Scottish Government
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Monday 22 March 2021 SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Communities Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the economic recovery of town centres following the COVID-19 pandemic. (S5W-35953) Aileen Campbell: We are focused on delivering the maximum support for the economic recovery of our town centres. Grants of up to £7,500 for retailers and up to £19,500 for hospitality and leisure businesses will be paid in April to help businesses, including town centre businesses, re-open progressively. These one-off re-start grants will replace ongoing Strategic Framework Business Fund payments and will provide more money up front to help with the costs of re-opening. We have extended 100% Non-Domestic Rates relief for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22 – this is more generous than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations. To support sustained longer-term renewal for our towns, cities and villages, we are establishing a Place Based Investment Programme backed by £325 million capital investment over 5 years from 2021-22. The Programme aims to link and align all place based funding initiatives and progress our ambitions for community-led regeneration, town centres and 20 minute neighbourhoods. It will build on the additional £34 million economic stimulus for regeneration and towns and other funding provided specifically for town centres, smaller settlements and Business Improvement Districts in the current financial year. Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it plans to support (a) Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and (b) Hamilton BID during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. (S5W-35956) Aileen Campbell: Building on over £1.85 million direct funding to BIDs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will provide more than £600,000 funding to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in 2021-22 to support economic recovery. This will support BIDs to manage continued risks caused by the effect of the pandemic, in particular those due to re-ballot during or after March 2021. Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP),the Scottish Government’s BIDs support partner, is working closely with Hamilton Our Town BID to ensure the BID is aware of and benefitting from all available support. The BID has received over £46,000 in direct funding from the Scottish Government during the pandemic. STP will continue to work with the BID and South Lanarkshire Council through recovery to ensure the BID can actively support progress across its levy members and wider community. Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government whether the establishment of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland, as a result of the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2003, has helped to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people in Scotland, and what its position is on whether the establishment of an Older People's Commissioner would help to promote and safeguard the rights of older people in Scotland. (S5W-35977) Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government recognises the role played by the Commissioner and their role as the guardian of children’s rights in Scotland. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body sets the terms of the Commissioner’s appointment, including the allocation of resources. The Commissioner is required to report to Parliament each year on the exercise of his functions. With regard to the creation of a Commissioner for Older People, the Scottish Government’s position has not changed and is set out in response to S5W-32242 on 22 Oc tober 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx . Shona Robison (Dundee City East) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Dundee receive the Scottish Child Payment, and (a) how many people it estimates will be eligible and (b) what the total value of these payments will be in Dundee in each of the next three years. (S5W-36226) Shirley-Anne Somerville: At present we have not published information on how many people in local authority areas receive Scottish Child Payment. More detailed information on application outcomes and payments, including at a local authority level, will be included in the next release of Official Statistics which will cover the period to the end of March and is due to be published on 11 May 2021. Using the latest available forecasts published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in January 2021, Scottish Government analysis estimates there could be around 4,300 families receiving the payment in Dundee in 2021-22, which equates to around 5,400 eligible children. Subject to receiving data from the Department for Work and Pensions, it is our intention to extend the payment to under 16s by end 2022. Therefore using the above forecasts our analysis estimates that 15,500 children in Dundee could be eligible in 2022-23. In 2023-24, the first full financial year of the under 16s payment we estimate 15,000 children could be eligible. The total value of Scottish Child Payment in Dundee could be £2.3 million in 2021-22, £3.5 million in 2022-23 and £6.1 million in 2023-24. The increase in spending in 2023-24 reflects that under 16s will only be paid for part of the previous year 2022-23. Shona Robison (Dundee City East) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Dundee it estimates will receive the Pandemic Support Payments of £130 for households receiving Council Tax Reduction, and when they will receive these payments. (S5W-36231) Aileen Campbell: The £130 Pandemic Support Payment will be made to households in receipt of Council Tax Reduction and certain households who are either exempt from Council Tax or have no liability, including those in temporary accommodation and care leavers. Based on the latest data available on receipt of Council Tax Reduction, from January 2021, we anticipate that around 17,950 households in the Dundee City Council area will benefit from this measure. The Scottish Government continue to engage with COSLA and local authorities on delivery of this new payment, which will be made by the end of summer 2021. Further detail, including eligibility and payment dates, will be published on mygov.scot in due course. Joe FitzPatrick (Dundee City West) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Dundee have received each of the social security benefits administered by Social Security Scotland in each year since 2016, also broken down by the total amount administered through each of the benefits. (S5W-36242) Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland was established in September 2018. The number of carers in receipt of Carer's Allowance Supplement in Dundee City by financial year are: Carers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance Supplement Total since September 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2018 Carer's Allowance 2,785 2,885 2,925 3,700 Supplement The amount of Carer’s Allowance Supplement paid in Dundee City by financial year is: Value of payments (£) Total since 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 September 2018 Carer's Allowance 1,125,000 1,197,000 1,884,000 4,207,000 Supplement The number of applications authorised for payment in Dundee City by financial year and benefit are: Applications authorised for payment 1 2020-21 (up to Total since 2018-19 2019-20 published date) September 2018 Best Start Grant/Best Start 445 3,115 1,935 5,495 Foods 5 Funeral Support N/A 125 185 315 Payment 6 Young Carer Grant 7 N/A 35 60 95 Job Start Payment 8 N/A N/A 20 20 The amount paid in Dundee City by financial year is: Value of payments (£) 2 3 4 2020-21 (up to Total since 2018-19 2019-20 published date) September 2018 Best Start Grant/Best 155,100 859,378 716,591 1,731,069 Start Foods 5 Funeral Support N/A 205,332 359,210 564,542 Payment 6 Young Carer Grant 7 N/A 10,800 17,965 28,765 Job Start Payment 8 N/A N/A 5,650 5,650 1. Applications are processed once a decision has been made to authorise or deny the application, or once an application is withdrawn by the applicant. 2. Payments are issued once applications are processed and a decision is made to authorise the application. Data is presented by the date a payment is issued rather than date the application was received or the date of decision. 3. Includes payments that are a result of redeterminations and appeals. 4. Excludes a very small number of payments which are made manually to clients 5. Data is published up to 30 November 2020 6. Data is published up to 31 December 2020 7. Data is published up to 31 January 2021 8. Data is published up to 31 December 2020 N/A = Some benefits do not have costs in 2018/19 or 2019/20 as they were not devolved or had not launched at this time. People may be authorised for more than one payment across more than one year or benefit, so it is not possible to sum these figures to give a total view of how many people are supported in total. The Scottish Government routinely publish local authority level information in official statistics publications on each of the devolved benefits, at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-scotland-stats-publications/ Statistics on decisions and payments of Scottish Child Payment will be included in the official statistics publication on 11 May 2020.