Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25980

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the City Centre Recovery Task Force.

The City Centre Recovery Task Force published a report of their findings ( At the Heart of Economic Transformation: Report of the City Centre Recovery Task Force, 2021-22 (wpengine.com) ) in March 2022 which identified a number of priority outcomes to work towards over a five year period. The Scottish Government is currently working with Scottish cities, via the Scottish Cities Alliance ( Scottish Cities Alliance ) to progress work in two of these key areas:

Priority area 1: Increased residential capacity and occupancy and
Priority area 3: Reducing the amount of vacant and derelict land and property.

Scottish Government’s low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme is investing nearly £10m in 2023-24 and over £8m in 2024-25 supporting projects that will bring vacant and derelict land back into positive use to benefit communities and help tackle climate change. This is in addition to the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund which will see the five eligible local authorities receive a share of £5m investment in 2024-25.

The Scottish Cities Alliance have recently launched a Peer-to-Peer network built around the strategic objectives in the City Centre Recovery Taskforce Report, with the aim of:

Sharing knowledge and best practice from Scottish and international cities drawing on expertise from academia and the private and third sectors; and
Identifying and agreeing opportunities for future collaborative action.

The programme of knowledge exchange activity has been co-developed by the Alliance partners with Innovate UK, the Built Environment-Smarter Transformation Innovation Centre and the Connected Places Catapult to leverage in experience from wider UK and Irish Cities as well as research and knowledge exchange networks.

Question reference: S6W-25979

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) many families have received support and (b) much has been spent from the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding to date, broken down by local authority area.

Whole Family Wellbeing Funding was provided by the Scottish Government to deliver transformational change to improve holistic family support so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time. This includes £32m for Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) to build local service capacity for transformation and the scaling up of holistic family support in local areas. The work is driven by Children's Services Planning Partnerships at the local level, who have responsibility for deciding how to spend their allocation. Our Evaluation of year 1 activity was published on 31 January 2024 and can be found here https://www.gov.scot/publications/whole-family-wellbeing-funding-wfwf-year-1-process-evaluation-final-report/

We are distributing funding through three distinct Elements co-produced with stakeholders including The Promise Scotland:

Element 1 – Providing Direct Support to CSPPs:Funding allocated across all CSPPs to build local service capacity and transform family support services.
Element 2 – National Support for Local Delivery - a package of activity aimed at supporting local transformation. This includes:

o establishing collaborative learning partnerships with three CSPPs [East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Glasgow City] and a dedicated national support team to support planning and provide local learning that can be shared nationally

o a Learning into Action Network and a Knowledge Hub to share learning, facilitate peer support and collaborate ;

o an independent evaluation of the implementation and initial impacts of the programme to help shape and develop activity across WFWF going forward;

o research to support continuous improvement of the transformation support provided to the CSPPs as well as to generate learning about how transformational capability is built.

Element 3 – Taking a cross SG approach to system change – funding approved for twelve projects led by wider SG policy teams which would progress the aims of WFW.

To date the Scottish Government has spent £65.5m across financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.This figure does not include funding in addition to the local authority allocations for 2023-24 which have yet to be finalised. The following table provides a breakdown of the distribution of funding per Local Authority.

Local Authority	2022-23 Allocation (£m)	2023-24 Allocation (£m)
Aberdeen City	1.025	1.029
Aberdeenshire	1.464	1.467
Angus	0.657	0.654
Argyll and Bute	0.439	0.438
City of Edinburgh	2.199	2.201
Clackmannanshire	0.337	0.337
Dumfries and Galloway	0.917	0.917
Dundee City	0.894	0.893
East Ayrshire	0.832	0.833
East Dunbartonshire	0.471	0.473
East Lothian	0.579	0.583
East Renfrewshire	0.492	0.495
Falkirk	0.923	0.921
Fife	2.289	2.288
Glasgow City	4.666	4.663
Highland	1.420	1.417
Inverclyde	0.423	0.421
Midlothian	0.535	0.540
Moray	0.546	0.545
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0.161	0.159
North Ayrshire	0.959	0.954
North Lanarkshire	2.351	2.346
Orkney Islands	0.132	0.133
Perth and Kinross	0.805	0.806
Renfrewshire	0.988	0.986
Scottish Borders	0.668	0.669
Shetland Islands	0.158	0.157
South Ayrshire	0.604	0.603
South Lanarkshire	1.827	1.835
Stirling	0.495	0.493
West Dunbartonshire	0.604	0.602
West Lothian	1.140	1.143

Variations in allocations are due to data refreshes to reflect population movement.

In addition East Lothian received £1863.00 2022-23 for collaborative planning support and provide local learning that can be shared nationally.

Question reference: S6W-26101

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on delivering on the recommendations of the review of the Town Centres Action Plan.

Question reference: S6W-25970

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the proposed introduction of a non-domestic rates public health supplement on retailers, as set out in its Budget for 2024-25, would result in any grocery stores liable for the surtax paying the highest business rate poundage in the UK.

Question reference: S6O-03200

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has undertaken regarding the incorporation of the definition of deafblindness into the work of Social Security Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-25654

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with organisations to facilitate the development of leadership programmes to upskill and resource educational leaders to tackle gender inequality in education and learning, as part of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning developed a set of ambitions in order to help inform its work, including the development of leadership programmes with a focus on gender inequality in education and learning. Development of this particular ambition was undertaken in consultation with Education Scotland, COSLA, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Scottish Council of Deans of Education and gender equality organisations including Close the Gap, Zero Tolerance and Rape Crisis Scotland. Since then, discussion and work has been ongoing to refine the overall workplan, including this particular ambition, to ensure that it is able to foster the type of long term, complex, systemic change that is needed. I am committed to continuing and accelerating such work to ensure that girls and young women have a gender equal experience of education and learning. The next meeting of the Taskforce will take place on 18 April.

Question reference: S6W-25455

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-03059 by Neil Gray on 7 February 2024, what other options for “broadening our revenue base” have been considered over and above the introduction of a non-domestic rates public health supplement.

Question reference: S6W-25653

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what working groups within the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning it has formed to take forward the activities for each goal of the Taskforce.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning developed a set of ambitions in order to help inform its work, including consideration of the optimum way in which to deliver these ambitions, including through the establishment of working groups. Since then, discussion and work has been ongoing to refine the workplan, to ensure that it is able to enact the type of long term, complex, systemic change that is needed. I am committed to continuing and accelerating such work to ensure that girls and young women have a gender equal experience of education and learning.

Question reference: S6W-25657

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, which provide interactive feedback loops and testing assumptions threaded throughout all work, with regards to the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning developed a set of ambitions in order to help inform its work, including the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Since then, discussion and work has been ongoing to refine the workplan, to ensure that it is able to enact the type of long term, complex, systemic change that is needed. I am committed to continuing and accelerating such work to ensure that girls and young women have a gender equal experience of education and learning.

Question reference: S6W-25659

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to develop and deliver survivor-centred and trauma informed policies and procedures with regards to the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning.

Members of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning, including representatives from Zero Tolerance and Rape Crisis Scotland, have participated in the Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group, helping to drive forward the production of the Gender Based Violence in Schools Framework. The Framework, which will be launched on 4 March, provides schools with survivor-centred and trauma informed approaches to tackling Gender Based Violence in schools.

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