Seòmar agus comataidhean

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own parking charges on the basis of local needs and priorities. Parking charges and restrictions can have many objectives, including managing both demand for space and the time that space is occupied, to ensure parking is available for those who need it most. The Scottish Government does not have a national policy on parking charges for public places however we are committed to finding ways to shift the balance towards sustainable travel, away from private car use. We are equally committed to tackling inequality and increasing opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to interact in improved areas of civic space. Reducing our reliance on private car use can significantly improve the places we live in and have great benefits for local high streets.

There is research on the topic, for example the Living Street’s Pedestrian Pound Report from Sustrans (2018) evidenced that local shops can benefit from their customers travelling car-free. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/3890/pedestrian-pound-2018.pdf

Additionally, Transport Scotland has recently commissioned research through ClimateXChange to better understand the environmental, social and economic benefits of sustainable travel to local highstreets and town centres. The findings will be particularly valuable to local policy makers, local businesses and individuals and will support the Scottish Government policy to reduce car km in Scotland by 20% by 2030.

The routemap to achieving the reduction in car km was published in January 2022 and aligns with the ‘ Town Centre Action Plan Review – Joint response from Scottish Government and COSLA’ that sets out a new vision for town centres and 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. Further to this, the draft NPF4 recognises that our cities and towns are a national asset and strengthens support for development in town centres.

The primary Scottish Government funds which enable local authorities to support town centre regeneration are the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Town Centre Fund which pre-dated the PBIP. I have placed a copy of tables in SPICe bib number 63928 which set out the information we have available to date on what the South Scotland region has received in each year since 2007, broken down by Town and Local Authority.

In addition, though not included in the table, the Scottish Government has provided offers of other financial and non-financial support which has benefited high streets. This is not limited to:

• funding to agencies and partnerships such as South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Business Improvement Districts, VisitScotland, Historic Environment Scotland;
• funds and funding such as Regional growth deals, the Climate Challenge fund, Active Travel funding. and Covid funds such as the £80m Local authority covid economic recovery funding;
• programmes such as the Scotland Loves Local, Empowering Communities, and Vacant and Derelict Land; and Climate Action Towns.

Restricting alcohol advertising and promotion is one of the World Health Organization’s three ‘best buys’ to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms.

That is why we have launched a public consultation setting out potential restrictions on a variety of methods of alcohol advertising, including on sports sponsorship. The consultation closes on 9 March 2023 and we would encourage everyone to respond to this, including those involved in elite and grassroots sport.

The function of consulting at this stage, before any proposals are finalised, is to give organisations and individuals the chance to feedback on these proposals, and potential impacts. Following the consultation, we will analyse the responses and then further consider possible restrictions.

I will meet with key stakeholders, including sporting bodies, during the consultation period to directly hear their views on the proposals and better understand any potential impacts they may have.

Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme (SCRS) is delivering 30,000 cycle repairs or services to people in Scotland, focusing on those that need the support the most. Repairs and servicing are provided through a network of over 300 shops, retailers, community organisations and sole traders. The scheme has run since August 2020 and delivered a total of 64,945 repairs to date. The specific figures you have requested since May 2021 are as follows:

Inverclyde – 560 repairs at a financial value of £28,000

North Ayrshire – 2,060 repairs at a financial value of £103,000

Scotland – 70,070 at a financial value of £3,503,500

It is worth noting there is a time delay in reporting and not all participants provide their postcode, so all of these figures will be higher.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13013 on 9 January 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 .

In 2023-24 the Local Government finance settlement will provide over £13.2 billion to local authorities with a real terms increase in funding of £160.6 million or (1.3%).

Official Statistics on Scottish Child Payment are published every quarter. The last publication was on 29 November 2022 and provided information on processing times up to 30 September 2022: Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 30 September 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The next release of Official Statistics, covering the period to the end of December 2022, is due to be published on 28 February 2023.

Social Security Scotland received a high volume of applications for Scottish Child Payment when it extended to under 16 year olds on 14 November. Initial management information indicates that from Monday 14 November 2022 to Sunday 11 December 2022, the total number of applications received was 123,000.

Social Security Scotland are working hard to process payments as quickly as possible and tens of thousands of eligible of clients will receive their payment before Christmas. The remaining eligible clients will receive payment in early 2023 and have been contacted to make them aware of this so they are able to plan accordingly.

If eligible, all payments will be calculated from the day that the client applied or submitted a change of circumstances to add an extra child, so nobody should lose out financially.

The phasing of the PDR review programme is kept under review to ensure that it reflects – and helps to promote – wider Scottish Government objectives. The stakeholder update which I issued with the Chief Planner in October 2022 confirmed that, in light of the current cost and climate crises, Phase 3 of the review will focus on PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment – and that a consultation will be published early in 2023.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the content of our consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion.

Officials in the Alcohol Harm Prevention Team have met with the ASA at regular intervals to discuss alcohol marketing and ASA research.

I will meet with key stakeholders, including the ASA and other advertising bodies, during the consultation period to directly hear their views on the proposals and any potential impacts they may have.

As noted in the 2022-23 Programme for Government, we are continuing our preparatory work to ensure every school-aged child has access to a digital device by the end of this parliament in 2026.