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Following the public consultation and Parliamentary scrutiny of Draft National Planning Framework (NPF) 4, we have been carefully considering the wealth of evidence received and intend to lay a final NPF4 in the Parliament later this Autumn.

Draft NPF4 was accompanied by a Housing Land Requirement Explanatory Report , which provides an explanation on the proposed Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement and Assessment Reports for each authority area.

The provision of NHS Pharmaceutical Care services is the responsibility of territorial Health Boards. Any concerns by members of the public on pharmacy closures and accessing services should be raised with the Health Board.

The arrangements under which applications may be made to open new pharmacies are long-standing and the current process is detailed in the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009. When an application to open a pharmacy is made, NHS Boards are required to establish a Pharmacy Practices Committee to act on their behalf in considering applications for entry to the Pharmaceutical List. In considering the application the Board will consider the pharmaceutical services already provided in the area, the pharmaceutical services to be provided and any representations received by the Board and also any other information available which is relevant to the consideration of the application. During this process, members of the public can be consulted on the need for additional community pharmacy capacity in their local area.

An application shall be granted by the Board only if it is satisfied that the provision of pharmaceutical services at the premises named in the application is necessary or desirable in order to secure adequate provision of pharmaceutical services in the neighbourhood in which the premises are located. The Scottish Government is not involved in deciding applications for pharmacies to be added to the Pharmaceutical List.

10 November 2022

Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in

Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) were introduced in 2008 as part of the broader Local Housing Strategy process. The process was reviewed in 2014 and updated with revised guidance and an Excel-based Tool. The Guidance and Tool are kept under review and are refreshed regularly in line with the release of updated Household Projections by National Records of Scotland.

In 2020, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence undertook ‘An illustrative pilot of the HNDA Tool in the context of Northern Ireland’ the report from this exercise concluded that “the Scottish Government’s HNDA tool is an analytical model that is underpinned by a clear rationale. Its potential as a means to facilitate scenario planning and promote inter-organisational collaboration means its application in the context of Northern Ireland has much to commend it”.

When planning for housing, household trends are a more relevant indicator of current and future housing need and demand than population.

Household projections are nationally available datasets from the National Records of Scotland (NRS). Household projections are a key input to Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) as they are an indicator of future households yet to form. Household data is distinct from population data as they can be one person or a group of people living together. They therefore reflect both changes in population trends and changes in the number of people living in each household.

The following local authorities conducted some form of survey work to support their Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) and Minimum All Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR) processes:

For the HNDA -

Local authorities are required to update their HNDAs every five years. In the latest round of updates during 2021 and 2022 eight local authorities updated their HNDA and these have been appraised by the Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA). Of these one, Argyll and Bute, undertook an HNDA Household Survey. South East Scotland authorities (City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, South Fife, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders) and South Ayrshire undertook some form of local survey work to inform parts of their HNDA. All eight authorities also used some form of local data to prepare their HNDAs.

Additionally, Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife) undertook a Primary Research Study, however, the appraisal process for this HNDA has not, as yet, been finalised.

For the MATHLR –

In total, five authorities used primary research to inform their MATHLR – Argyll and Bute and Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife).

Draft National Planning Framework (NPF) 4 was accompanied by a Housing Lan Requirement Explanatory Report , which provides an explanation on the proposed Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR), and Assessment Reports for each authority area. Information provided by each authority to inform the MATHLR is also available online at: www.transformingplanning.scot/national-planning-framework/supporting-information-for-draft-npf4/housing/

We have approached local authorities seeking data covering quarters one and two of the current financial year, or confirmation that the fund has been used in full and is now closed. This information is currently being quality assured before it is published on the Scottish Government website.

I refer the member to the Parliamentary Statement I made on Tues 8 November 2022, which set out the Scottish Government's pathway for the future of agricultural support including the conditionality of that support. This is in line with our Vision for Scottish Agriculture, published in March 2022, in which we committed to integrate enhanced conditionality of at least half of all funding for farming and crofting by 2025. We are seeking views on that conditionality in the public consultation “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture”, which closes on 21 Nov 2022.

Agriculture support is already conditional, the current Basic Payment Scheme requires Farmers, Crofters, etc to meet Cross Compliance and Greening measures, to qualify for that payment. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11606 on 10 November 2022 in relation to future conditionality of agricultural support. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government is refreshing the non-statutory guidance for Local Child Poverty Action Reports (LCPARs) to support local authorities and health boards to deliver focused reporting on their actions to support priority families. CRER and other stakeholders representing priority families have been consulted in drafting the guidance. This is part of our work with stakeholders to strengthen targeted action for priority groups. We welcome the opportunity to work with CRER to enable a greater focus on BME families in our national and local practice and reporting.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with other national partners, review LCPARs and engage with local authorities and health boards, offering feedback and sharing learning across areas. This process provides a further opportunity to support local focus on the six priority family groups.

The non-statutory guidance also highlights that the intersectional approach needed to support priority families is best served by person-centred, holistic action. We will continue to support local leads to engage directly with priority families in their areas who have direct experience of poverty to understand, design and deliver the tailored support needed.

Evidence and data play an important part in efficient policy delivery. Our commitment to continue to improve on our data and evaluation efforts is highlighted as part of the revised evaluation strategy to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Government publish child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group and since March 2022, time series for ethnicity breakdowns have also been published, including for child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group. The Scottish Government is happy to support CRER – and any stakeholders – with finding our published data and producing ad-hoc analysis.

Whilst recognising the important role of detailed statistical data, our tackling child poverty delivery plan is clear that an intersectional approach is needed to support priority families. Beyond statistical analysis, our action to tackle child poverty is based on a strong evidence base identifying the main drivers of poverty, as the CRER report acknowledges. To design policies that specifically help minority ethnic families, further evidence has been published to widen our understanding. This includes a detailed focus report on minority ethnic families, a summary update on drivers of poverty for all priority family types which fed into the development of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ and detailed understanding of what works to tackle child poverty.