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It is the responsibility of the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable to allocate resources across policing priorities, and to allocate officers to cases.

Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) provide a strong statutory framework to manage the risks posed by registered sex offenders with the greatest resources put towards those who present the highest risk to the public. Under MAPPA, Police, local authorities and other agencies work together to assess and monitor these individuals to reduce the risk they pose to the public. This includes proactive policing and zero tolerance of non-compliance which involves reporting cases to the Procurator Fiscal.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government invested an additional £75.5 million in policing bringing the total policing budget to more than £1.3 billion, including £15 million one-off funding specifically to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the police budget. Police officer numbers in Scotland have been maintained and are favourable relative to elsewhere in the UK with around 32 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland compared to around 23 in England and Wales.

We work closely with the childcare sector representative bodies and appreciate the challenges faced by settings in relation to recruitment and retention. We are already providing support to all parts of the childcare sector with regard to recruitment and retention challenges. For example, we have invited those whose registrations to work in childcare have lapsed in recent years to re-join the sector; we are providing work experience in the sector via the National Transitional Training Fund; and our national recruitment campaign provides resources to assist with local recruitment. We continue to support the childminding sector as set out in Our Commitment to Childminding Report, which can be found at: Our commitment to childminding: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We will work in partnership with all parts of the childcare sector to develop delivery plans for school-aged childcare and funded early learning for one year olds and to ensure that the appropriate support is in place. We have also committed to developing a new, five-year Workforce Strategy for the childcare sector. The strategy will address recruitment and retention challenges to build on the support already available, taking into account our commitments to build a system of wraparound childcare and further extend early learning.

(a) As per the guidance on Discretionary Housing Payments and the guidance on the GOV.UK webpage, anyone receiving Industrial Injuries Benefit (and equivalent payments made as part of a War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme) are exempt from the benefit cap. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard this payment as income when assessing applications for housing related benefits.

(b) The Council Tax Reduction Regulations instruct that armed forces independence payments should be fully disregarded as income in the calculation of council tax reduction. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard these payments as income in relation to applications for council tax reduction.

The Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (NDRHI), which supported district heating development, closed to new applicants on 31 March 2021. However provisions were made to allow some applicants to commission up to 31 March 2022, in response to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) we have awarded over £20 million of capital grant funding to help unlock seven heat network projects, all of which intended to apply for the NDRHI. Since the closure of the NDRHI to new applications the LCITP has provided grant support for the development of Investment Grade Business cases for zero emission heat networks being taken forward without RHI support.

A Non-Domestic Rates Relief of 90% for new heat networks run by renewable sources was introduced in April 2021, around the same time that the Non-Domestic RHI closed to new applicants. This relief will remain in place until 31 March 2024. This is in addition to the existing 50% relief for all heat networks which has been extended to remain in place until 2032.

As set out in our Draft Heat Networks Delivery Plan, we are committed to providing capital support to heat networks. The successor to the LCITP will launch this year, and we have committed to investing at least £400 million through this programme for large-scale heat infrastructure including heat networks.

The central register of interests is not published.     The register is updated as and when new interests emerge and on an annual basis Group Heads are requested to review entries on the register for their staff to ensure that it remains accurate.   However, the SPCB recognises that transparency is important to ensure confidence in the process for managing conflicts of interest for SPS staff.  Officials are currently reviewing the Code of Conduct and as part of this review the SPCB will consider whether publication of all or part of the register of interests is appropriate.  The SPCB has requested advice from officials to assist it with its consideration of this matter.  

The Scottish Government has made clear its support for our indigenous languages, including Scots. It is essential that those that wish to use the Scots language are given every opportunity to use the language of their choice. For many, Scots is the language of home and community and its use in other areas of Scottish life should be encouraged.

The Scottish Government provides around £460,000 of funding to various Scots organisations and Scots projects such as the Scots Language Centre, Dictionaries of the Scots Language, Association of Scottish Literary Studies, Scots Radio and Scots Hoose to develop and promote Scots and deliver high quality Scots language learning and resources to open up the educational access to Scots for young people. In addition, the Scottish Government works alongside Education Scotland and the SQA and they have worked to standardise, promote and make the Scots language more readily available in schools.

The Scottish Government is committed to taking the forward the manifesto commitments for a new Scottish Languages Bill which takes further steps to support Gaelic, acts on the Scots language and recognises that Scotland is a multilingual society. This work is at an early stage and we intend to consult in 2022.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund has not been administered by local authorities so I have assumed that you are referring to the £10m Tenant Grant Fund announced in June and have responded to your question on that basis.

The purpose of the Tenant Grant Fund is to mitigate the short to medium term financial challenges being experienced by tenants adversely impacted by restrictions and regulations introduced since March 2020, to control the spread of Covid-19.

The fund enables local authorities to prevent homelessness and sustain tenancies by directly reducing, alleviating or paying off rent arrears altogether where a tenant is in either the social or private rented sectors, and has faced difficulties due to Covid-19.

On timings, the non-statutory guidance issued to support local authorities in their administration of the grant fund sets out that it is to be used specifically to help repay rent arrears that have arisen due to the Covid-19 pandemic between 23 March 2020 and 9 August 2021; and that arrears before 23 March 2020 cannot be covered.

However, local authorities have discretion as to payment in individual cases and should consider whether the payment is a necessary or justified action to avoid the tenant becoming homeless. This recognises the experience that local authorities have in supporting people in a housing crisis, and will help identify where funding would be most effectively provided.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund and the PRS Landlord (non-business) Covid-19 Loan will close to new applications at the end of December allowing final loans to be paid before the end of 31 March 2022, in line with the allocation of the Tenant Grant Fund.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund has not been administered by local authorities so I have assumed that you are referring to the £10m Tenant Grant Fund announced in June and have responded to your question on that basis.

The following table sets out the allocation each local authority has received from the Tenant Grant Fund:

The Scottish Government recognise the negative impact that noise disturbances can have on building occupiers. In response to queries regarding such issues Building Standards Division has previously published 'Noise - Guidance on Home Improvements' which provides advice to those considering the installation of hard surface floor coverings (such as laminates, wood, or tiles) and the benefits of providing suitable underlay materials.

Further guidance on improving sound insulation within homes can be found within 'Housing and Sound Insulation: Improving existing attached dwellings and designing for conversions' (Edinburgh Napier University) which sets out good practice on how to upgrade separating walls and floors to improve sound insulation performance. Individuals seeking to make improvements to the sound insulation of their properties are encouraged to seek advice from an acoustics professional to ensure appropriate solutions to reducing noise levels from their neighbouring properties.

Where noise from neighbouring properties is deemed excessive, individuals are encouraged to liaise with their local authority to seek specific advice on such matters.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-34739 on 5 February 2021. 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 .