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Staff working for a registered adult social care service or in a role supporting those registered services in a head office, for example finance and administrative staff, will be in scope of the pro rata £500 payment being made to those NHS and adult social care staff who have been employed since 17 March 2020. This includes those employed in the statutory, third and private sector.

Adult social care staff, including social workers, who have been active for a minimum of one month between 17 March and 30 November 2020 will be eligible for the payment, including those who have since left or retired.

In December 2020, the Scottish Government reached an agreement with the three PFI hospital car park providers to extend the free car parking arrangements until March 2021. This extension of free parking continues to support staff and remove the barriers to our staff working with the NHS during these unprecedented times.

The Health Boards, together with the PFI providers, are currently reviewing the options for beyond that period. Parliament will be updated once these discussions have concluded, but as they are commercially sensitive negotiations we are not in a position to provide further detail at this point.

The Local Authority Install Programme (LAIP) is the main delivery vehicle to provide grant funding Scotland’s local authorities to install publicly available electric vehicle (EV) charge points. This scheme has been running since 2011 with over £32 million pounds invested to provide over 1,500 publicly available charge points. It is up to each individual local authority to develop their EV charging infrastructure plans to meet the specific needs of their area and to improve and enhance the network. Since 2011, Transport Scotland has provided over £1.2 million of grant funding to the City of Edinburgh Council to roll-out publicly available EV charge points in their area.

In addition, our Switched on Towns and Cities Programme (SOTC) provides targeted funding to help Local Authorities develop and implement complementary investments in EV infrastructure. The City of Edinburgh Council was awarded £2.39 million in June 2019 to support investment in EV Infrastructure to strengthen and expand the existing network.

The Scottish Government introduced COVID-19 reliefs at the start of the pandemic to reduce business costs, including 1.6% rates relief for all non-domestic properties and 100% relief for non-domestic properties in the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors. There will be one-off payments to hospitality businesses in January to help them deal with the traditional post-Christmas dip in demand. These will be £25,000 for larger businesses and £6,000 for smaller businesses, depending on rateable value, and will be additional to other payments made under the Strategic Framework.

Raising Scotland's Tobacco-free Generation, the Scottish Government's Tobacco-Control Action Plan 2018, lists tackling the problems caused by some individuals smoking in communal stairwells as one of the actions planned. It pledges to explore, together with local authorities and housing associations, the idea of tobacco-free clauses in tenancy agreements. Also to be considered is the possibility of introducing offering smoke-free housing alternatives in social housing.

These are among a series of measures planned to reduce smoking prevalence in Scotland to five per cent or less of the adult population by 2034.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): school re-opening arrangements for January 2021 provides guidance on the arrangements for the re-opening of schools in January including the provision for vulnerable children and young people and the children of keyworkers. Those who work directly with children and young people are best placed to identify children and young people who will require support in order to ensure their wellbeing, as a result of these exceptional phased opening arrangements.

When determining which vulnerable children should attend school in person, local authorities and schools should have regard to the overarching policy aim of these exceptional school closures, which is to reduce the number of children, young people and adults from different households interacting in- person within communities (including schools) as far as possible, in order to prevent COVID-related harms. If it is possible for children to be cared for safely and have their learning supported sufficiently well at home, that approach should be preferred.

For areas in Level 4 or under the current Lockdown restrictions work carried out in other people’s homes around services for the purpose of the upkeep, maintenance or functioning of the home is restricted to essential work only. This is to help suppress the spread of the virus. Work carried out in people’s homes can continue in all cases with appropriate mitigations in areas in levels 1-3.

The kind of work we expect may continue includes domestic cleaning, where services are provided in support of a clean and safe living environment for people in vulnerable circumstances or living with a disability and who unable to clean their own home.

General cleaning services, are not essential, and therefore not allowed in Level 4 areas or under current Lockdown restrictions.

The current stay at home regulations mean that people should only leave their homes for an essential purpose. While indoor vehicle showrooms cannot open to the public, car sales continue to be permitted. Further covid-19 regulations came into effect on Saturday 16 January which state that outdoor motor vehicle lots may only open for the collection of a purchased vehicle or for delivery or collection of a vehicle for service, repair or MOT. Dealerships must implement safety measures, such as physical distancing and the wearing of face coverings, using staggered appointments for collections, and leaving a gap between each appointment where reasonably practicable. The full Scottish Government retail guidance can be found at on the Scottish Government website at: www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-retail-sector-guidance/

We recognise the unprecedented financial challenges facing taxi and private hire vehicle drivers as a result of the necessary restrictions introduced to control the spread of COVID-19. To that end we have launched a £57 million fund which will provide one-off grants of £1,500 to taxi and private hire vehicle drivers to support them with meeting fixed costs associated with running a taxi. From week commencing 18 January local authorities have started contacting taxi and private hire vehicle drivers in their area inviting them to verify their entitlement for the fund and payment details. Following a review of our eligibility criteria, taxi and private hire vehicle drivers in receipt of benefits, including Universal Credit, will be able to access a grant. I have written to the UK Government asking them take this grant into account as capital when determining benefit entitlement through this scheme.