Chamber and committees

My understanding is that we have not engaged with the UK Government on the issue. I do not know whether my officials can correct me on that. Was there a duty that required us to do so?

Yes—one of our key policy aims with the regulations is to ensure that child contact services are safe and conflict-free venues for contact to take place, which we all know is extremely important for the children. We have heard concerns from Scottish Women’s Aid about the need to ensure the safety and wellbeing of women and children in child contact centres. We expect the new regime to take account of the need for child contact services to understand the dynamics of domestic abuse. The quality improvement framework will support that.

New staff, recruited by the Care Inspectorate to take up roles in this new area, will be upskilled in delivering in the child contact services environment and will have an understanding of domestic abuse and its impacts. The inspectorate already regulates other services in which domestic abuse can be a factor, so there is knowledge to draw from.

To give you some comfort, I note that, in previous consultations and engagement on this area, Scottish Women’s Aid provided useful recommendations, which we will share with the Care Inspectorate during the lead-in period. The inspectorate will also have to consult with key stakeholders when developing its quality improvement framework. I hope that that gives you some comfort.

Yes—when drafting the SSIs, we engaged with a series of stakeholders. I will ask one of my officials to answer that question.

Good morning. The two draft instruments relate to the regulation of child contact services in Scotland. As the committee is aware, the Scottish Government has been working towards this for some time. Our overall policy aim is to ensure that child contact services are safe, conflict-free, child-friendly places for a child to spend time with a parent with whom they do not live. There is widespread support for such regulation.

Child contact services have an important role in the family justice system, helping children to maintain relationships when parents separate and doing so in a supportive and child-focused way.

There are currently around 45 child contact centres in Scotland, and there is already good practice happening in the sector, which I have seen at first hand. However, there is currently no external regulation of child contact services. A key driver for regulation is to have a body in place that provides independent oversight, which will ensure that there is consistently good practice across the sector, while also driving improvements where needed.

The first instrument, the draft Regulation of Care (Child Contact Services) (Scotland) Order 2025, will extend the Care Inspectorate’s regulatory framework to child contact services by adding them to the list of care services that the inspectorate regulates under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. The instrument will, in effect, put the inspectorate in place as an independent oversight body.

The Care Inspectorate has been our preferred choice for that role for some time. It is an experienced scrutiny and assurance body that already regulates a range of services that are used by children and families, and we believe that the Care Inspectorate is best placed to provide oversight and to achieve the best outcomes for children who use child contact services. We have been in detailed discussions with the inspectorate during our preparation of these Scottish statutory instruments.

The second instrument, the draft Regulation of Care (Child Contact Services) (Equality) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, will confer an additional function on the Care Inspectorate, requiring it to notify the Equality and Human Rights Commission of any failure of a child contact service to comply with its duties under the Equality Act 2010, in particular the duty to make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the appropriate enforcement body for those existing duties, and the purpose of that function is to ensure that child contact services are meeting their 2010 act duties without placing any additional duties on them.

Both draft instruments provide for a lead-in period of 18 months before regulation will fully come into force on 1 April 2027; that is to ensure that the Care Inspectorate will have sufficient time to carry out the necessary preparatory work. Child contact centres will be a new type of sector for the Care Inspectorate to regulate, so it will need time to build knowledge and understanding of the sector, as well as to recruit and train new staff, to prepare materials—for example, in relation to registration and complaints—and to develop a bespoke quality improvement framework. There will be engagement with the sector and other stakeholders during that time. The 18-month period will also give child contact services time to familiarise themselves with the new regime and to prepare.

The two instruments are a significant step forward towards the next phase of implementation for this regulation work, and the next 18 months will be important in how the Care Inspectorate regulatory framework will be shaped for child contact services.

I am happy to take questions, convener.

Yes—enforcement would not be up to the Care Inspectorate.

It could become more common. However, it is simply a notification of non-compliance. As I say, it is not up to the Care Inspectorate to rectify things; its role here is simply to notify the EHRC.

One of the issues that was raised is whether additional burdens will be placed on child contact centre providers. All service providers are required to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, so those should already be in place. What we are looking to do is to notify and underline an issue.

I do not think that I can speculate on what that might mean when taking forward future legislation. I do not know whether any of my officials has any other intelligence to share on that.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 3,500 responses to its review consultation and held more than 40 public meetings. The review was in reaction to the changing nature of emergencies that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service responds to. For example, as I have already noted, dwelling fires have reduced by 20 per cent since 2013, and incidents such as flooding and wildfires have increased significantly. Therefore, it is right for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to carefully consider how to adapt to the changing risks, in order to remain effective and efficient, with firefighters in the right place at the right time.

As I have said, I believe that it is for the chief fire officer and his commanders across the service to make the decisions that are best for the service, in order to protect communities across the country and respond to the changing nature of risk. This is not a decision for the Scottish Government, and it is appropriate that decisions on fire appliances are best placed with the service.

As I have outlined, an independent analysis of the responses to the consultation will inform the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s final decisions. Any changes that the service introduces will be made over the next five years. I meet the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service frequently, and it has confirmed to me that no decisions have been made.

Regarding the response time that the member mentioned, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continues to respond to every emergency incident with the appropriate level of resources. Its targeted approach to risk and the allocation of resources overtook the focus on response times some years ago, and I would also point out that we have seen an increase in response times across the whole of the United Kingdom.

The safety of our firefighters is of utmost importance, and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has in place strict health and safety policies that have evolved over the years. For example, changes to operational procedures to stop firefighters travelling under blue-light conditions while putting on personal protective equipment have added to response times in recent years. That is an essential change to protect firefighter safety.

It is welcome that dwelling fires have reduced, as have non-fatal fire casualties—by 33 per cent—and that fatal fire casualties reduced by 32 per cent between 2009-10 and 2023-24. That shows the value of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s prevention activities over the years.

The rationale behind the service delivery review is to ensure that the SFRS can better focus its resources where they are needed most—for example, on training and prevention—so that our firefighters are better located and prepared to deal with current and future risks, such as the record number of wildfire warning periods that we have seen this year.

I appreciate that service changes will always be a matter of concern for people in the immediate vicinity of the impacted fire station, but it is for the SFRS, as the expert in its field, to decide the best changes that can be made over time to ensure that firefighters are in the right place at the right time to deal with incidents when they occur.