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The Scottish Government places great importance on the range of services Arms Length External Organisations (ALEOS) provide and believes everyone should have access to these services as we move towards recovery. However, as independent corporate bodies it is for local authorities to decide when and what services will be offered, and it is for the locally elected representatives to make these decisions. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to assess the financial viability of their own ALEOS.

The Scottish Government for our part have allocated Scotland's local authorities an additional £1.5 billion in direct support through the local government finance settlement and councils have also been granted additional financial flexibilities to address the financial pressures caused by COVID-19.

Furthermore, the 2021-22 Local Government Settlement of almost £11.7 billion provides a cash increase in local government day to day spending for local revenue services of £375.6 million or 3.5 per cent.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of occasions police have responded to a call regarding a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

To ask the Scottish Government how it will take into consideration (a) legally binding net-zero emissions targets and (b) the aspirations of its Biodiversity Strategy when deciding on national developments to be incorporated into National Planning Framework 4.The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 sets out six outcomes to which a future National Planning Framework (NPF) should work towards, including meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and securing positive effects for biodiversity. We are developing proposals for radical change to our national planning policies and spatial strategy to support a transition to net zero by 2045 and economic recovery, as well as adaptation to the long term impacts of climate change. Our spatial strategy will explore how we can promote nature-based solutions to climate change, including woodland expansion and peatland restoration, which protect and restore biodiversity and deliver wider benefits.

We published our criteria for analysing national developments in January 2020 and issued an open call for nominations during our early engagement programme. We are considering all nominations received. The draft National Planning Framework 4, including details of proposed national developments, will be laid in Parliament in autumn 2021. Extensive public engagement will run alongside Parliament’s consideration of the draft and will provide further opportunity for anyone to comment on proposed national developments, or alternatives to them.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

In keeping with our statutory assessment obligations, work on a Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations Appraisal to inform the emerging National Planning Framework 4 is currently underway. We will also consider the likely health effects of proposed national developments as part of the SEA process. We have also commissioned consultants to undertake an independent assessment of the likely impact of each proposed national development’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

We issued an open call for nominations during our Call for Ideas early engagement programme in early 2020, and we are considering all those received. Our Position Statement published in November 2020 highlighted the importance of National Developments in delivering the strategy and invited further comments on the direction of travel. In autumn 2021, we will publicly consult on a draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) allowing a further opportunity to input before NPF4 is resubmitted for approval by Parliament in 2022.

The full information requested is not held centrally.

Some information is available from figures published from the Scottish Household Survey. This includes estimates of the length of time that households have been on a housing list in each of the years 2016 to 2019, by length of time category, available in Table 3.16d at https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-scottish-household-survey-data-explorer/ . These figures are not available by local authority due to sample size limitations. Note that Table 3.16d provides details of households currently on housing lists, and not information on households who have been rehoused. The figures are summarised in Table 1 below for each year between 2016 to 2019.

Table 1: Scottish Household Survey: Estimated length of time that households have been on a housing list, by length of time category, 2016 to 2019 (figures are presented as column percentages)

Note: Percentages in the table have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Zero values are shown as a dash (-), values greater than 0% but less than 0.5% are shown as 0%, and values of 0.5% but less than 1% are rounded up to 1%. In line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics base numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

Source: Scottish Household Survey: data explorer Table 3.16d: Households on a housing list by tenure - How long the household has been on a housing list (households on a list)

The Scottish Household Survey figures are based on the proportion of households reporting to be on any type of housing list, which 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. Note also that the survey figures presented will be subject to sampling variation.

Legislation was laid on 27 May 2021 to extend the temporary exceptions of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order for a further three months until 30 September 2021. Local authorities have been advised that they should prepare for the temporary exceptions to expire on that date.

Our priority is to keep people safe so we extended these measures while the path of the pandemic remains uncertain, and we will keep the situation under review.

We are doing all we can to ensure that people experiencing homelessness are not housed in unsuitable accommodation for any longer than is necessary. However, it is crucial that we help local authorities to keep people safe during the pandemic.

Our ambition is for all households to have a decent temporary home and to move into settled accommodation as quickly as possible. We will continue to work with councils to help them overcome any barriers as we shift to a new way of dealing with homelessness.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The following table shows the number of potholes reported or identified on the trunk road network since 2007, by financial year. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold this data prior to 2007.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all high risk category 1 defects (for example vandalism flooding, spills and potholes), on the trunk road network. The repair of all category 1 defects is funded from commercially sensitive monthly sums and cannot be provided. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold the cost of repairing individual defect types such as potholes.

Trunk road investment is not allocated, recorded or reported on the basis of local authority area.

Since 2007, this Government has invested £4.35 billion in managing, maintaining, and safely operating the Scottish trunk road and motorway network. In 2021-22, we will invest £529 million, an increase of £59 million from 2020-21.

The budget for structural repairs and network strengthening of trunk roads and bridges, including the Forth Road Bridge, is being increased by £46.5 million in 2021-22 to £207 million. The budget for routine and winter maintenance of trunk roads is being increased by £12.5 million to £106.9 million.

We will continue to invest in our extensive trunk road maintenance and operations programmes, to improve Scotland’s road network through essential road maintenance schemes, our bridge strengthening programme, renewal of ancillary assets and increasing the resilience of the network to unplanned events such as landslides, flooding and extreme weather events.

The increases in Network Strengthening and Structural Repairs budgets will provide further investment to support our programmes of essential road carriageway maintenance and bridge strengthening and repairs contributing to our commitment to double investment in maintenance of existing assets over the next 5 years.

In addition, the overall condition of our network is being enhanced through the delivery of our capital investment programme.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) is the independent, regulatory body for the teaching profession and are responsible for the accreditation and approval of all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. They will only approve programmes which meet the requirements in their Guidelines for Accreditation of ITE Programmes. The Framework specifically asks how student teachers are supported to develop an understanding of a range of pedagogy approaches in a number of key areas. One of the key areas is health and wellbeing education with mental health education being included in this theme.

ITE providers regularly meet to discuss the quality of their provision and, on 8 June, held a symposium covering health and wellbeing. The learning from this symposium will inform future revisions to programmes.