Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23120 on 7 December 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Ministers and civil servants engage regularly with INEOS and Petroineos as a matter of course, given the strategic importance of the assets at Grangemouth.

Recent engagements include two site visits in at Grangemouth to discuss INEOS’ net zero roadmap, which were attended by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition and both the Energy Minister and myself in April and June.

I also met representatives of Petroineos’ Joint Ventures Partners in June 2023 as part of the Scottish Government’s regular engagement with the business.

The First Minister and I also spoke to senior management at the refinery on 23 November 2023, during which we outlined our expectation that the business should explore every possible option to extend refining operations beyond the conclusion of import terminal infrastructure construction.

The Scottish Government doesn’t inform the Met Office about landslips, as this is not an operational requirement of this UK Weather Agency. The role of the Met Office is to make meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change.

It should be noted however, The Met Office is one of a number of stakeholders the Scottish Government liaise with in the course of preparing responses to resilience and weather related events. The Met Office provide weather related advice to the Scottish Government, which in turn serves to inform our wider resilience response, including consideration of landslip risk in areas such as the A83, Rest and be Thankful.

The Scottish Government engages with a wide range of stakeholders on the future of the marine sector on a very regular basis. This has included, for example, detailed engagement with Scottish seafood stakeholders on Brexit and the new costs and barriers it has created for exporting to the EU, and our shared concerns about post-Brexit UK immigration policy, and how these can be mitigated or overcome.

“Our marine sector in an independent Scotland” is informed by our continuous engagement with the marine sector.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work in partnership with partners and World Athletics following confirmation of the successful bid to host the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

In total the Scottish Government will provide £1.15 million of support for the event from the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Portfolio, with VisitScotland providing a further £350,000 of support from its core budget. None of this funding is capital. This financial support is profiled across a number financial years, reflecting the long lead in time to prepare for an event of this size. UK Sport and Glasgow City Council are also providing funding.

The bid was carefully considered by all partners and this event has the potential to generate economic and societal benefits for areas of Scotland.

Scottish Government wrote to local authorities on 12 September confirming the strategic objective, distribution methodology and individual allocations of the £30 million fund. The distribution methodology, agreed with local authority leaders, is based 50% on the number of displaced people from Ukraine in each local authority area and 50% on the adjusted Strategic Housing Investment Framework (SHIF) indicator formula that is used for distributing homelessness prevention funding.

While there is an expectation that this funding will help councils support displaced Ukrainians into longer-term accommodation and reduce the risk of homelessness, the funding is not ring-fenced, and local authorities are able to exercise full discretion locally to support other groups. This is in line with the Verity House Agreement and recognises that local authorities are best placed to allocate their resources to meet competing demands for their services.

The letter has been published and is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-resettlement-letter-to-local-authorities-about-funding/

The total number of FTE staff (rounded to the nearest whole number) employed in the public sector, within the Peatland Action programme, to undertake peatland restoration work – as of November 2023 – is as follows:

Scotland’s National Parks support the communities living and working within them. They work with a wide range of local partners – including farmers, local businesses, third sector organisations, landowners and managers – to support a thriving local economy and maximise benefits for the environment, climate, economy and people. They can play a role in generating investment, creating new employment opportunities and bringing farmers, land managers and communities together.

Any nomination for a new National Park should be founded upon local community demand. We are asking groups to demonstrate evidence of local support and engagement with local communities and stakeholders in the development of their proposals.

To ensure the nomination and appraisal process for selecting a new National Park is open, fair and transparent, we consulted on an appraisal framework with broad criteria that will help us select the area or areas to be taken forward as a National Park proposal. In order to meet these criteria, nominating groups should demonstrate how designating their area as a National Park will help to meet the special needs of the area, including the social and economic needs. Groups also need to provide evidence of local community engagement and participation in the development of the proposal and they should provide details of support from local interest groups and communities. We have also asked groups to set out how their proposal will bring wider benefits to Scotland as a whole, for example by promoting nature-friendly farming and responsible investment in natural capital which will support the local economy.

Following the appraisal process, subject to at least one nomination being selected to proceed as a National Park proposal, we expect to appoint a reporter to undertake a more detailed investigation and report on the proposal. The reporter investigation will include extensive consultation and engagement with local communities, businesses, relevant local authorities and other interested parties – including those from the agricultural sector and farming and crofting community. The report and the outcome of these consultations will inform our final decision on Scotland’s next National Park.

In addition to these consultations, we are undertaking a range of impact assessments in order to assess the likely impacts of our policy to designate at least one new National Park by 2026. This will include a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

On 27 October 2023 I wrote to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee about the scope of a 2024 update on implementation, which confirms that the purpose of the update is not to amend the types of licence i.e. home-sharing, home-letting and secondary let because it is important that safety standards apply to all visitor accommodation. I have had no discussions which commit to suspending either of these accommodation types from the scheme.

We have been responsive throughout our implementation of the short-term let licensing scheme. We consulted three times over three years and engaged extensively to develop the detail of the scheme, which was scrutinised by Parliament prior to its approval in January 2022. Since local schemes became operational in October 2022, thousands of short-term let hosts and operators have applied for home-sharing, home-letting and secondary let licences under this scheme.

A copy of the letter is available on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/local-gov/correspondence/2023/shorttermlets27oct.pdf

Information on the allocation of CashBack funding is only formally collected at a local authority level. The total funding allocation to Fife local authority area between 2008 and March 2023 was £4,124,198.

Estimated funding of £1,061,633 is attributed to the Cowdenbeath constituency during that same period. This includes funding of £745,761 that was allocated to organisations delivering project activity based in the area (Scottish Sports Futures, Basketball Scotland, Boxing Scotland and the Scottish Football Association). The remaining funding was shared between organisations that supported individuals or groups across Fife and were available to children and young people in the Cowdenbeath constituency (Access to Industry, The Prince’s Trust, YouthLink Scotland, Youth Scotland and The Venture Trust).

Phase 6 of the CashBack for Communities programme runs from April 2023 to March 2026. The current estimate of spend across the Fife area is £1,036,803. Of that funding, an estimated £543,266 is currently attributed to the Cowdenbeath constituency, based mainly on anticipated project delivery in that area by Scottish Sports Futures and Starcatchers.

Details of all the Phase 6 CashBack partners and information on project delivery by local authority area are available on the CashBack for Communities website: https://cashbackforcommunities.org/