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The chief officers of health and social care partnerships were provided with a link to guidance on the Scottish Government website regarding the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020. This was provided on 7 April, the day all of the provisions in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 came into force, apart from those relating to the easements to s.13ZA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Chief officers were advised of the relevant pages that contained guidance on adults with incapacity changes. That guidance made clear that the easements to s.13ZA would only come into force when and if Ministers approved its use by invoking regulations. This would be strictly only when evidenced as being absolutely necessary. These regulations did not come into force.

This information is not held centrally. However, you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold. The Scottish local government page of the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has contact information for these: https://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils.

Since 2015, the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership has equipped more than 640,000 people in Scotland with CPR skills. Over the same time period the rate of people surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest has increased from one in 20 to one in 10.

In March this year, the partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy, which sets out a number of actions across the chain of survival, including actions to improve bystander CPR and defibrillation rates. There is a clear commitment to working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to learn CPR. The strategy can be found at:

Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Dental check-ups for all NHS patients in Scotland were made free from 1 April 2006. Throughout the pandemic dental teams have been advised to prioritise NHS patients, including new mothers, on the basis of their dental care needs.

At the start of 2021, the Scottish Government held several discussions with the UK Government and the other Devolved Administrations regarding a joint approach to encourage participation in Horizon Europe by UK organisations. As part of these, UK Government officials were made aware of the plans of the Scottish Government to dedicate funding to support European research collaboration before the launch of the Saltire Research Awards. Scottish and UK Ministers communicate on strategic research policy issues regularly.

The number of wind farm applications approved through the appeal process in the last 24 months, by local authority area, are set out in the following table:

Grant funding allocations were made to councils based on levels of deprivation and rurality within their areas, allowing them to purchase devices and connectivity for learners to align with local digital strategies. Local authorities have been responsible for securing and distributing devices, and for reporting to Scottish Government on progress. Global pressure on supply chains (primarily as a result of the pandemic and the move to home learning and working) has resulted in delayed delivery times for some devices.

The following table shows the number of devices ordered, received and distributed at end-March 2021 (immediately before the Easter break after which in-person learning resumed), as reported by individual local authorities.

The Scottish Government has a number of loan schemes open to those interested in RHI which will continue to be available when the RHI ends in 2022.

They include: The Renewables Loan which supports the installation of renewables measures in Scottish domestic properties. Households can fund up to two renewables systems for each home, to a maximum of £17,500 in total and up to £6,000 funding for an energy storage system.

To help first time adopters over the first hurdle to renewables, we also have developed an additional incentive, the Renewable Heat Cashback Scheme, which can offer up to 75% (to a maximum of £7,500) cashback funding.

For commercial properties, we have the SME Loan and cashback scheme. The loan scheme provides unsecured, interest free loans of up to £100,000 to Scottish Small to Medium size enterprises, not-for-profit organisations and charities to finance the installation of renewable heating and energy efficiency measures. Since the inception of the SME loan scheme, it has paid over £29 million in loans, funding more than 1000 projects.

In October 2008, the cashback scheme was launched to stimulate uptake of the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Heat measures in non-domestic properties. SMEs can apply for a 75% cashback grant of up to £10,000 towards the cost of a renewables heating system and a further 30% cashback of up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures.

The number of wind farm applications determined in the last 24 months due to a local authority's non-determination, broken down by local authority area, are set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government through the Energy Savings Trust (EST) delivery a number of initiatives to support local community transport groups to decarbonise, the details of schemes are as follows:

Plugged-in Communities (PiC) programme.

This programme aims to provide access to electric vehicles and the associated infrastructure to low-income communities in the form of shared-use electric vehicle car clubs.

15 organisations have been successful in obtaining grant funding to support 63 new electric vehicles, organisations were also able to apply for funding through the ChargePlace Scotland programme which provided funding to cover the cost of the charge point infrastructure, as a result 45 charge points were installed to support these electric vehicles and the communities they serve.

To date, Grant funding of over £900k to support these communities under the Plugged-in Communities fund has been provided.

The E-bike Grant Fund

This fund supports community groups to adopt e-bikes and e-cargo bikes as more sustainable alternatives to car journeys through providing grants of up to £25,000.

Since 2018 the Scottish Government through the E-bike grant fund has introduced an additional 1145 E-bikes across Scotland and awarded over £2.8m to 156 public sector organisations and community groups.

Climate Challenge Fund (CCF)

The Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) has, since 2008, provided total funding of over £111 million to support more than 1,150 community-led climate action projects across Scotland, including a significant number that have promoted active and sustainable travel.

Community Climate Asset Fund (CCAF)

The £3.2m Community Climate Asset Fund (CCAF), launched late last year, benefited 279 community-based organisations, enabling 31 to specifically purchase e-vehicles.

Through our new framework of community climate action hubs and Climate Action Towns, we will continue to support communities to make the transition to low carbon and climate resilient living.