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Since 2019-20, local authorities have been allocated an annual share of £8 million from the Ending Homelessness Together Budget to support the implementation of their rapid rehousing transition plans. The additional £2 million in 2023-24 for rapid rehousing transition plans has also been allocated from the Ending Homelessness Together Budget.

In October 2021 we published our response to the Salmon Interactions Working Group (SIWG) report, and we are continuing to progress delivery of those commitments, which include action to minimise the escape of farmed fish to help protect Scotland’s wild salmonid populations.

Alongside our response to the report of the SIWG, the Marine Directorate published its first assessment of genetic introgression in wild salmon in 2021: A national assessment of the influence of farmed salmon escapes on the genetic integrity of wild Scottish Atlantic salmon populations | Marine Scotland Data Publications.

This was the first report as part of the National Introgression Programme for Scotland (NIPS) and based on sampling undertaken in 2018/2019. NIPS is an ongoing nationwide project that is researching the link between fish farm escapes and introgression in wild salmon populations.

In 2021 a second NIPS survey was conducted across the country with samples and data from this is currently being analysed. A further NIPS survey was also initiated in 2023 and sample collection is now underway. Analysis of the NIPS surveys from multiple sampling years will provide a picture of temporal changes in levels of introgression.

The Joint Working Group on Sources of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform is exploring proposals for meaningful changes to be introduced to Council Tax, this includes the consideration of approaches to longer term reform of the Council Tax system.

The Scottish Government have provided local authorities with nearly £13.5 billion of funding in 2023-24, a cash increase in local government day to day spending of over £793 million which represents a real terms increase of £376 million or 3 per cent.

We are spending every penny of consequential funding we receive on this programme of work, with spend to date of over £3.6m and the anticipated whole-life cost approximately £400m.

Spending information and quarterly updates were published in July 2023 and is publicly available at Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Work is underway on a stock census to evaluate buildings and explore ways to minimise cost and maximise revenue to ensure the programme can deliver its objectives in full, efficiently and in a reasonable timeframe.

The death of any child or young person is a tragic event and our sympathies are with all parents and families affected. We are awaiting the results of the preliminary investigations into the April 2023 data from Public Health Scotland before we can confirm our next steps. We will continue to work closely with Public Health Scotland, NHS Boards and Healthcare Improvement Scotland on our maternity safety programme of work.

In order to reduce the number of preventable deaths and harm to children and young people, the Scottish Government is funding a National Hub to review all child and neonatal deaths. The National Hub will draw on the evidence from pre-existing reviews and data, including PHS data, Serious and Adverse Event Reviews and Fatal Accident Inquiries, to identify and share learning through the provision of national guidance and annual reporting. The Hub is jointly operated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate and will issue its first annual report this Autumn. In June 2023 the National Hub published a new national information booklet about the child death review process designed for practitioners to share with bereaved parents, carers or other family members.

On 28 June the Scottish Government published the Purpose and Principles for post-school education, research and skills . The Initial Priorities paper that was published alongside makes it clear that we agree that significant system reform is required if we are to achieve the long-term vision and outcomes.

The commitments on skills planning, employer engagement, funding, post-school pathways, the need for meaningful parity of esteem and consistency of language, clearly accept the basis of several recommendations made by James Withers in the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape.

Our work, with partners, to take forward these actions will further inform our response to the detail of Withers’ recommendations, which we will set out in the context of lifelong education and skills reform in the coming months.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services, but this funding isn’t split for adult and child smoking cessation and prevention services.

This funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework budget allocation to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes – in 2023-24 this outcome framework funding totalled £74.1 million.

The table below sets out the Outcome Framework budget allocations for the last 5 years for Health Boards, which is then for Individual Health Boards to determine the allocation of and final expenditure from this budget. For illustrative purposes,‎ c£9-10 million per annum is notionally included as part of the Outcome Framework budget allocation for smoking cessation and prevention.

The aim of the Green Growth Accelerator model is to unlock investment over the medium term in low carbon infrastructure. This unlocking would be supported by payments from the Scottish Government to the local authority which are tied to delivery of a set of pre-defined and agreed outcomes.

It takes time to develop infrastructure projects, so to support the initial pilot phase the Scottish Government has provided £720k in resource funding from the 2021-22 budget for six pathfinder projects (£120k per project) to develop business cases to pilot the GGA model across a range of geographical areas and project types. The six pathfinder pilots were selected following an open call for proposals from local authorities.

The Scottish Government provided a further £832k in resource funding through the GGA in 2022-23 to support local authorities with developing their pipeline of low carbon infrastructure projects.

Homelessness in Scotland is a statistical bulletin published by the Scottish Government twice a year. This data provides quantitative evidence across a number of issues for homeless households, including applications, assessments, temporary accommodation and outcomes. We will use the annual and interim Homelessness in Scotland statistics as the key measure of the success of initiatives to reduce the number of households and length of time spent in temporary accommodation.

We will also work with the sector on the potential to develop an additional monitoring framework to provide more up to date data in between these statistical publications, balancing the need for information with the pressures on landlords.

The Legal Aid Fund is an open-ended, demand led budget. Last year total expenditure on legal aid was £138.3m. Civil legal aid is available in a wide scope of actions with generous eligibility thresholds and the application is subject to statutory tests which cover the merits of the case and the means available to the applicant. This can include contested divorces and applications for non-harassment orders if the tests are met. Means testing is an important lever for retaining this wide scope.

We are implementing ‘Equally Safe’, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. This is backed by £19m of annual funding to support 121 projects from 112 organisations that focus on early intervention, prevention as well as support services.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, and ensuring that victims receive the support they need. We have invested significant levels of funding into front line services, as well as working closely with statutory agencies to improve their response to victims and survivors. It is vital that those who suffer domestic abuse have the practical and emotional assistance they need, which is why we are providing £18.5m, through our Victim Centred Approach Fund, for specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence.

We support the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre (SWRC) which is at the forefront of improving access to justice offering free legal information and advice to women in Scotland who have or are experiencing gender-based violence. Funding has been provided to the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre through the Scottish Legal Aid Board since 2015 and the Scottish Government continues to provide funding in 2023-24 up to a limit of £230,000. The SWRC provide a range of services, including a national helpline, legal surgeries, advocacy services and online legal guides.