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Under the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries are already exempt from rating where they are used for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power, where the power is mainly or exclusively ‘for distribution for sale to consumers’.

The Scottish Government delivers the most generous non-domestic rates relief for renewable generators that offer community benefit, as well as to all small scale hydro generators. Responding to the climate crisis, we are also expanding eligibility for the Business Growth Accelerator to include the installation of solar panels as a qualifying property improvement. The Business Growth Accelerator provides relief for 12 months on the rateable value increase associated with a qualifying improvement that has been made to a property.

We await the outcome of the UK Government’s Business Rates Review: Technical Consultation with interest.

The Green Jobs Workforce Academy is administered by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and is designed to help workers identify and access skills support and training they need to secure green job opportunities as they emerge.

While the Academy does not directly employ teachers or lecturers, individuals can access training courses across a number of sectors including construction, energy, and land use and agriculture, via the greenjobs.scot website, and can arrange to speak with SDS career advisors.

The Scottish Government is currently, as part of its programme of planning reform, undertaking a review of permitted development rights (PDR) including those associated with energy generation.

As part of the phased programme for review of PDR we will review the current provisions relating to various types of energy generation, including solar panels and other approaches such as ground and air source heat pumps, to consider whether these remain fit for purpose and whether amending them could help to achieve Scottish Government’s ambitions for renewable energy and achieving net-zero emissions by 2045.

Increasing the number of people living in town centres was one of the themes in the Scottish Government's Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) and is also one of the recommendations made by the independent review of TCAP 'A New future for Scotland's Town Centres', which was published in February 2021. We are working with COSLA and partners to respond to the review with a revised action plan which will be published later in the spring.

The Draft national Planning Framework 4 contains a new policy, dedicated to town centre living, calling on planning authorities to proactively encourage and support opportunities for town centre living.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy puts ambitions for place at its core, investing in town centres and making it easier for homes to be at the heart of thriving communities by: investing in a rolling programme of demonstrator locations, providing expertise, resources and matched funding to help illustrate what future Town Centre Living and 20 minute neighbourhood models can look like. We will also continue to support partners through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme to deliver affordable housing in town centres where this has been identified as a strategic priority.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out our vision to make Scotland a world-class entrepreneurial nation that encourages, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurial activity in every sector of our economy. The strategy’s programme for action details how we will make Scotland one of the best countries to start and grow a business.

We will shortly publish a refreshed Town centre Action plan and City Centre Recovery Taskforce report to support action to revitalise town and city centres respectively, and we have provided £80 million Covid Economic Recovery funding to local authorities to consider the needs of local businesses, communities and households and to target support to maximise economic recovery in their areas.

In August we announced the Scotland Loves Local Programme. The aim is to encourage people to support their local businesses and communities, to build wealth in local communities, revitalising town, city and neighbourhood centres and increasing footfall.

We have provided over £1.85 million additional support for Business Improvement Districts since the start of the pandemic, with a further £500,000 for 2021-22.

Psychological Therapies (PT) delivered in any service setting is already included within the 18-week PT waiting time standard and delivery of PT in forensic services should be counted in the PT standard. This is not consistently happening at the moment and to help ensure that services deliver and measure Psychological Therapies across in a more standardised way across Scotland a new national standard for Psychological Services and Therapies is currently under development with a publication date of Summer 2022.

Additionally, in order to ensure consistency in the quality of service delivery across Scotland, Scottish Government has worked with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to produce the Psychological Therapies 'Matrix' - a stepped guide to planning and delivering evidence-based psychological therapies within NHS Boards in Scotland. Matrix - A guide to delivering evidence-based psychological (scot.nhs.uk)

The Matrix is published by NES, in partnership with the Scottish Government and provides a summary of the information on the current evidence base for various therapeutic approaches, guidance on well-functioning psychological therapies services, and advice on important governance issues.

The Independent Review into the delivery of Forensic Mental Health Services in Scotland, published at the end of February 2021, made 67 recommendations for improvements to the delivery of forensic mental health services, including several on community forensic mental health.

The Scottish Government supports the recommendations of the review, agrees that community provision is a crucial component of the forensic mental health system and that forensic community mental health teams are key to supporting mental wellbeing in the community. Recommendations 18 and 19 of the Review recommend that work be undertaken to define the service remit of community forensic mental health teams and to ensure they are appropriately resourced to meet demand. The Forensic Mental Health Services Managed Care Network is gathering information on current provision to establish a baseline to take this work forward.

On 14 October 2021 the Scottish Government published the Fair Start Scotland: Evaluation Report 4 - Year 3 Overview , which provides an overview of evaluation research relating to the third year of service delivery from 1 April 2020 up to 31 March 2021.

The report includes findings from a telephone survey of over 1000 participants; local area case studies, interviews with participants across the country, an economic evaluation and analysis of management information on participants’ outcomes.

Results from the telephone survey show that nine in ten people (90%) were aware the service was voluntary. It also shows that:

? 95% of people feel they were treated with dignity and respect

? 82% of people felt the service took account of their individual needs and circumstances

? 84% of people felt the service offered support to improve their general quality of life and well-being

The full telephone survey was published alongside the Year 3 Evaluation Report and can be found here .

In addition to findings from the survey, interviews with participants were also conducted as part of the evaluation. Findings from these interviews suggest that Fair Start Scotland participants with experience of the DWP Work Programme disliked the compulsory nature of the latter and the risk of sanctions for non-completion or non-participation. Participants also felt that Fair Start Scotland key workers are more supportive and respectful than Work Programme advisers.

Most recent statistics published on 23 February 2022 show that since its launch in April 2018, FSS has supported more than 14,000 people into work.

The statistics show that for participants where data is complete, 37% were supported into work. They also show that the majority of people who get jobs have high levels of sustaining employment:

? 71% of those starting jobs sustained employment for at least 3 months.

? 79% of those who sustained employment for 3 months reached 6 months.

? 77% of those who sustained employment for 6 months reached 12 months.

The Fair Start Scotland: Economic Evaluation , also published on 14 October 2021, found evidence that the jobs achieved by Fair Start Scotland participants are more stable in comparison with other programmes.

Findings from the overall evaluation suggest that the service has a positive impact on the wellbeing of participants, both in terms of the quality of jobs achieved and improved labour market outcomes, as well with regards to their experience of the service as a whole.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the responsibility to ensure those going through the criminal justice system with mental health issues are appropriately supported, treated and cared for, while ensuring their rights are being maintained, especially during these challenging times that may have a significant impact on people’s mental wellbeing.

A new national standard for Psychological Services and Therapies, which will describe what good quality psychological care looks like, is currently under development with a publication date of Summer 2022. This will include describing the provision of care in forensic and prison services. This will help ensure that Psychological Therapy services and therapies are delivered and measured in equitable ways across the prison estate in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has invested £9 million in 2021-22 for Psychological services in Scotland to grow the Applied Psychology, and Psychological Therapies workforce. Further funding will be provided for 2022-23 to support services to provide Psychological care to all clinical areas of care detailed in the Psychological Services and Therapies standard.

Since the Drug Deaths Taskforce was established in July 2019, there have been 20 meetings of the core Taskforce, with the next meeting taking place on 13 April. There have also been a significant number of working groups, sub-group and deep dive sessions.

The remit of the Taskforce is to provide evidence based advice, and a link to the remit and the terms of reference can be located here - Taskforce Mission and Terms of Reference | Drug Deaths Taskforce

The key outcomes of the Taskforce meetings are the recommendations which they make to Government and other partners. The recommendations the Taskforce has made to date can be found here - DDTF - Recommendations | Drug Deaths Taskforce . The Taskforce will be producing their final recommendations by July 2022.

An update on the progress towards each recommendation was recently provided to the joint committee of the Criminal Justice, Health Social Care and Sport and Social Justice and Social Security Committees on 2 February 2022, this evidence can be found here - CJS6225 | Scottish Parliament Website . Further updates will be made to Parliament in due course.