Chamber and committees

The pandemic has had a detrimental impact on people's finances, particularly those in low income households. Families who were already struggling before the pandemic have been pushed further into financial insecurity. For this reason, the Scottish Government has prioritised the financial security of low income families in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Manageable debt is a normal part of many households’ financial management. The Scottish Government’s approach is to tackle problem debt in a supportive and empowering way. In 2021-22, the Scottish Government has allocated over £7 million from the debt advice levy to support frontline provision of free debt advice services for the people of Scotland. This advice is delivered face to face, over the phone or online.

In addition, the Scottish Legal Aid Board oversees over £2 million of funding on behalf of the Scottish Government, through projects that support people dealing with personal debt problems, including debt created by rent or mortgage arrears.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy administers Bankruptcy, Protected Trust Deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which provide statutory debt solutions to people struggling with their personal debt. In response to the pandemic, the Scottish Government made changes to personal insolvency to provide better support to people facing financial difficulties. A stakeholder led policy review of statutory debt solutions is underway with recommendations expected by the end of the year.

There are many other Scottish Government policies and funding streams that have an indirect but positive impact on problem debt, such as support for tenants struggling with rent arrears, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and our wider support for low income households.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has a Policy in place regarding the treatment of Trans Prisoners in custody. This Policy is in line with the Equality Act 2010. The SPS carry out comprehensive risk assessments to assess risks to both prisoners and staff in determining how individual transgender prisoners are managed. The 2010 Act is generally reserved to the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government’s intention is this Policy would continue to have effect under the provisions in the draft Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

There is existing provision on celebrants not contravening provisions on gender reassignment discrimination by refusing to solemnise a marriage if the celebrant reasonably believes the gender of the person getting married has become the acquired gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This provision is contained in paragraph 25 of schedule 3 of the Equality Act 2010: Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk) which is generally reserved to the UK Parliament. The Scottish Government’s intention is this provision would continue to apply under the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

To protect the most vulnerable, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) will fit interlinked alarms into owner-occupied homes where the individuals or households are assessed as high risk through their Home Fire Safety Visit assessment process. As of 20 October 2021, SFRS have installed 9,363 linked smoke alarms, 3,506 linked heat alarms and 1,733 CO alarms. This is a total of 3,482 homes assisted to comply with the new standard.

The process to return Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the private sector continues and decisions have still to be taken in relation to the prospective sale of the business.

We have committed to updating Parliament on the sale process at the appropriate stage and to protect the integrity of the process we will not be making any further comment at this time.

As of 28 October 2021 the Scottish Government is aware of four companies based in the Highlands and Islands who are currently approved to carry out insulation work to the BSI retrofit standards.

These companies are certified to install insulation as per the British Standards Institution (BSI) Publically Available Specification (PAS) 2030. There are a larger number of companies accredited to BSI standards to install insulation that operate in the Highlands and Islands. For our example, our national fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland has 12 approved sub-contractors covering the Highlands and Islands.

The Scottish Government is working with industry to co-produce a new 'Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan' by Summer 2022 specifically focussed on strengthening the broad supply chains needed to deliver at the pace and scale we need.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is operated on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government, in compliance with our obligations under the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the UK and the EU.

It is for the airport’s management team to consider all potential business opportunities to maximise the use of the assets of the airport. Handling military flights has been a key part of Prestwick’s business for decades and remains an important and specialised part of its overall offering.

The Clyde 2020 initiative has brought together both scientific research and practical measures to improve the marine ecosystem of the Clyde. It has achieved a range of outputs and outcomes since 2014, for example to improve the public and stakeholder understanding of current scientific evidence in the form of a Layman’s Guide, analysed scientific outputs from assessments and their impacts, and operated as a sub-group of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership to provide scientific advice and input to the process of developing a regional marine plan for the Clyde marine region.

Every year we seek feedback about proposed changes to our ABS programme guidance from every local council. This guidance is also shared in draft with COSLA for information and comment. Scottish Government officials are also regularly approached by individual councils to discuss and where needed, to agree a higher intensity of grant-in-aid for projects with extra costs.

Successful and unsuccessful applications to Energy Saving Trust’s E-bike Loan Fund, broken down by month since November 2020, are summarised in the following table.