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Section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 provides that any interested party can make a complaint to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body has failed to discharge a statutory duty relating to education.

Following investigation of the complaint, Scottish Ministers may make an order declaring the responsible body to be in default of the duty and requiring them to discharge the duty by a specified date.

Information about the number and outcome of section 70 complaints since 2011 can be found at: Section 70 Complaints and Outcomes: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Decisions on non-domestic rates reliefs are taken as part of the budget process, using Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts of the total revenues raised net of relief costs. At the 2022-23 Scottish Budget in December 2021, the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecast that the reliefs package would save businesses £802 million. A breakdown of this figure is available in Figure S4.10, at https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2021/ .

It is for local authorities to administer non-domestic rates reliefs in accordance with the relevant legislation. Data on non-domestic rates income, including the values of reliefs, is released periodically at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-income-statistics/ .
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Adult Disability Payment launched as a three phased pilot starting with new claims being accepted in a small number of local authorities from 21 March. Phases two and three of the pilot have been rolled out with new claims being accepted from additional local authority areas from 20 June and then 25 July ahead of the full national launch on 29 August.

(a) Social Security Scotland has proactively promoted Adult Disability Payment through national and local media activity, stakeholder communications, social media along with more direct targeted activity. Although media and social media activity has been carried out on a national basis, the more direct marketing has been targeted to areas where Adult Disability Payment is available. Targeted activity in pilot areas has included campaigns across radio, social media, digital and local press print adverts. We are taking learning from campaigns running in the pilot areas and will build on this insight when promoting the payment on a national level.

Awareness raising has also included the delivery of an extensive series of stakeholder engagement events to inform third sector and public sector stakeholders of the roll out of Adult Disability Payment. To support stakeholders a range of marketing materials including leaflets, posters and factsheets are available. Versions of these materials are available in different formats such as easy read, British Sign Language (BSL) and language translations.

(b) Plans are in place for media activity at national launch and continue targeted marketing activity throughout this financial year to drive take up and awareness. This activity will target people through TV, radio, print adverts, out of home advertising, online adverts and social media. Social Security Scotland will also continue to work closely with public sector services and third sector organisations to promote this payment.

People in Scotland with existing UK Government disability assistance awards (Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA)) will not be asked to go through an application process again. They will be transferred automatically to Social Security Scotland and will receive written notification in advance of that happening so they know what to expect.

Scottish Government support for PAS enables community groups across the country access to planning advice on a wide range of matters which may be of concern to them, including wind farm developments.

The experience of Reporters who hold inquiries in relation to planning cases is that they regularly find the evidence given by community groups and other unrepresented groups to be well presented and relevant to the case and is almost always relevant to the Reporter’s considerations. The insight provided by such groups or individuals is often of great assistance to Reporters in gauging the likely acceptability or otherwise of local impacts.

Since 1 October 2021 the Scottish Government has funded Elect Her through the Equality and Human Rights (EHR) fund to increase the level of women’s political representation. Their annual EHR funding is approximately £106k of which £250 is used for website hosting. Other elements of their funded work include the creation of an online learning platform and running online workshops.

All organisations funded through the EHR Fund provide progress updates to the fund manager, Inspiring Scotland, every six months. We know that Elect Her supported 58 women in the 2022 Scottish local elections and 27 of them were elected.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is a thriving music industry in Scotland and so provided £750,000 across 2021-22 and 2022-23 to enable Scotland on Tour to take place.

Scotland on Tour has facilitated new concerts in venues across Scotland at a time when the postponement of concerts, due to the pandemic, had left little room for new concerts to take place in 2022.

While there are no plans to reopen the fund, we will work with the culture sector to ensure our diverse and world class cultural scene continues to thrive.

Since 2020-21, the Scottish Government has provided funding for all Saltire Scholarship programme students; this consisted of 100% non-EU students in 2020-21 and for 2021-22 the breakdown was 88% EU students and 12% non-EU students.

Since 2020-21, the Scottish Government has allocated funding levels of £2,650,000 for all Saltire Scholarship programme students; this consisted of £200,000 in 2020-21 and £2,450,000 in 2021-22.

The values of non-domestic rates reliefs, broken down by local authority and relief, are available in Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics, at https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/#scottishlocalgovernmentfinancialstatistics . The figures can be found in the respective annual publications, in Table 1.16a for 2017-18, and table 2.17a for 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21. Transitional relief was introduced in the Non-Domestic Rates (Transitional Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 and was therefore not available in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The Autism and Learning Disability Team engages regularly with HSCP leads across Scotland on their strategic approaches and why it is so important for them to increase capacity for autism diagnostic services and to redesign services which are sustainable. We do this on an individual basis and also through the networks of Social Work Scotland.

HSCPs are aware of the actions identified in the current “Towards Transformation” plan for autism and learning disabilities. This includes action on post diagnostic support for adults and the piloting in 4 HSCP areas of a single adult neurodevelopmental pathway. We continue working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) who help build capacity and expertise, acting as a bridge between national strategy and its implementation at local level by providing a hub of professional autism support and information. The Scottish Government provide funding to a number of charities to provide post diagnostic support locally, linking with HSCP service leads.

HSCP leads are linked into our leadership and engagement framework in partnership with people with lived experience focusing on the topic of mental health. In addition, we will be working with HSCPs as we scope out the work towards a Bill to introduce a commissioner for Autism, learning disabilities and people with neurodivergence.