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The £10,000 grant awarded to Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS) to scope the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland (ACHWS) supported the network to develop an infrastructure, systems and develop a brand identity that would help the network to build their network membership base and their partnerships across the UK.

The grant also supported online events, held in partnership with VHS, such as; Caring, Creativity and Connectedness, The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Older People and The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Young People. The events promoted knowledge exchange, raised awareness of the network and extended the reach and influence of the network.

Officials from the Scottish Government continue to attend ACHWS meetings to offer support to help build further partnerships across policy and cultural organisations.

Voluntary Health Scotland was provided a one-off grant of £10,000 for the financial year 2019-2020, for the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland network.

The Scottish Government have allocated £150,000 for the Arts Alive programme for 2021-2022.

The criteria for the fund is currently being developed by the Scotland on Tour steering group, which is made up of representatives from the music industry, the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland. Detailed guidance will be published shortly, with artists, venues and festivals able to apply to the fund in October 2021.

The music industry is a key part of Scotland’s culture sector and makes a significant contribution to our economy. It is vital that we support Scottish artists as they continue to recover from the pandemic, and we want to ensure that this fund is as widely accessible as possible.

The delivery of training by Police Scotland, in Sri Lanka, is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. The current training programme, provided by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka, is aimed at improving community policing and gender equality, with all training underpinned by equality and human rights. The Scottish Government has not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of Police Scotland’s training on gender-based violence as it is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to agree the details of any training programme. The Scottish Police Authority has responsibility for oversight of Police Scotland and to scrutinise the decisions of the Chief Constable.

The delivery of training by Police Scotland, in Sri Lanka, is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. The current training programme, provided by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka, is aimed at improving community policing and gender equality, with all training underpinned by equality and human rights. The current programme of training in Sri Lanka is currently suspended, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Government has not made an assessment on the continuation of training by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka as it is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to agree the details of any training programme. The Scottish Police Authority has responsibility for oversight of Police Scotland and to scrutinise the decisions of the Chief Constable.

Scottish Government has a long-standing record of providing the most generous non-domestic rates regime in the UK and were the first Government in the UK to offer any extension to relief for the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors for 2021-22.

Decisions on non-domestic rates including the poundage and reliefs are traditionally set out in the Scottish budget alongside other government priorities. The Programme for Government recognises the importance of a fair, just and sustainable recovery with local business and communities at the heart, and future spend will be determined as part of the Scottish budget process.

Scottish Ministers have not discussed the training delivered by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka. Scottish Government officials regularly discuss overseas deployments with Police Scotland’s International Development and Innovation Unit, who have confirmed that training in Sri Lanka has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Police Authority has responsibility for oversight of Police Scotland and to scrutinise the decisions of the Chief Constable.

The main regulated, compulsory carbon pricing market in the UK is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Agriculture and land-use emissions are not covered by the current scope of the UK ETS. The carbon in Scotland’s deep peat soils is however being traded through the peatland code. This is a voluntary certification mechanism which provides assurances to carbon market buyers that the climate benefits from restoring peat are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

Although there is no soil carbon code in place at present, there is UK-wide interest in developing a soil carbon code. This has been most recently addressed by a UK Soil Association conference on 14th July 2021 but this has not yet been translated into a co-ordinated programme of work.

We met our commitment to start the programme to assess buildings within our first 100 days of government.

Our Single Building Assessments will identify issues around fire safety including cladding and the scale and scope of remediation needed to make buildings safe. This will support home owners and offer reassurance to those affected.

We are committed to fully funding Single Building Assessments with the £97.1 million consequentials we have received. We continue to urge other parties, such as developers, to continue to play their part where construction is found to be unsafe just as we continue to press the UK Government for the detail on further consequentials.