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The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that positive, well supported transitions have on outcomes for care leavers and that the relationships care leavers build including with their foster carers are integral to these outcomes.

Since 1 April 2015, young people leaving care after their sixteenth birthday, and who have been looked after in foster, kinship or residential care have been eligible for Continuing Care and therefore able to continue in their care setting if that is in their best interests. The Scottish Government’s Continuing Care guidance stipulates that local authorities should carefully consider the financial implications for a carer offering a Continuing Care placement to ensure that a lack of financial support is not a barrier to the continuation of the placement.

We have heard directly from retail businesses advising that the impact of these changes are already being felt, and that the new rules put Scottish and UK-wide businesses at a disadvantage when compared to other European destinations who continue to operate VAT refund schemes.

Following the announcement of the changes to tax-free shopping on 11 September 2020, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, and I wrote a joint letter to the UK Chancellor opposing the proposed changes; especially at such a challenging time for businesses. No action was forthcoming from the UK Government, so on 20 December 2021 I sent a follow-up letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reiterate the Scottish Government’s concerns on the matter, and request any data and analysis on the impact of these changes.

The Scottish 4G Infill Programme is investing £28.75M to build up to 55 mobile masts designed to bring 4G connectivity to rural and island communities around Scotland. Updates are published on a regular basis at Scottish 4G infill programme: progress update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In the areas specified, the current breakdown for new activated masts is:

(a) Argyll and Bute (2) – Bunessan, Glenbarr

(b) Western Isles (2) – Lemreway, Ranish

(c) Highland (8) – Applecross, Blairmore, Glenborrodale,, Killilan, Littlemill, Polbain, Strathconon, Tarskavaig

(d) Orkney (2) – Burray, Deerness

(e) Shetland (1) – Reawick

(f) Moray (1) – Chapeltown

From 30 November 2021 the eligibility criteria for the Self Isolation Support Grant was changed to enable close contacts of someone who has tested positive or has been asked to isolate as part of the exercise within the public health response to the Omicron variant if they have to isolate for the required 10-day period to be eligible.

Scottish Government currently owns 1081 registered domains. 629 of them are currently “active” and 452 are currently “inactive”.

This total includes domain name variants which are commonly registered to protect a domain from malicious use, as well as domains for expired websites which are retained in order to redirect users to suitable alternatives.

We have defined “active” as a domain that has DNS configuration applied to it. Any domain that is currently parked with our Registrar Com Laude or has no DNS configuration has been defined as “inactive”.

We set out an initial £20 million allocation for the Fund in our draft Budget document on the 9th December. Building on our commitment to co-design, we will take forward a series of engagements in the new year with partners across the region to design the approach for the implementation of the Fund, including how investments can demonstrate alignment with the national outcomes we set out in our response to the Just Transition Commission in September 2021.

We are fully committed to ensuring this Fund benefits communities fairly across the North East and Moray region. Our engagement activity will cover the region as a whole, ensuring that communities and businesses in Moray, with others, are able to influence the approach taken for the Fund.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) local authority tables.

The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 is available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Local Authority figures are based on a 3-year pooled sample to allow sufficient sample sizes to produce results on each local authority. The figures in the table show number of fuel poor households, and the fuel poverty rate, based on the last 10 years for South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, and Falkirk.

When existing Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLA Child) clients have their awards transferred to Child Disability Payment (CDP) they will receive the same payment rate for CDP as they received for DLA Child at the point of transfer. They will continue to receive this amount until their CDP needs to be reviewed. The value of each component of CDP is the same as DLA Child so that we do not create a two-tier system with varying rules whilst Scottish disability benefit clients are transferred to Social Security Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting spending on DLA Child and CDP. The Commission has not reported a breakdown of the proportion of the CDP clients in receipt of greater, the same, or lesser amount of financial assistance under CDP compared with what they receive from the Department for Work and Pensions.

In forecasting CDP, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assumed that when award reviews occur the proportion of clients that would have had their award increased, maintained, and decreased under DLA Child will be the same as under CDP. While they recognise that the less frequent award reviews for CDP may increase the proportion of awards staying at their existing level for longer, the Commission’s judgement is that the effect on the overall outcome of award reviews on award levels may be cancelled out by an increase in the average initial award length and light-touch award reviews.

Following a pause, due to capacity challenges related to the pandemic from March 2020 to March 2021, officials from the Scottish Government and the UK Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have resumed work to finalise a proposal for introducing split payments of Universal Credit in Scotland. This work has been progressing steadily and Scottish Government officials expect to have a policy proposal ready for the DWP to undertake impact assessments in 2022.

Offering the choice of split payments of Universal Credit has the potential to help address the inequality inherent in household payments that reduce access to independent incomes and can place power in the hands of abusers. Whilst offering split payments of Universal Credit in Scotland will not be sufficient to solve these complex problems, improving the accessibility of an independent income may help people in difficult situations and result in fairer and more empowering outcomes.

Natural flood management measures reduce, slow or otherwise manage flood waters across catchments and along the coast; they include salt marsh creation, wetland restoration, floodplain reconnection and woodland planting.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 recognises the important role of natural flood management and promotes and encourages the use of natural flood management techniques.

Natural flood management aims to reduce, but not necessarily replace, the need for traditional engineering, and is often used as part of a blended approach where natural flood management techniques are used alongside traditional engineering as part of a whole catchment approach.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to take action to reduce the impacts of flooding through the flooding component of the general capital grant (currently £42m pa). 20% of this (£8.2m pa) is available for actions such as natural flood management. We have also increased the overall flooding budget by 70% from £210 to £360 million in the next 5 years. The distribution of this additional funding is currently under discussion with local authorities.

The Scottish Government is supporting the long term Eddleston Water research project which is developing an evidence base to improve our understanding of natural flood management . It shows that natural flood management can delay flood peaks, deliver multiple benefits and help mitigate climate change impacts.

We also recognise the important role natural features play in protecting the coastline from erosion and sea level rise. The Scottish Government funded Dynamic Coast 2 project helps us to identify where the greatest risks from coastal change erosion and sea level rise are, this decade and into the future. Output from this project indicates that natural coastal defences protect £14.5bn of assets.

Based on these research results we are taking an adaptive planning approach to building resilience to coastal change. We have introduced a new capital budget for £12m over 4 years for coastal change adaptation which will be available from 2022-23. Guidance on how to produce Coastal Change Adaptation Plans is also being developed to help local authorities.