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The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly developed and published the response to the independent report ‘A New future for Scotland’s Town Centres’. The ‘Town Centre Action Plan Review – Joint response from Scottish Government and COSLA’ sets out a new vision for town centres that ‘Towns and town centres are for the wellbeing of people, planet and economy’. The response outlines actions directed to better embed a ‘Town Centre First approach’ to ensure the economic, social and environmental health of town centres is at the heart of investment decision making. The response was agreed by all Council Leaders.

In addition, we have established the Place-Based Investment Programme to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. Investments are also expected to contribute to net zero, inclusive economic development, wellbeing, tackling inequality, and community involvement and ownership. Local government is a key partner in delivering this Programme and receive a funding allocation. All Council Leaders agreed to support the aims and objectives of the Programme.

Community ownership is an important aim of the Scottish Government and there are numerous examples of communities thriving after being given the opportunity to own and manage their own assets. This leads to better local outcomes, which focus on local needs. It is important that we align our policy in respect of increased community ownership to help deliver the vision and outcomes set out in our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. If we are to meet our ambitious target of halting the decline in Scotland’s biodiversity by 2030 and reverse it by 2045 all land owners and managers across community, private, voluntary and public sectors will have a part to play.

The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill to ensure that the rights of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people are respected and protected.

Across our work, we involve organisations led by disabled people and charities representing the views of a wide range of people who come under the learning disabilities, autism and neurodiversity umbrella.

Our intention is that the Bill will be fully co-designed with people with lived experience, and we ran 30 events with 18 different organisations during the scoping work which took place between May and July 2022.

We are also establishing a lived experience advisory panel to support the development of the Bill. Details about the recruitment process for the panel will be available shortly.

The Scottish Government has committed to invest at least £1.8 billion in heat and energy efficiency over the course of this parliament. This funding is delivered via a range of support options, which are available to households and businesses across Scotland, including those in rural areas.

Business Energy Scotland (BES) provides support to Scottish SMEs for implementing energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures. The service is delivered by Energy Saving Trust (EST) on behalf of the Scottish Government and has at least one dedicated Business advisor in each of its regional call centres. BES provides a gateway for SMEs to access funding for energy efficiency and zero emissions heating through the SME loan scheme and access to the Green Network for Business.

For household support, we continue to invest in our Home Energy Scotland Loans with Cashback scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland and Area-Based Schemes and we recognise the need to tailor support to specific challenges in remote rural areas, where we know installation and labour costs are higher. Our flagship domestic energy advice service, Home Energy Scotland (HES), administered by EST on behalf of the Scottish Government, provides a single point of access for free, bespoke, impartial advice on energy efficiency, renewable heating, funding for energy efficiency and zero emissions heating systems and fuel poverty support in Scotland. HES advisors in five regional advice centres provide tailored energy advice that is location specific and takes account of the different energy use requirements of properties in different parts of Scotland, taking rurality into account.

It is vital that the supply chain is equipped with the necessary skills and qualifications to provide a high quality service to consumers and we are supporting workforce growth through a combination of reskilling, upskilling and youth employment. Skills support and training provision must be aligned at a local level with business needs and future local demands. This year, we will publish a new Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan, which will outline specific actions and support focussed on strengthening the broad supply chains needed to deliver at the pace and scale of our transition.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the impact that the recent price rises in the cost of energy will have on people, especially those using medical equipment at home, such as CPAP machines for the treatment of sleep apnoea.

Decisions about the reimbursement of energy costs associated with CPAP machines and other medical machines in individuals’ homes are made by NHS Boards. The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Boards to address financial pressures across the healthcare system, including the impacts of the increase in energy costs. In May 2022, we published our Resource Spending Review that set out investment of £73 billion in health and social care to 2026-27.

The Scottish Government will also use the Emergency Budget Review to increase the Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million in 2022-23. The Fuel Insecurity Fund is aimed at helping people who are at risk of self-rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely because they cannot afford their energy bills.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01331 on 7 September 2022. The answer to the Oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at:

https://archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13875

The number of deaths where malnutrition was the underlying cause in any death over the past 10 years is as follows (TABLE 1):

The full information requested is not held centrally.

However, some information is available at a Scotland level from published results from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS), which includes information on the proportions of time households have been on a housing list, by length of time category, including a split by current housing tenure of the household where sample sizes allow. This will include housing association lists as well as council lists, and include households who are already living in the social rented sector who are looking to transfer to another social rented home, as well as households looking to move into social rented properties from other housing tenures.

The 2020 household survey results are here (Tab 1_66 for length of time on a housing list), with results for earlier years 2016 to 2019 available on the Scottish Household Survey Data Explorer (Table 3.16d). The results on the proportions of time are based on households who have reported being on a housing list (which will include housing association lists as well as council lists), and exclude any households who have reported using choice based lettings where not already on a housing list.

The published Scottish Household Survey results also include information for each year on the total number and percentage of households and adults in Scotland who have reported to be on a housing list. Available figures on the estimated absolute number of households and adults are available for the years 2013 to 2019 on the Annual Report 2019 Excel tables (Tab: Chapter 3 – Housing, tables 3.17 and 3.18), and estimated absolute number of households only for the year 2020 on the Scottish Household Survey 2020 Results Housing Tables (Tab 1.60).

It should be noted that results of the SHS 2020 telephone survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for previous years as COVID restrictions prevented face-to-face interviews, which previous surveys used, and the change of mode could have affected the answers given. More information on this, and other methodological guidance, is available here . In addition, the figures for 2020 as well as earlier years will be subject to survey sampling variation.

It is not possible to provide this information due to the complexity of monitoring the number of individual incidents of people accessing drug and alcohol services and relevant spend per individual, across the time period requested.

Data on numbers accessing drug treatment are published in the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database (SDMD) and dates back to 2006-07.

In April 2021 a new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) went live. This database will provide more detailed information on the numbers accessing treatment. The first report from DAISy will be published in January 2023. This will provide latest data on numbers receiving treatment through drug and alcohol services.

Details on specific funding on treatment is also not available at the national level. Funding provided for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships supports a wide range of activity alongside treatment services including prevention, outreach and harm reduction services. We intend to provide detail of the funding provided to ADPs in the first National Mission annual report which is due later this year.

Since the launch of the Young Person’s Guarantee in November 2020, we have provided additional funding of £10m per year in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 to the college sector to enable them to deliver a range of short industry focused opportunities for young people, including skills boost and fast track courses, to meet the needs of employers and support economic recovery.

We have worked with the Scottish Funding Council, college sector and key partners to ensure that opportunities are targeted at supporting individuals who experience barriers in participating in the labour market, including disabled young people. Scottish Funding Council data from the first phase of delivery in colleges for 2020-21 shows that a total of 3,299 students enrolled on Young Person’s Guarantee college places and of those 755 (22.9%) declared a disability.

We do not hold data on the number of volunteering, employment or work experience opportunities taken up by young disabled people that can be attributed to the Young Person’s Guarantee. The Guarantee is not a standalone programme, reporting encompasses the investment by the Scottish Government across education, employability and skills.

We are continuing to engage with the further education sector and key partners to advance equality, inclusion and to eliminate discrimination. Provision is supporting tailored college opportunities for young people with protected characteristics across Scotland, including disabled young people. It is important to note that disabilities and health conditions are self-declared by students and applicants.