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The Scottish Government is not involved in the UK Government’s private sponsorship arrangements, or associated matching process through Homes for Ukraine.

The Scottish Government and partners are working hard within the UK Government’s sponsorship scheme to provide a fast and safe alternative to displaced people from Ukraine seeking sanctuary in Scotland and providing support when they do get permission to travel.

Once people have arrived through our super sponsor scheme, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland. Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation. All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities

Scottish Government Officials met with the Blood Cancer Alliance on 18 January. The Blood Cancer Alliance agreed to provide officials with details on how data collection on blood cancers would be useful for patients and to support the review and redesign of the Detect Cancer Early public facing website getcheckedearly.org. Officials agreed to collaborate with them to ensure experiences of those living with blood cancers are reflected in national cancer improvement programmes and they will be included in stakeholder engagement for developing any new national cancer strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08754 on 14 June 2022. 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

Scottish Government officials last met with COSLA on 26 May 2022 to discuss progressing the introduction of a national recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers. They are next due to meet at the end of June.

The Scottish Government has continued to engage with representatives from retailers who sell drinks online throughout both the development of the policy for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), and into the implementation phase that is presently underway. In addition, the Scottish Government and SEPA jointly held a workshop for retailers on 17 February 2022 to discuss takeback for containers sold online.

The Scottish Landlord Registration provides data on the number of private landlord registrations, for example in relation to the number of new applications, renewals made and the number of properties these relate to, on a monthly basis.

Official statistics on the sector from the Scottish Household Survey, are released as soon as they are available. In recent years, national results from the Scottish Household Survey have been published around September following the survey year, although Covid-19 has impacted on this survey, with 2020 results published in January 2022 and 2021 results scheduled for publication in December 2022.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Promise Scotland’s Oversight Board report and the continued focus and momentum across all stakeholders to Keep The Promise.

The Scottish Government remains committed to Keeping The Promise by 2030, working in partnership with Local Authorities, The Promise Scotland, third sector, health boards and importantly the care community.

On 30 March 2022 the Scottish Government published the Keeping The Promise Implementation Plan , setting out how it will Keep The Promise by 2030. The Plan contains over 80 actions which span over a range of areas including education, health, justice and child poverty.

We have published tables showing the debt advice levy funding for Scotland and the funding allocation for each year since 2019:

Debt advice levy funding: 2019 to 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2020-21/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2021-22/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2022-23/

As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support who need it, including unpaid carers. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE for unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.

Where we have recommended symptomatic or regular asymptomatic testing to unpaid carers (and the population) this has always been provided free of charge. Our testing programme continues to be based on clinical advice and is kept under review.

We are committed to ensuring that people living in adult care homes can spend time with the people who are important to them. Open with Care guidance, which was updated on 1 June, emphasises the importance of maximising opportunities to spend time with others. Where a care home has an outbreak, residents should be supported to see one of their named visitors.

Using legal powers under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act, two new statutory care standards were introduced on 31 March to ensure people living in care homes remain connected to their loved ones in order to support their health and wellbeing. The Scottish Government will further strengthen rights by including Anne’s Law as part of the forthcoming National Care Service Bill which will be introduced to Parliament shortly.

The Scottish Land Commission recently provided advice to the Scottish Government following the conclusion of their review of land and property taxation. It is only right that we take some time to consider the Land Commission’s recommendations in detail, and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, along with the Minister for Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, will look closely at them as part of our wider approach to tax policy. While there are no immediate plans to introduce any new national taxes, the Scottish Government continue to review any evidence and assess this as part of our wider approach to tax policy.