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The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government met Motability Operations Limited on 21 October 2021 to discuss the Accessible Vehicle and Equipment Scheme in Scotland and the role of Motability as an accredited provider for the Scheme.

Scottish Government officials meet with Motability Operations Limited regularly to discuss matters related to the implementation of the Scheme.

The Scottish Government’s Accessible Vehicles and Equipment Scheme delivers a similar service to the current Motability scheme to people in Scotland.

The information requested on vacancy rates for retail and hospitality units is not held centrally but is held by Local Authorities.

As set out in the answer to S6W-06070 on 25 February 2022, work to implement the recommendations of the Deer Working Group is underway. Part of this work involves considering the most appropriate method of reporting on progress and further details on this will be provided in due course.

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

As we set out in our 2021 Programme for Government we will: ‘modernise deer management, implementing the recommendations of the Deer Management Working Group.’

The Deer Working Group report includes recommendations relating to cull targets, including those for a cull approval system, and we are working with NatureScot, and other relevant agencies, to progress those recommendations under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme.

Work to implement the recommendations of the Deer Working Group is underway. A project board has been established under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme. Further details about this work will be made available in due course, including arrangements for the involvement of external stakeholders.

NatureScot, in their role as Scotland’s deer authority, gather and publish data on annual deer cull returns.

Formal cull return requests are now being issued for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. The requests were delayed due to difficulties in sending out cull return requests as a result of Covid-19 measures. Once those completed returns have been received annual deer cull returns will then be published.

As the 2021-22 season is ongoing, cull return requests for this year have not yet been issued.

We encourage any owner of a traditional building to explore the best available methods of repair and maintenance for their properties, including shop-owners and we welcome local shopfront improvement schemes which seek to increase the attractiveness and conserve the distinctiveness of high streets.

Draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) recognises the importance of our historic environment in defining the character of our places, and in promoting a sense of place, belonging and cultural identity.

Draft NPF4 also encourages Distinctive Places. Universal Policy 6, on Design, Quality and Place, sets out the six qualities of successful places. One of these is ‘distinctive’ which refers to attention to local architectural styles, with designs reinforcing identity, by drawing on historic environment assets, as well as examining building types, colours and materials and acknowledging the sense of place, heritage and identity.

Shopfront requirements around design, colour and materials are more appropriately covered in local guidance, to reflect and reinforce local styles and character of places.

Local planning authorities are best placed to advise property owners regarding the necessary consents for any restoration or renovation. It is important to ensure these consents remain appropriate and not unnecessarily restrictive. This maximises the ability of the local economy to flourish, while we continue to carefully preserve the distinctive characteristics of local spaces.

The then Housing Minister, Mr Stewart, wrote to the UK Government in March 2021 to raise this issue, but the response received from HM Treasury suggested this would be prohibitively expensive to VAT receipts. Whilst cost is clearly a consideration, we believe this alone should not dictate policy decisions and that the changes suggested would help communities retain existing - often historic - buildings. This would also contribute towards our net-zero ambitions by reducing the emissions caused by demolition and new construction, which benefits from lower VAT rates.

The Scottish Government recognises the difficulties facing Scotland’s cities and businesses as a result of the global pandemic as highlighted in the Centre for Cities report. The Scottish Government has provided more than £4.4 billion of business support since March 2020. This includes COVID-19 non-domestic rates reliefs which have saved businesses around £1.6bn in reduced rates bills since 1 April 2020. In addition last year, we awarded £2m directly to our cities through the City Centre Recovery Fund, to kick-start their recovery.

The Omicron variant in late 2021 further impacted on city centre recovery and has exacerbated the economic challenges faced by our city centres and their businesses. As such, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced an additional £3m of funding this financial year through the City Centre Recovery Fund on 10 February. These monies will support all seven cities build sustainable recovery for their centres and their businesses and will take forward the priorities of the City Centre Recovery Task Force.

Work to improve the sustainability of Scotland’s deer management systems, including recommendations made by the Deer Working Group, will be taken forward under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

Priorities will be broadly split across four streams: legislation; regulation; incentives; and operational delivery. The work stream focusing on incentives will include proposals to mainstream deer management into existing schemes, and scope for any new schemes.

We will lay out further details of this work in due course.