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On 27 October we announced that the first tranche of payments through this fund would be made available to nightclubs and soft play centres which have been closed since March.

No payments have yet been made through this fund as we are working in partnership with local authorities to develop a mechanism which negates the need for an application process.

Data is being collated and is going through validation processes and will be published in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-32389 on 27 October 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

All eligible applications to the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund will be given equal consideration by Creative Scotland. Supply chain businesses that work in support of cultural activity were able to apply to the fund.

a)The Scottish Government has not met with members of the Indian film industry regarding filming of productions in Scotland; however, I met with Poonam Gupta OBE, Chief Executive of PG Paper, on 21 October 2020. Ms Gupta met with me on behalf of a producer from the Indian film industry.

b)The information requested on behalf of Scottish Government agencies is not held centrally.

The Town and Country (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2014 (the Order), Part 2 D, Class 9E and 9F already provides that planning permission is not required for the installation of an electrical outlet mounted on a wall or for an upstand with an electrical outlet mounted on it for recharging electric vehicles, as long as the area is lawfully used for off–street parking.

In addition, class 2B of the Order allows an amendment to a house which is not an enlargement, including charging outlets, as long as the development would not project more than one metre from the external surface of the house. Class 4A allows similar developments for flats.

None of the above permitted development rights apply in conservation areas, and they are subject to requirements set out in the Order.

A review of permitted development rights for electric vehicle charging infrastructure will form part of phase 2 of our wider programme to review and extend permitted development rights and is scheduled to commence in January 2021.

£3,384,042.53 of investment was made from the tackling food insecurity budget, also known as the Fair Food Fund, across the 2019-20 financial year. The Fair Food Fund includes a number of work streams and our investment is as follows.

Fair Food Transformation Fund – Interim Funding

In 2019 we launched the Investing in Communities Fund, a new single harmonised communities fund, to replace several funding mechanisms, including the Fair Food Transformation Fund.

In order to avoid potential breaks in income from a move to the new fund, the Scottish Government provided 32 legacy organisations with 6 months of interim funding, up to 50% of their 2018-19 awards, amounting to £372,061.50. These organisations are detailed in the response to parliamentary question S5W-21342 on 21 February 2019. In total, around £1.4m was provided to organisations tackling food insecurity, exclusive of school holiday food insecurity, through the Investing in Communities Fund in 2019-20.

Tackling Food Insecurity During the School Holidays

The Scottish Government invested £1,879,917.38 towards tackling food insecurity during the school holidays in 2019-20. This funding supported 35 organisations, at both local and national level, and was delivered both directly through the Fair Food Fund and through the Investing in Communities Fund.

Policy Development and Engagement

The Scottish Government invested £176,208 for policy development and engagement, including continuation of Nourish Scotland and Poverty Truth Community’s delivery of the Dignity in Practice programme and closer change analysis of several models of support for distinct at risk groups.

FareShare

In addition to their core grant, national food redistribution charity FareShare received funding to increase the capacity of the community food sector and extend their reach to cover the Highlands and Islands, totalling £455,855.65 in 2019-20.

EU Exit Mitigation Funding

Additional Scottish Government funding mitigated against the potential impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union. FareShare were provided with an additional £500,000 to purchase ambient, chilled and frozen food to support community food initiatives responding to food insecurity, bolstering community resilience to the impacts of a potential No Deal EU Exit.

Summary

The current position of no background sound in hospitality in Scotland, including low level music and audio from television, is a measured and cautious approach to reduce risk. There have been no discussions with other countries in relation to this measure. It is being kept under review and government has engaged with industry experts to consider how guidance can be developed to allow low level background sound to be managed safely when transmission rates are back to a manageable level.

The entire £70 million recycling fund announced in the 2020-21 Programme for Government is new funding.

We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for enhancing food waste monitoring and measurement, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course. There is considerable ongoing work to support food businesses to voluntarily report their food waste and surplus in Scotland through Zero Waste Scotland’s activities. This includes supporting businesses to consistently measure and monitor their food waste, analysis to determine the largest waste sources, improving measurement methodologies and development of best practice to support accurate food waste reporting.

Proposals for powers to enable mandatory public annual reporting of food waste and food surplus were consulted on during autumn 2019 as part of draft proposals for legislation for developing Scotland’s Circular Economy, receiving a positive response. The full independent analysis of these consultation responses is available on the .

The UK electronic waste tracking system, in which Scottish Government and SEPA are partners, will offer near real time data on site-specific food waste arising from businesses. This system will offer granular detail necessary to help facilitate nation-specific annual public reporting, identify Scottish site-specific data, and align with EU food waste reporting requirements. Two prototype systems are currently being finalised before procurement for delivery of the final system takes place in Spring 2021.