Deputy Crown Agent is ongoing and is seeking to identify and deliver improvements to our service.

Falkirk Council took the difficult decision to close Falkirk Town Hall theatre following recommendations that funding the modernisation of the building did not represent best value in the current challenging financial environment.

While disappointing for many people, this decision is entirely a matter for the Falkirk Council as they have responsibility for managing local resources.

The Scottish Government is increasing funding for Falkirk Council by an additional £28.9 million in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22.

The Scottish Government has also agreed to contribute £40 million to the Falkirk Growth Deal to support local projects. This figure includes £3 million towards the planned new Falkirk Arts Centre, which intends to feature a 550-seat auditorium, workshop, studios and other facilities. A further £3 million has also been committed towards developing an Outdoor Art Park along the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal. Timescales for both projects are being developed by the local partners.

Blood stocks in Scotland are assessed as adequate to meet current clinical demand, but will continue to be monitored. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service has no plans at present to resume providing blood donation sessions in the Western Isles, due to the cost and logistical difficulties associated with doing so. However, that does not in any way affect the availability of blood components to patients in the Western Isles.

Section 34 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 is now in force, providing wider powers for local transport authorities to run their own buses. Additionally, secondary legislation to commence Section 35 (Bus Service Improvement Partnerships) is scheduled to be introduced before the end of 2023, alongside franchising powers. These powers will complement and continue to build on the service improvements supported through the Bus Partnership Fund.

As with many aspects of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, the provisions in Part 3 empower local transport authorities with the flexible tools they need to respond to their own transport challenges. We will continue to work with local authorities as they explore the full range of options set out in the 2019 Act, including local authority-run bus services and Bus Service Improvement Partnerships.

A further £6.6 million of Project Gigabit funding is being invested in the R100 South contract to reach an additional 1,149 properties. This includes 433 properties in the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area. The online checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com has been updated to reflect the remodelled build plan.

Analysis for the survey is ongoing and we intend to publish a report alongside the publishing of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures that were necessary to take have been particularly challenging for those with sensory loss. The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults has provided £36 million since 2021 to grassroots community groups to tackle the impact of social isolation, loneliness and mental health inequalities, including nine projects for people with sight loss. We have also worked with local authorities and transport providers to ensure that people with sight loss have still been able to access travel since the pandemic. In addition, Active Scotland is working to support everyone to be more active, with specific activity for people with sight loss funded through Paths for All.

Through our ‘See Hear’ strategy, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and adults who have deafness, sight loss and dual sensory loss to access the services and social care they need. See Hear is currently under review, and a refreshed strategy will be published in 2024.