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The Scottish Government furlough support fund is providing businesses with grants of £1,650 per premise to help meet the cost of furloughing staff by providing support towards the 20% employer’s contribution that businesses are required to pay under the October arrangements for the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS).

This fund is open to businesses in the local authority areas that had to close due to increased restrictions across Scotland and covers the period from 9 th October to 31 st October. The JRS has been extended across the UK for a further month, in November, and will only require employers to meet National Insurance and Pension contributions – usually around 5% of overall staff costs.

This fund will be delivered through local authorities from 30 October. Businesses that had to close who are looking for a contribution towards JRS payments for 9-31 Oct can apply to their councils. Businesses who have already applied for the Covid-19 Restrictions Fund will be contacted by their local authority to check if they are eligible for furlough support.

The scheme will close to new applications on 30 November.

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.

Guidance was provided online on the Scottish Government website and in grant letters.

The Scottish Government has provided total funding of £900,000 to the Creative Communities Programme to cover the period to July 2021.

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.

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

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