³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The Advisory Sub-group for Education and Children’s issues have carefully considered their advice on nursery graduations this week. They confirmed that groups of parents and carers should not attend end-of-year events in Early Learning settings or schools in this academic year.

The COVID-19 safety guidance seeks to minimise the number of contacts that children and staff have, to keep them safe and to reduce the risk that children and staff need to self-isolate in the event of someone in the setting testing positive.

Our guidance is also in place to keep children in learning, and essential childcare settings open to support families now and over the summer. This has been a difficult decision that carefully weighed up the risks against the benefits.

I understand that families are disappointed that they cannot be present to mark these transitions from ELC to primary school. I am grateful to settings that have found safe ways to allow children to celebrate with their friends and key workers and found creative ways to share this with parents and carers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00457 on 14 June 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

A Human Rights Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament during this Parliamentary session taking forward the recommendations of The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership’s report.

City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) is benefitting from over £2.39 million of funding for its “Edinburgh EV Infrastructure Network Project” through Transport Scotland’s Switched on Towns and Cities challenge fund. Due to the scale of Switched on Towns and Cities projects the programme is delivered as a multi-annual funding stream, with work on-going across all 5 successful projects. City of Edinburgh Council is due to deliver 66 charge points of varying types (equating to 132 parking bays) at various locations across the city for use by residents, the public and also taxis. The project is due to complete later in 2021.

Whilst we work towards our net-zero transport targets, the Scottish Government will continue to align support with the vision and priorities set out in the National Transport Strategy 2 and Sustainable Transport Hierarchy. This represents a strong presumption towards enabling and promoting the use of active, sustainable and public transport modes over the use of private cars, regardless of their fuel type. Reflecting on the varied transport challenges and opportunities across Scotland’s urban and rural communities, this means we would expect to see car use in our largest cities reduce.

We know the pandemic has had a significant impact on students with many facing resulting financial difficulties. That’s why, since the onset of the pandemic we have committed over £96 million, which includes the additional £20 million we announced on 13 June 2021, to help alleviate the financial burden and stress among students.

Students facing additional hardship, including rent issues, as a result of Covid-19 should apply to their college or university for financial support from the FE/HE Discretionary Funds.

The Gateway Review into the Deposit Return Scheme began on 14 June 2021. We will provide an update to Parliament on the go-live date following summer recess.

The Scottish Government co-chaired the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership and wrote to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee on 11 March 2021 to outline its response to the Task Force recommendations.

The letter The Scottish Government wrote to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee can be found here: .

A Human Rights Bill will be introduced to Parliament during this Parliamentary session taking forward the recommendations of The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership’s report. The right to a healthy environment for everyone will be included as part of the proposed Bill.

The Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 made it an offence to charge or receive any premium or require the making of any loan in addition to rent and a refundable deposit of no more than two months’ rent as a condition of the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy. This was further amended in 2011 to place beyond any doubt that such fees were illegal premiums. This position is reiterated in the statutory Letting Agent Code of Practice which came into force on 31 January 2018.

Prospective tenants who think they have been charged an illegal premium can refuse to pay, where tenants think they have paid an illegal premium they can raise an action to recover any fee paid through the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber), there is no charge for this, or report the matter to Police Scotland.

In addition, where the person charging a fee is a letting agent, tenants can make an application to the Tribunal in relation to a breach of the Code of Practice. Where an agent is found to have breached the Code of Practice the Tribunal can issue a Letting Agent Enforcement Order that could include provision for the return of any prohibited fee.

Letting agents are required to be registered and to comply with the Letting Agents Code of Practice, which sets out the standards on how they manage their business and provide their services. This includes complying with relevant legislation and to have in place a complaints procedure. Concerns about a letting agent can be raised with the Letting Agent Registration team at the Scottish Government.

Amending Regulations were made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 today.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 to remove the Republic of Ireland and the area of Bedford Borough Council from the list of areas to which the common travel area restrictions apply.

These regulations also add Manchester and Salford to the list of areas to which common travel area restrictions apply.

The Regulations have been published at .