Seòmar agus comataidhean

The following table shows all superfast broadband connections delivered to properties in the North Lot via the R100 Programme each month from 1 January to 31 July 2022. As requested these are broken down by local authority area.

Local authorities can claim a general tariff of £10,500 per Ukrainian Displaced Person (UDP) arriving on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Local authorities will also receive additional education funding for Ukrainian Children and Young People under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. The education tariff depends on the age of the child, to align with providing ELC, primary or secondary education. The agreed annual rates for this funding are as follows:

• early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000

• primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580

• secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755

These tariffs include support for children with Additional Support Needs. Both the general and education funding streams should be used to help ensure Ukrainian families are supported as they settle into a new area, and can help meet specific needs that arise in relation to accessing education, including having English as an Additional Language.

This education tariff funding is to be provided by the UK Government. The details of how this funding will be transferred to local authorities is still being resolved with UK Government and we are working intensively with them to release this funding as soon as possible.

Hospital at Home services have been developing in Scotland for a number of years, with the first service established in Lanarkshire in 2011, followed by Fife in 2012 and the Lothian Partnerships between 2013 and 2016, and Dundee in 2018.

To further support development the Scottish Government commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop the Hospital at Home Guiding Principles, which were subsequently published in January 2020 ( https://ihub.scot/project-toolkits/hospital-at-home/hospital-at-home/ ). In April 2020 HIS began providing improvement support to partnerships developing a Hospital at Home service, supported by Scottish Government funding. To date, this support has increased the number of partnerships in Scotland providing a Hospital at Home service to 20.

The following table provides details of the number of patients supported by a Hospital at Home service, by Financial Year and Health Board between 2014-15 and 2021-22.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published its latest set of benefit forecasts in May 2022 where they estimated, based on outturn information, that in 2020-21 there were around 103,000 people in receipt of Adult Disability Living Allowance in Scotland, forecasting that in 2021-22 there could be around 95,000 people.

We need bold action to tackle the climate emergency and Scotland has some of the most extensive renewable generation capabilities in Europe with which to accelerate our just transition to net zero.

We do not believe that Scotland can achieve our 2030 decarbonisation targets without a substantial increase in onshore and offshore wind deployment.

In October 2020, Scottish Government published our Offshore Wind Policy Statement, setting out our ambitions for offshore wind in Scotland in the context of our commitment to achieve net zero by 2045. The Offshore Wind Policy Statement sets a new ambition to achieve 8-11 GW of offshore wind in Scotland by 2030. This recognises that deployment must increase significantly if we are to meet our climate change targets.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement consultation was launched on 28 October 2021, which includes our ambition that an additional 8-12 GW of onshore wind be installed by 2030, in line with the Climate Change Committees' recommendations.

As of June 2022, there were 8.7GW of installed, operational onshore wind in Scotland, comprising approximately 3,940 turbines, and 1.86GW of installed, operational offshore wind in Scotland, comprising of 264 turbines.

Our recent ScotWind announcement includes 25GW of generating capacity of offshore wind [note: this figure was correct at July 2022], which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland’s potential. The planning and consenting processes that lie ahead – together with the need to fully consider the views of stakeholders about impact – means it is not possible to know now exactly what scale of development will be permitted ultimately. However, we are seeking to maximise the opportunities from ScotWind, for energy, the environment, the economy and our supply chain, albeit in a way that aligns with the marine planning framework.

There are many variable factors, including advancements in turbine technology (i.e. larger turbines that produce more electricity), environmental considerations and landscape considerations, which make it difficult to determine precisely how may turbines will make up the estimated 8-12GW of onshore wind and 8 – 11GW of offshore wind required to meet our net-zero targets.

I know that many consumers across Scotland are facing long waits for energy meters to be installed and this has been a source of much frustration.

Regulation of energy markets, including in relation to the installation of meters, remains reserved to the UK Government meaning that the Scottish Government's potential actions in regards to this are limited.

My officials have raised this issue with Ofgem, the energy regulator.

The Scottish Government believes that renewables, particularly wind, has a vital role to play to achieve our net zero targets and to the decarbonisation of the energy system.

Scotland’s natural resources, which include strong and consistent wind resource, along with our established expertise in offshore oil and gas, skilled offshore workforce, excellent port structure and strong innovation hub, make Scotland one of the best places in the world to develop offshore wind and its supply chain.

The recent ScotWind leasing round demonstrates this, by delivering around £700 million in option fee revenues to the public purse, plus the ScotWind projects committed to investment of up to £25 billion across the Scottish supply chain across the 17 ScotWind offshore wind projects as set out in their Supply Chain Development Statements

This work will be further complemented by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) Collaborative Framework. This Charter signed by 24 organisations offshore wind developments in Scotland, is a practical way for developers and Scottish ports to work together, helping to build a long-term pipeline of work and creating certainty that ports need to prioritise investment in higher value activities like fabrication. By working together developers can identify joint opportunities, mitigating risks in bringing together the infrastructure needed to build out the full pipeline of ScotWind projects.

Energy markets are reserved to the UK Government. As part of our response to the rising cost of energy, the Scottish Government has raised concerns that many consumers who are not registered directly with a licenced energy supplier may not receive a £400 energy rebate. Although no solution is currently in place, the UK Government has advised that, this Autumn, it intends to widen support to include those consumers who are not currently reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme such as park home residents.

The Scottish Government published an update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan in 2020, including over 200 policies and proposals which will drive our delivery of emissions reduction between 2020 and 2032.

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing the next climate change plan which covers the period from 2025 to 2040. The Scottish Government has committed to fully costing the next Climate Change Plan as set out in the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019.

Our focus now is on delivering the existing plan as well as the polices that have been developed since to achieve our climate objectives. The challenging nature of delivering these targets will depend on a national endeavour, with action from all sectors of society. The updated plan sends a clear market signal which should give businesses the confidence to act, invest and achieve our climate targets, driving new green jobs, growing a thriving sustainable and fair economy.

All these actions require co-operation from the UK Government to maximise action in reserved actions. Our updated Plan set out the main asks of the UK Government and calls on them to match Scotland’s climate ambition in a credible way. As we develop our next plan and the vision for 2040, we will be required to go further and require reductions in currently reserved areas to achieve the 90% reduction by 2040.

The war in Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the global food system and the impacts are being felt by producers and consumers in Scotland. This has compounded the challenging operating environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit.

I committed to support active farming and food production with direct payments - which provides certainty to the industry - and we delivered 2021 Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) payments to schedule with over £564 million issued to date. In addition, this year, to support farmers with the cost of living, the Scottish Government has brought forward the advance payment start date to as early in the year as is practicably possible. The intention is to support businesses, as far as possible, with immediate cash flow challenges.

The Scottish Government is also monitoring the impacts of energy prices and other input costs on agriculture, fisheries and food sectors. For example, in March, we set up the Short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce jointly with industry to monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to food security and supply, as a result of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Its report was published in June 2022: www.gov.scot/news/safeguarding-food-security .

The First Minister has issued a letter to the Prime Minister calling for an emergency meeting of the 4 Nations’ Heads of Government Council and has convened the Scottish Government Resilience Committee, which will now meet weekly. However, it remains the case that the powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. Scottish Ministers have repeatedly called for the UK Government to urgently take further, tangible action.