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Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport (DfT) are continuing to engage regularly to align their work to enable a shared understanding of the cross border benefits and challenges of options to extend Borders Rail to Carlisle. As committed to within the £350 million Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, the Scottish Government, through Transport Scotland, is progressing the evidence base for extending the Borders Railway through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review. Alongside this, the UK Government’s Department for Transport is progressing complementary work with a wider UK perspective.

Consideration of potential improvements to strategic transport infrastructure across the whole of Scotland continues to be undertaken through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). This work addresses the Scottish Government’s commitment within the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, for Transport Scotland to progress the evidence base for extending the Borders Railway, as well as considering the case for all other potential strategic transport improvements for the area.

STPR2 will create the evidence basis for future transport investment decisions by the Scottish Government for the next 20 years. It will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

We are committed to community wealth building in Scotland that will help deliver a stronger, more resilient and sustainable wellbeing economy.

One of the five pillars of community wealth building is the socially productive use of land and property which considers land not solely for its economic use, but also its social and ecological potential. More progressive use of land and property assets can have a significant impact on the fortunes of local people and enterprise, empowering communities to develop the land or asset as they see fit for the benefit of their local area. This requires us to think not just in terms of ownership and use, but also about stewardship for future generations.

The Scottish Government are committed to community wealth building and for the first time have appointed a Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth. The Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform and Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, who will lead on community wealth, will work together throughout this Parliamentary session. The Programme for Government commits us to grow community wealth building (CWB) in Scotland as part of our commitment to building a stronger, more resilient and sustainable economy.

We plan to double the Scottish Land Fund to £20 million per year by the end of this Parliament. This can facilitate more opportunities for communities seeking to explore the acquisition of land/assets and also the actual acquisition of land/assets.

As set out in our manifesto, we will introduce a new Land Reform bill in the current session.

The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect and restore our biodiversity and to the effective monitoring of progress towards this goal. The Scottish Government has recently added a new single high level indicator to the National Performance Framework which measures trends in marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Scotland.

We have committed to introducing an ambitious new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland within a year of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CoP15) and the publication of a new global biodiversity framework. Policies to take forward our commitment to tackle the nature crisis and methods to measure progress in this regard will be considered as part of the development of this Strategy and its supporting delivery plan.

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 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.

Scottish Government annual statistics on the number of household applicants on local authority or common housing register lists as at the end of March each year from 2001 to 2019 are published at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-2019-key-trends-summary/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-management-of-local-authority-housing/ .

More recent figures as at March 2020 are not yet available due to a delay in the publication of annual housing statistics for 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19 on data provision and staff resourcing.

The annual statistics figures are sourced from local authority data returns that provide information on the number of applicants on local authority or common housing register lists (excluding stock transfer authorities), and will include households using choice based lettings where the application details registered as part of these schemes are considered to form part of the main housing register. Some applicants will be on more than one waiting list, and therefore the total figures presented will include an unidentifiable level of multiple counting of applicants.

Separate survey based estimates of the proportion of households on housing lists or using choice based letting are published as part of the Scottish Government Scottish Household Survey outputs, with local authority level figures available in Tables 3.18a and 3.18b at https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-scottish-household-survey-data-explorer/ . Note that 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.

The Scottish Household Survey figures are subject to sampling variation, especially at a local authority level, however the results are not subject to any double counting issues. In addition the figures cover all local authorities, including stock transfer authorities, so they provide the most reliable national level estimates available.

The published figures for the number of households on housing lists or using choice based lettings equate to an estimated number of households as presented in the following table.

Note that the Scottish Household Survey figures in Table 1 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.

Table 1: Scottish Household Survey: Estimated number of households on a housing list, 2013 to 2019.

(Figures for 2013 to 2016 include households on a housing list. Figures for 2017 to 2019 include households either on a housing list or who are seeking social housing using choice based lettings)

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.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.