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Officials from the Scottish Government met with North Lanarkshire Council on 25 January 2024 to discuss matters relating to the consultation involving Condorrat and Baird Memorial primary schools. Although the consultation has concluded and these matters are being considered by the Council, including input from statutory consultees, the Scottish Government is aware that final decisions have not yet been taken by the Council and a further meeting will be arranged at an appropriate time.

The Scottish Government’s current focus is on our previously stated objectives to complete the vessels for our island communities, to support the workforce of Ferguson Marine and to ensure a sustainable future for the shipyard.

The spend on the vessels is subject to oversight by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and scrutiny by Audit Scotland. This will continue.

The Scottish Government has a broad range of delivery programmes which make advice and funding support on energy efficiency and low carbon heating available to households and businesses across Scotland. The Home Energy Scotland (HES) and Business Energy Scotland (BES) advice services offer free, bespoke, impartial advice, and also act as the gateway to our flagship fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland, and to other Scottish Government funding schemes such as the HES Grant and Loan and the SME Loan and Cashback.

Scotland’s Heat Network Fund (SHNF) supports the construction of new zero direct emission heat networks and communal heating systems, as well as the expansion and decarbonisation of existing heat networks across Scotland.

Registered Social Landlords are encouraged to make use of available funding sources for retrofit, which includes the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund. This fund supports both the deployment of clean heating and ”fabric first” enhancements, helping landlords deliver warmer and more energy efficient homes.

Communities and local council areas are also supported through Area Based Schemes (ABS), delivered by all local authorities in Scotland, which target fuel poor areas to provide energy efficiency measures to a large number of Scottish households and help reduce fuel poverty, and the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) which provides advice and funding to communities across Scotland looking to develop renewable energy, heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects.

The vast majority of funding allocated to councils is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their communities. Similarly, we would expect public bodies to exhaust all options to make any required efficiencies before cutting any services.

The 2024-25 Scottish Budget is a budget built on our values. It seeks to protect people and sustain services through these tough times. All budget decisions are subject to robust assessment in line with the Fairer Scotland Duty Act of 2018, which requires Scottish Ministers, when making strategic decisions, to reduce the inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage. Our funding for the third Sector will continue to prioritise investment in key infrastructure organisations and programmes which in turn provide critical support to the wider sector.

The third sector needs clarity and stability to increase its resilience and capacity to deliver services. That is why we have committed to develop a Fairer Funding approach for the sector to create conditions for it to thrive as part of a mixed economy.

The Scottish Government’s draft national Good Food Nation Plan sets out six over-arching Outcomes which indicate key areas to further develop our status as a Good Food Nation. These Outcomes have been developed with regard to a range of issues and principles set out in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, including the role of the food system in improving animal welfare and the importance of recognising all parts of the supply chain. The consultation on the draft national Good Food Nation Plan launched on 24 January and closes on 22 April ( ).

We are aiming to increase the consumption, production, and provision of local food. The Scottish Government is using its legislation and policies to maximise the impact procurement can have for public bodies, suppliers and local suppliers and the Scottish economy. To promote local and sustainable produce public bodies have the flexibility to:

• Design menus that include Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) food
• Specify food produced according to recognised assurance schemes, e.g. Quality Meat Scotland, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Red Tractor, RSPCA, or equivalent bespoke company systems
• Specify free range and organic food
• Specify requirements based on menu plans that are based on freshness, high nutritional value using food in season and flexible and frequent delivery times
• Divide contracts into small product lots and geographic areas to encourage the active participation of local businesses where it is proportionate to do so
• Introduce a facility on some frameworks to enable small manufacturers who do not have national delivery logistics in place to bid on a supply only basis
• Introduce a secondary price list within tenders to allow framework suppliers the choice to offer Scottish produce

The Scottish Government is committed to continuous improvement in animal welfare: a statutory review into animal welfare legislation is due to be published in 2025. In 2023 there was a Programme for Government commitment to consult on phasing out cage production for laying hens and gamebirds: this will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a pilot to introduce a net zero assessment, with the intention of a full roll out later this year. In developing the methodology for the pilot, we have looked at variety of existing approaches from other countries; including New Zealand, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Sweden.

We are investing £752 million in affordable housing in 2023-24 to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting a £60 million national acquisition programme.

To effectively meet housing need and support affordable housing priorities across different areas we want to support all tenures whilst still prioritising social rented homes.

We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% in rural ands island areas.

Scottish Government officials engage regularly with local authorities and other partners with regard to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

One of the most difficult choices we have taken is to reduce the funding for our Affordable Housing Supply Programme. We will, however, still invest £556 million in 2024-25 to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting the acquisition of existing properties.

We remain focused on our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.

In addition, we are accelerating work with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.

The Scottish Government welcomes all initiatives that support our work to tackle social isolation and loneliness, a public health issue which has been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be affected by the ongoing cost crisis.

The Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, and associated delivery plan that was published in 2023, outlines the strategic actions and priorities we are taking to tackle this issue. This includes funding support to 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs by providing opportunities for people to connect. Priority groups targeted by the fund are young people (aged 16-24), disabled people, people with a mental health condition, older people (aged 75+) and people living in areas of deprivation or on a low income.

Since 2021, we have invested £51m in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, with 3,300 grants being made to local organisations across Scotland to tackle issues including social isolation.

The Scottish Government encourages the Big Braw Community campaign to engage with the Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group to explore collaborative working on this issue.

I expect all NHS Boards, including NHS Forth Valley, to keep their services under review to ensure that they are of the highest quality; and that they meet the needs of local people, whilst remaining consistent with national policies and frameworks.

NHS Forth Valley have confirmed that they are considering a number of options to improve capacity and flow through Forth Valley Royal Hospital, which includes the development of a frailty unit. This work is still at an early stage and the Board have given assurances that no changes would be made without ensuring that all services can continue to be delivered safely and effectively.