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The Scottish Government Budget for 2022-23 sets out that during this financial year, the Scottish Government intends to lend £170m per annum in capital funding and to receive some £105m income per annum which is the interest on loans issued to Scottish Water. Across the 2021-27 period Ministers have committed to lend Scottish Water up to £1.03bn. Lending in future years will be agreed in future Budget Acts.

The quoted figure of -£97m is the resource budget for the Water Industry portfolio. This reflects some £105m income of interest payments by Scottish Water less amounts of spend on Hydro Nation and Private Water activities. The breakdown of spend is included within table 9.16 of the Budget.

Scottish Water is financed through revenue raised from customer charges and loans issued by the Scottish Government. The spending review has simply confirmed the intention to lend £170m per annum to Scottish Water and hence it has no impact on customers’ bills.

This information is provided in Scottish Water’s Annual Report and Accounts which is published on Scottish Water’s website and laid before Parliament each year. The information is copied in the following table.

None. Business Stream was provided with access to precautionary funding facilities during 2020-2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. To date there has been no requirement to drawdown against this facility.

The Final Determination explained that the Commission would expect that its charge caps would allow Scottish Water’s annual revenue in the final year of the current regulatory control period to be no less than £1,392m. This level of revenue was based on assuming an average charge cap of 1.5% a year above inflation over the regulatory control period 2021-27. Based on the level of charges to date, and using the same assumptions made in the Final Determination, charges would need to rise by 1.8% above the rate of consumer price index inflation in order to achieve this same level of revenue.

We are currently working in partnership with Simon Community Scotland to pilot and evaluate an innovative Managed Alcohol Programme for people who experience homelessness.

Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is for both alcohol and drug treatment services. In 2021-22 ADPs and Health Boards received over £106m for alcohol and drug services.

This funding is used to ensure that services meet the needs of people who experience alcohol as well as drugs harms, including preventative approaches.

Figures are available for the past 6 years. Between 2017 and 2022 there were 13 incidents within core Scottish Government where information was determined to have been inappropriately released to the media. During that same time period 2 people were identified as having breached protocols.

As set out in response to S6W-08423 on 19 May 2022 , we remain firmly focused on supporting the six priority family types identified within our first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and will continue to engage with our partners, including gender representative stakeholders and women with experience of poverty, to ensure an intersectional and gendered approach is embedded in the development, implementation and monitoring of the actions set out in the plan.

‘ Best Start, Bright Futures ’ , our second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for the period 2022-26, recognises that to tackle poverty effectively we must deliver holistic, person-centred services and support that meets the needs of families - whilst also driving forward the transformation in our wider economy, necessary to tackle inequalities in our labour market.

The Plan is underpinned by robust data and evaluation, this includes our recently updated Child Poverty Measurement Framework as well as policy level evaluations and overall Child Poverty Evaluation Strategy . We also produce focus reports on the various child poverty family groups that explore progress achieved over time. This includes experiences of lone parents (who tend to be women) and mothers aged under 25.

Whilst quantitative data will enable us to track progress towards our outcomes, families will often fall into more than one priority group and in reality many face a combination of barriers and discrimination. We will ensure we use lived experience and a deeper understanding of the impact of intersection of characteristics in the design, implementation and monitoring of our actions and policies to ensure delivery approaches which are increasingly tailored and, ultimately, more effective.

To support our focus on implementation we have strengthened our approach to governance, including establishing a new Child Poverty Programme Board bringing together leaders, decision-makers, delivery partners and those who champion change across Scotland. The Programme Board will complement the statutory functions of the Poverty and Inequality Commission to ensure we hold ourselves to account on our performance against the plan, challenge our ambition, maintain a focus on our priority families and implement learning from the new approaches we are taking and testing.

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

This information is provided in Scottish Water’s Annual Report and Accounts which is published on Scottish Water’s website and laid before Parliament each year. The accounting provision Scottish Water has made for household bad debt in each of previous 10 financial years is set out in the following table.

The Energy Strategy & Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) will be developed not only to ensure the delivery of a viable net-zero energy system but also to provide an action plan that enables the transition to that system in a fair and just way for all of Scotland and maximises the economic opportunity that Scotland’s resource provides.

To ensure the impacts of the ESJTP reflect the challenges and opportunities facing the supply chain, a co-design process is being carried out to ensure the supply chain are able to engage, contribute and help shape the ESJTP.

As outlined in my response to the answer to question S6W-08721 on 9 June 2022, the ScotWind lease option awards process has yet to be completed and the final figure raised through option agreements is still to be confirmed. The Scottish Government plans to draw down £660 million of lease option funding in the first two years of the Resource Spending Review period. 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 .