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Households of all tenures are eligible to seek assistance from the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) if they are at risk of self-rationing their energy use or self-disconnecting entirely. Our trusted third sector delivery partners, namely Advice Direct Scotland (ADS), the Fuel Bank Foundation and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), are not required to monitor the housing tenure type of the individuals they support. In the case of the SFHA, though, all of the support they provide, £6.6m this financial year, is directed towards social housing tenants of member RSLs.

We regularly monitor the support provided by our delivery partners; however we seek to avoid excessive demands for data gathering in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed with a level of partner discretion to target direct support to those most in need at the time.

We do not require our Fuel Insecurity Fund delivery partners to collect the requested data from households. Payments are provided on the basis of an holistic assessment of their circumstances, which may include damp and mould issues.

The Scottish Government has been in regular dialogue with Creative Scotland regarding the draft Scottish Budget for 2023-2024. Officials meet regularly with Creative Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture had a regular meeting with the Chair of Creative Scotland on 21 December. The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture also called the Chair of Creative Scotland on the 15 December once the Scottish Government draft budget had been published.

On 15 December 2022 the Scottish Government published its budget for 2023-24, which is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2023-24/documents/ .

The Scottish Government approves and provides croft businesses with over £40 million each year through various support mechanisms, including the crofting specific Croft House Grant, Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme, and the Cattle Improvement Scheme. Crofters can also access the LFASS, BPS and Greening, Young Farmers Payment, AECS, the sheep and beef schemes, the Forestry Grant Scheme and the Small Woodlands Loan Scheme, the Sustainable Agricultural Capital Grant Scheme and veterinary support. The Farm Advisory Service provides advice and guidance to crofters through its one-to-one and one-to-many services.

The Risk Management Committee is scheduled to meet on 21 March 2023.

The Workforce Development Group is newly established and had its first meeting on 29 November 2022. The group will meet bi-monthly with the next meeting scheduled for 30 January 2023.

No. We have convened a series of roundtables with the culture sector to explore how organisations can best work together to develop shared solutions in light of the cost crisis. The impact of the UK Government’s decision to reduce the theatre and orchestra tax relief was raised by attendees at the roundtable in Glasgow in December 2022. During the roundtable, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs & Culture committed to raising this with the DCMS Secretary of State Michelle Donelan, which he did on 13 December. Following this discussion, the Cabinet Secretary then wrote to HMT.

Whilst the Scottish Government continue to reconcile COVID-19 funding allocations in order to ensure transparency in the use of public funds and compliance with the audit framework, the Scottish Government has not recovered and has no plans to recover any COVID-19 related funding from local authorities.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 requires local authorities to establish and run licensing schemes for short-term lets in their areas. Information on staffing levels dedicated to short-term let licensing within each local authority will be held by individual local authorities, and vary based on a number of factors, including volume of activity and approach to physical property inspections.

In my statement to parliament in November last year I stated I had recently launched Leading to Change, the Scottish Government’s national leadership development programme, for health, social work and social care. More information can be found on the website: Leading to Change | Leadership Development | NHS Scotland

a) The budget for Leading to Change is £978,000 for year 2022-23.

b) We have conducted user research to ascertain the programme’s reach and to ensure it fully meets the user needs. As of 9 January the following data applies:

• Website ; 7,774 users, 30,731 page views - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023 (18:00);
• 1983 people signed up to distribution list - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023 (18:00);
• 10,238 registered users on the Leading to Change app - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023
• Twitter 5,569 followers as at 9th January 2023 (accounts were @ProjectLiftScot pre 3rd October 2022)
• 964 colleagues attended 11 events - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023
• 107 colleagues on longer term leadership development programmes delivered or co-delivered by Leading to Change between Sept 22 – 09 January 2023 (some programme began before the launch date)
• 178/200 available Leadership Live subscriptions (22 pending) 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023

c) By ensuring we invest in leadership development we are supporting our valuable front line services to create the conditions and culture that are critical to delivering better outcomes for the people who use our services. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the core of the Leading to Change programme with tailored and targeted interventions being delivered to increase and support the diverse workforce.

An update on the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care will be published later this year.