It is for local authorities to put forward sites they consider to be a priority for support in line with the eligibility criteria for the fund: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/housing-infrastructure-fund.

The Scottish Government has committed over £3 billion of grant funding to support the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes in Scotland (35,000 for social rent), during this parliamentary session. As part of its on-going engagement with local authorities in their role as strategic housing authorities, the Scottish Government has recently held discussions to identify any areas where more support could be provided to strengthen skills and capacity on housing delivery in the short term. The Scottish Government is currently considering the outcome of these discussions and the range of support it may provide, including, where appropriate, financial assistance. Further details on this, including any financial assistance that has been identified, will be set out this autumn.

Data on planning authority staffing have only been collected since 31 March 2013 as part of Planning Performance Frameworks. The information collected is staffing at all levels across planning authorities including planning staff, planning technicians and administrators. Not all authorities have provided information.

(a) None.

(b) I refer the member to the answer to his previous question S5W-01600 on 16 August 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

We have no plans to require public bodies, or local authorities, to produce registers of brownfield land. A register of each urban vacant and derelict site surveyed by local authorities in the 2015 Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey is available on the Scottish Government website at

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/SVDLSSiteRegister.

The Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012 prescribes the information that the Keeper is required and empowered to include in the map-based Land Register of Scotland. We have no plans to prescribe the inclusion of information about brownfield land.

We continue to support development on brownfield sites though our £7.835m Vacant and Derelict Land Fund provided to local authorities through the Local Government settlement.

The Scottish Government has committed to consider measures to tackle poverty across all ethnicities, reflecting our approach to social justice and our response to the report from the Independent Adviser on Poverty and Inequality. In the Race Equality Framework, we committed to filling evidence gaps on how and to what extent people from minority ethnic groups are accessing the benefits they are entitled to and to ensuring that all relevant policy and programme areas – such as benefits take-up policy and access to advice services (including financial advice) - are fully impact-assessed for equality, as is our legal duty.Our starting point is that services must be accessible and work for all. However, in some instances, there may be a need for targeted action that focuses specifically on minority ethnic communities. For example, we are aware that people from minority ethnic groups may be under-represented as applicants of the Scottish Welfare Fund: we are therefore looking to work with relevant organisations and to target publicity for these communities, so as to improve their access to the fund across Scotland. We will continue to look for opportunities to support people from minority ethnic groups, particularly those on low incomes, in all our work going forward.

The Scottish Government offers “unconscious bias” training for all its staff. This is part of comprehensive range of measures implemented to help us provide a fair and inclusive workplace and complement our fair and open approach to resourcing.

On 11 July 2016, the Scottish Ministers issued our response to the independent review of planning. The response states that we agree with many of the panel’s recommendations and outlines both the immediate and longer term actions we will take to bring about planning improvement and reform.

We are committed to working in collaboration with key stakeholders and will be setting up themed working groups to consider the options in more detail. This work will inform a White Paper, which we intend to fully consult on in Winter 2016.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) sets out national planning policies for the protection and enhancement of the built environment. These promote the care and protection of the designated and non-designated historic environment whilst enabling positive change. Change should be sensitively managed to avoid or minimise adverse impacts on the fabric or setting of a historic environment asset and ensure that its special characteristics are protected, conserved or enhanced in development proposals.