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The Scottish Government has not provided direct financial support to animal rescue shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the unprecedented demands on the Scottish Government's budget as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is, unfortunately, no scope to offer direct financial support at this time.

However, a universal 1.6% rates relief has been made available to all non-domestic properties in Scotland. Non-domestic rates are administered by local authorities, and they will apply this relief automatically.

Additionally, charitable rates relief provides an 80% mandatory rates discount, providing the property being occupied by a charitable organisation, or trustee of a charity, and be used wholly or mainly for charitable purpose; and the organisation is formally registered with OSCR (The Scottish Charity Regulator). A further 20% charitable rates relief is available, and is awarded on the discretion of the local authority.

In addition to rates reliefs, non-domestic properties, including shelters, may have been eligible for the Small Business Grant Fund which provided £10,000 for the first eligible property, and 75% grants (£7,500) to each additional property, in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), or eligible for the SBBS but in receipt of a small number of other reliefs such as charitable rates relief. This scheme closed on 10 July.

The Food Waste Gone Bad campaign included television, radio and digital campaigns. The TV element was showed on STV, C4 and ITV breakfast Scotland and the following table shows how many times all adults in Scotland will have seen the advert one (1+ reach), three times (3+ reach) and how many opportunities to see (OTS) the advert there are:

With the increase of transmissions in Scotland and the new strain, there are no current plans to review this decision. We keep the content of the Strategic Framework under regular review.

The difficulties faced by justice social work in delivering community orders during the coronavirus pandemic were acknowledged by the Scottish Parliament through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which extended timescales for completion of unpaid work and other activity requirements, and created new regulation-making powers enabling community orders to be postponed or varied if necessary, subject to Parliamentary approval.

Social Work Scotland raised significant concerns during the summer about the ability of justice social work to deliver outstanding unpaid work and other activity requirements within reasonable timescales, suggesting that the effective operation of the community justice system is at significant risk unless action is taken to reduce the backlog, utilising the regulation-making powers mentioned above. I made clear to the Justice Committee I will keep the situation under review.

The Covid restrictions mean that unpaid work hours are not able to be completed in the same way they were pre-Covid, therefore serious consideration must be given to the options provided within the regulation-making powers, which all parties voted for. I will update Parliament on any decision I make in this regard.

In regards to wider support, an additional £4m in justice social work services has been invested in 2020/21 with flexibility to utilise this in responding to emerging pressures arising because of the pandemic. A further investment of up to £1m was agreed in December 2020 to assist in reducing the backlog of undelivered unpaid work or other activity requirements and there has been regular engagement with Social Work Scotland, local authorities and other partners throughout the pandemic.

Our approach and principles remain those we set out in our Framework for Decision-Making , based on clinical evidence, expert advice, and a balanced assessment of the risks.

Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators. Given that the situation with the virus remains fragile – with many cases and continuing pressure on the NHS – we are taking a cautious approach.

The Scottish Government last met with the:

Scottish Football Association on 16 December 2020

Scottish Professional Football League on 10 December 2020

Scottish Amateur Football Association on 4 December 2020

Scottish Football Supporters Association on 25 November 2020

We routinely meet with the Chairmen – and senior representatives like Chief Executives – of SPFL Premiership clubs, the last discussion was with the Chairman of Ross County on 18 November.

Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators.

The £70 million recycling fund provides a significant opportunity to improve local authority recycling collection infrastructure in order to drive further progress towards Scotland’s ambitious waste and recycling targets.

Through the joint Scottish Government & Local Government Strategic Steering Group on Circular Economy and Waste, we are continuing to work with Cosla, SOLACE, representatives from the Waste Management Officer’s Network and Zero Waste Scotland to agree an approach to the fund and identify opportunities to maximise its impact. As yet, no decisions have been made on how the fund will be distributed.

Since 2014, the Scottish Government has engaged with local authorities and other key partners on litter issues through various mechanisms, including the Litter Managers’ Network, which meets regularly. Enforcement practices have been further discussed in the enforcement sub-group of the Litter Managers’ Network which has met six times since 2018, as outlined in S5W-33603 and S5W-34082 on 23 December 2020; as well as in the steering group that was tasked with reviewing the National Litter Strategy.

Details on the applications and payments made through the Covid-19 Restrictions fund were published on the Scottish Government website on the 18 December and can be found .