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The Scottish Budget 2021-22 delivers an unprecedented reduction in the Basic Property Rate (poundage) mid-revaluation to 49p, the lowest poundage in the UK. All properties with rateable values over £51,000, and £95,000, respectively are liable for a supplement on top of the poundage, delivering an Intermediate Property Rate (50.3p) and Higher Property Rate (51.6p).

The Scottish Budget 2021-22 also commits to extending the COVID-19 relief for properties in the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors for at least three months. Therefore, unlike in other parts of the UK, eligible Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties in Scotland will pay no rates irrespective of rateable value until at least 30 June 2021.

Should the UK Government bring forward an extension to their equivalent Retail Hospitality Leisure (RHL) relief that generates consequential funding, Ministers will match the extension period as part of a tailored package of business support measures. I recently wrote to the Chancellor to urge the UK Government to deliver an extension to their scheme, and provide the certainty businesses need.

699 applications were received for Phase 2 Round 1. Of these applications 529 were successful, amounting to a total of 17,452 devices.

Delivery of devices awarded through Phase 2 of the programme began in December 2020. To date 10,685 devices have been delivered to successful organisations as part of Phase 2.

Since the Connecting Scotland programme launched in May 2020, 20,076 devices have been delivered.

In reply to question S5W-32433, on 26 October 2020 the Scottish Government stated it expected to publish its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog Training Aids, including an analysis of responses to its stakeholder survey, before the end of the year. Work on this review had to be paused due to the pressures of the Covid pandemic, EU exit and other animal welfare legislative commitments, so it is now expected to be published before the end of March.

The analysis and all the relevant information supplied by stakeholders will be passed to the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission to consider as part of their planned review of dog training later this year.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The process for the creation of creative content for Brand Scotland campaigns is undertaken within the Scottish Government Communications Division and then approved by all Brand Scotland partners and the relevant portfolio Ministers. Brand Scotland partners also undertake their own supporting communications and follow their own organisational processes for delivery and dissemination.

The total production budget for the Scotland is Here, Scotland Is Now campaign film was £82,000.

Brand Scotland recently launched a digital marketing campaign, targeting audiences in Europe, to communicate Scotland's continued commitment to Europe and to encourage European partners to help keep Scotland at the front of people’s minds as a place to live, work, study, visit and do business following EU Exit.

The campaign film, Scotland is Here launched on Scotland is Now social channels on 1 January and ran until 14 January, primarily targeting France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Ireland and supporting content continues to be served over social channels.

As with all such campaigns, the core campaign was produced by Brand Scotland, and was followed up with complementary activity from Brand Scotland partner organisations who share content across wider networks and among stakeholders, with Scottish Enterprise inviting support from the GlobalScots network. The Scottish Government does not hold details of how many members of the network chose to share the content.

The campaign is yet to complete in full and an evaluation will be carried out however, by 20 January 2021 it had gained over 14.5 million views worldwide, reached over 52 million people in our target markets and increased our non UK social followership on Brand Scotland channels by 76%. One follower commented: ‘Thank you so much Scotland. You’ll always be in our hearts. We love your brave people and marvellous landscapes’. There were over 988 thousand engagements with many more comments of a similar sentiment.

The Digital Development Loan is demand led and allows individual businesses to determine where best to focus their investment. In the Phase 1 pilot, 21 businesses applied for a loan which resulted in digital skills training for 83 of their staff. In the current Phase 2 delivery the number of their employees who have improved their digital skills as a result of their employer’s decision will form part of the project’s appraisal.

The Digital Growth Fund is one of many policy initiatives aimed at supporting people and businesses to improve their digital capability. In addition to the free provision of further and higher education courses focussed on digital, we have also delivered programmes such as the Digital Start Fund, the National Training Transition Fund, DigitalBoost and the Youth Guarantee, all of which support the development of digital skills.

No money has been spent promoting the Scotland Is Here, Scotland is Now Brand Scotland campaign within Scotland, or the rest of the UK. The campaign is not yet complete, however, £308,000 was allocated by Scottish Government and £765,000 was allocated by Scottish Enterprise to promote it in multiple overseas markets utilising paid media and social channels.

Local authorities are responsible for securing and distributing devices. The following table details devices that have been ordered, received and distributed by end-December 2020, as reported by local authorities: