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The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring void properties in the social housing sector are made available to those in most need at this time. That is why we have jointly with COSLA issued allocations advice and information to support the housing sector.

This incorporates the most recent public health guidance to help landlords mitigate the challenges they face as a result of Covid-19 and supports them in making allocations safely.

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On 9 April 2020, the Scottish Government released a statement setting out what exercising rights of responsible non-motorised access to land under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 means during the Covid-19 emergency. The full statement is available here:

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This statement makes clear that responsibility in exercising access rights has always been at the core of access policy. Exercising access rights responsibly means respecting the needs of other people and we have advised access takers that they will need to adapt their behaviour in the national effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Under The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2020, people are only allowed to leave their homes for certain reasons. These include taking exercise, once a day, locally. When taking exercise, time spent outdoors should be minimised and people should stay two metres apart from anyone outside of their household.

People should make use of paths, open spaces and quiet roads in their own local area, for example a short walk, a run, or a short bike ride. People should not be driving to other locations to exercise.

For some people, their daily permitted local exercise might involve taking a short bike ride using a mountain bike. This is permitted providing that people comply fully with the Regulations and the published Coronavirus guidance.

We are clear that fly tipping is illegal, dangerous and unnecessary. Responsibility for responding to such behaviour rests with local councils as part of their wider role in the management of local waste services. We are committed to working with councils to support the resilience of those services and to monitor the impact that any temporary, necessary, disruption is having on illegal activity.

We recognise the importance of communicating with the public about how best to manage and dispose of waste at this time and, on 27 April, we launched a waste management marketing campaign and web resource that sets out how the public can manage waste at this difficult time, including messages on fly tipping prevention. Local authorities continue to play an important role in providing advice on changes to services at a local level.

The Scottish Government is determined to support businesses during this time, and we are offering a package of support worth £2.2 billion for businesses who can now claim rates relief and apply for one-off grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

Estate agents will be able to benefit from the 1.6% universal rates relief in 2020-21, which will apply automatically to their non-domestic rates bills.

Small estate agents claiming the Small Business Bonus Scheme or Rural Relief may also be eligible for a £10,000 one-off business support grant in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland have put in place a system to support the shielded population; that is those that are high clinical risk living in Scotland.

This service is being provided by two food distribution companies – Brakes and Bidfood - and Local Authorities via local resilience partnerships. We are also working with supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s, Iceland, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s along with National Health Service colleagues, to facilitate priority access to online supermarket delivery slots for those that fall within this high clinical risk group. Text messages were issued to shielded individuals on 9th April and the process of priority online deliveries has commenced.

Vulnerable people can also contact their Local Authority via an established helpline to facilitate local access to food.

Waste charges are the responsibility of individual local authorities and therefore any relief from charges for depositing waste at council facilities is a matter for local authorities to decide upon.

The Scottish Government remains committed to developing the circular economy in Scotland, including opportunities to promote reuse. We are continuing to pursue a number of key initiatives including the Circular Economy Investment Fund to stimulate business innovation; the ‘Revolve’ reuse quality standard for shops selling second-hand goods; and our Food Waste Reduction Action Plan.

We welcome the common sense decision to postpone COP26. Given the global health and economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that hosting an international conference in November would be difficult if not impossible. The decision also means that much needed resources can be focussed on the immediate task of saving lives and protecting the economy.

It is critical that COP26 increases global ambition to tackle climate change. The Scottish Government hopes that a date can be agreed shortly that allows the world to focus on the immediate priority of Covid-19 ensuring an ambitious COP26 can be delivered.

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving safer road travel in Scotland for all. We note that traffic flows have greatly reduced since non-essential travel was prohibited during the COVID-19 outbreak and therefore the Scottish Government has not considered reducing speed limits at the current time. However, it is vitally important that motorists continue to take care while making any journeys that are absolutely necessary for essential reasons.

Preparations for COP26 are well underway, but significant adaptation to how we engage with partners and stakeholders has been made to reflect the public health emergency that we now find ourselves in the midst of. The situation is having serious implications both for the health of the nation and our economy. In this changed landscape, governments, globally are taking stringent measures to halt the spread of the virus. The current position remains that the summit is due to take place in Glasgow, November 2020.

We will continue to work with partners and will be guided by scientific advice in the run-up to the event but our immediate concern, as would be expected, is in dealing with immediate impact of the virus.