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We continue to do all we can to support business. The £30 million discretionary fund has been provided to enable local authorities to provide additional support for businesses where they consider that necessary or justified. We have also created a new package of business support worth over £185 million to provide much needed support to several sectors. This includes, but is not limited to, support for licensed taxi and private hire drivers, mobile close contact services, tour operators and breweries, all of which are not covered by the Strategic Framework Business Fund.

In March, in response to coronavirus, the Scottish Government announced a £350 million emergency package for communities. Before opening the current £40 million Community and Third Sector Recovery Programme (CTSRP), the Scottish Government had already awarded over £22 million in grants to 1,349 organisations through the Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF).

More information on current support is available at

We have provided significant support to the hospitality sector since the start of the pandemic, including 100% rates relief and grants for both closed and impacted businesses at various intervals across the different periods of disruption. Our overall business support package exceeds £2.3 billion.

We are doing all we can with the powers at our disposal and continue to look at ways to further help the sector within available resources. We have announced a further £185 million to help impacted businesses through the winter and are developing details of this with industry, including the hospitality sector.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-33917 on 21 December 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

On the 2 October 2019, I confirmed that the Scottish Government would introduce legislation in this parliamentary session to entitle all children whose school start is deferred to access funded early learning and childcare in their deferred year.

The legislation required, an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, was laid on 7 December 2020. The SSI is called The Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2020, and will come into force on 1 August 2023.

Our overriding objective is to ensure that we roll out 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to all eligible children as soon as possible, and therefore we have set a realistic timetable for full implementation of extended eligibility for children who defer.

To progress the implementation of this policy ahead of August 2023, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which five local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support this early implementation.

The Joint Implementation Plan has been published at .I informed Parliament of this approach in the answer to question S5W-34053 on 16 December 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-33679 on 10 December 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

This information is not yet available as the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, as announced in August’s Programme for Government, opened for applications on Monday 7 December 2020.

The Scottish Government have worked at pace with our loan administrators to develop the application and decision processes, along with the online application portal. We expect statistics on a monthly basis, allowing for the holiday break we would expect the first full statistics to be available from mid-January.

As of w/e 2 October 2020 there have been 91 applications to the Private Rent Sector Landlord (non-business) COVID-19 Loan Scheme, please note of these applications 5 were later withdrawn by the applicants and 15 did not respond to requests for further information.

1. 39 applications have been approved, of these one loan offer is awaiting acceptance by the applicant

2. 26 have been rejected

3. 6 applications were awaiting further information / processing at that date

1. The total amount awarded (paid) was £145404.64, the award awaiting acceptance was £3900, thus total award was £149,304.64

2. The average award was £3828.32 *

* Average calculated as total amount awarded divided by number of successful applications .

Unlike previous funds which have been targeted towards specific groups or sectors impacted by COVID-19, the £30 million discretionary fund seeks to empower local authorities to direct additional financial support to specific groups or sectors within the business community where they consider this to be necessary or justified based on the distinct characteristics of their local economies. This recognises the insight that councils have on the business community in their area and where funding would be most effectively deployed in supporting local economies.

As such, it is for individual local authorities to determine eligibility for their respective schemes. We have, however, worked closely with local authorities in developing the fund to ensure that it targets businesses and self-employed people, such as taxi drivers, who may have been eligible for UK Government schemes but haven't been reached by Scottish Government financial support packages.

Decisions on what sectors and activities to re-open on our route out of lockdown are guided by the principles set out in our Framework for Decision Making. Proposals are technically assessed using the best available evidence and analysis of their potential benefits and harms to health, the economy, and broader society to minimise overall harm and ensure transmission of the virus continues to be suppressed. This assessment process includes oversight of the assessed health risks in different settings by the Chief Medical Officer and input from the other Chief Clinicians as appropriate.

We appreciate the impact on clubs and supporters, but our priority is to supress the virus and safeguard lives. Every human interaction is a potential bridge for the virus. Although outdoors is safer than indoors and small crowds safer than large, neither are risk free – which is why we are only permitting spectators at stadium events in lower risk level 0 and level 1 areas. The best way to get supporters back to sport is to reduce the prevalence of the virus.

This approach – based on advice from clinicians – takes into account a number of factors, including travel to and from venues and movement within grounds.