Since the Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill passed its final Stage in the Scottish Parliament on 23 June last year, we have been progressing the various tasks required to make mixed sex civil partnership available in Scotland, including:

• A package of secondary legislation in the Scottish Parliament
• Training and guidance for registrars
• Public-facing guidance
• Changes to IT systems

The effect of these regulations is that mixed sex civil partnerships that have been formed outside Scotland will be recognised in Scotland, initially in accordance with the interim scheme of recognition provided for in the Act, from 1 February 2021, and that couples will be able to submit notices of intention to enter a mixed sex civil partnership in Scotland from 1 June 2021.

However, this is subject to Parliament's approval of the matters covered in the secondary legislation. In addition, it is critical that we give priority to work to tackle COVID-19. This could mean that resources within the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland (which is responsible for registering life events including civil partnership) and local authority registration departments may have to be diverted at short notice to work relating to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is aware that some couples are waiting for mixed sex civil partnership registration to begin in Scotland. We are committed to achieving that as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government published guidance outlining the action that local authorities and Registered Social Landlords should be taking to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on delivering grant funded affordable housing projects which were contractually awarded prior to lockdown. While the guidance notes that the firm aim of local authority/ Registered Social Landlord engagement with their contractors should be to reach agreement which negates the need for additional funding support, it also sets out the circumstances under which applications for additional grant funding will be considered if a contract cannot be made to work and no other negotiated solution is achievable. Once we receive an application from Cunninghame Housing Association for projects in Dumfries and Galloway, we will review this in line with our published guidance.

We continue to do all we can to support business. In addition to the one-off top up payments for hospitality, retail and leisure businesses in level 4, I have announced up to £3.3 million of additional one-off funding to these sectors on Scotland’s islands. This is in addition to support already available through the £30 million Scotland-wide Local Authority Discretionary Fund and brings support for island businesses in these sectors into line with those affected by level 4 restrictions on the mainland. Businesses will be eligible for one-off grants ranging from £6,000 to £25,000 per premises, based on sector and rateable value.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Since the start of the pandemic we have allocated over £3 billion to help businesses. This includes 383,000 business support awards totalling £2.3 billion between March and the beginning of October 2020. A further £55 million has been paid out to businesses between October and December 2020 through Scottish Government funds. Many businesses also continue to benefit from non-domestic rates relief financed by the Scottish Government.

Following publication of the strategic framework for re-opening schools in May 2020, I asked Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education to undertake a review of the local authority local phasing delivery plans for the re-opening of schools.

I announced on 13 January 2021, that Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education would commence a national review of the quality and effectiveness of remote learning across the country. As part of the national overview, Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education are engaging with local authorities and reviewing local authority planning and guidance for the delivery of remote learning. This aspect of national overview will be published by Friday 22 January 2021.

I have asked Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education to commence with a national review of the quality and effectiveness of remote learning across the country. A programme of ‘national overviews’, will commence immediately and last for the duration of remote learning.

The purpose of the programme of ‘national overviews’ is to:

• Learn what is working well and share this widely to celebrate success and support consistency in the quality and effectiveness of delivery of remote learning.
• Surface the challenges and/or issues so that these can be addressed either locally or nationally, as appropriate.
• Identify what further assistance is required to continue to improve the delivery of remote learning so that relevant support can be provided at local and/or national level.

These overviews will be published weekly to ensure they are available for everyone to learn and build from, starting week ending 22 January 2021.

The use of houses (class 9 in the Use Classes Order) as bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) is a form of home sharing and these will require a licence. Guest houses (class 7) are excluded from the definition of a short-term let and will not require a licence.

The principal component of our licensing scheme is a set of mandatory standards which apply to all short-term lets, and will help to protect the safety of guests and neighbours across Scotland. Many hosts, including B&B operators, will already be following these standards as a matter of compliance with existing law or best practice.

In developing our regulatory proposals, we have directly engaged with and heard from a wide range of stakeholders covering a range of interests. The Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association responded to both our 2019 and 2020 consultations on short-term lets.

The Scottish Government has not had direct discussions with Dumfries and Galloway Council, however Education Scotland, in its role as improvement agency for education, has been in contact with the Council in order to share information on progress with its Virtual School.

Education Scotland has confirmed its understanding is that the school covers both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase, that virtual teachers have been appointed to the school and that prior to the recent school closures the virtual school had been providing support to pupils who had been absent for Covid-19 related issues.

The responsibility for the school rests with the local authority, however Education Scotland will continue to liaise with the local authority as part of its role in providing improvement support across Scotland. Dumfries and Galloway Council, in common with other local authorities, can also access options via the National E-Learning Offer.

Further information can be obtained from the local authority.

The Scottish Government fully understands the challenges facing the hospitality sector as we look to balance measures to suppress the virus and protect lives with keeping businesses open and trading viably. The scale of the impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector is significant. Data from Scottish Government’s Monthly GDP statistics for October indicates that GDP in Accommodation and Food Services was almost 44% lower than in February, while data from our analysis of ONS’s BICS survey indicates that 52.4% of the workforce in the sector were on furlough leave in the period 16 November to 13 December. The findings from this report offer a further illustration of the negative impact Covid-19 has had on hospitality. We have provided substantial support to the hospitality sector in response to these unprecedented challenges, including 100% rates relief for pubs and restaurants for the year, and we will shortly announce details of further funding targeted for tourism and hospitality. We also pressed the UK Government intensively for the extension of the CJRS – in light of the challenges faced by sectors like hospitality. We believe the current restrictions for hospitality are the correct balance but we will continue to assess the restrictions to ensure they remain appropriate for the circumstances. A Four Harms analysis report has also been published which set out the impact and analysis across all four. We remain committed to building on our constructive dialogue with the industry – including regular contact with key business organisations – and are listening carefully to their suggestions and concerns.

Scottish Forestry investigated the concerns about forestry planting operations at Tansey Hill in December 2020 and found that some small areas of deep peat, adding up to 0.5 hectares in total, had been ploughed in preparation for tree planting.

The Scottish Government’s policy seeks to protect areas of deep peat and does not approve ploughing or tree planting on deep peat. The ploughing of deep peat on Tansey Hill did not comply with the terms of the planting approval or the Forestry Grant Scheme contract.

Scottish Forestry has requested a range of remedial actions to protect the peatland and reinstate the damaged areas. These have been accepted by the forestry agent and are in the process of being implemented.

The measures include removing the deep peat areas from the planting scheme and reinstating the disturbed peat on all ploughed areas where the depth exceeds 50 cm.

Ploughing will not be allowed to recommence until these remediation measures have been completed.