Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its cross-Government co-ordination on islands policies, what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding what more it can do to support residents and businesses on the isle of Cumbrae. (S6O-04008)

Residents on Cumbrae and groups such as the Cumbrae ferry committee and Cumbrae community council have raised their concerns about the impact of reduced visitor numbers, which have gone down 21 per cent since 2019, and issues such as higher ferry fares, which are affecting islanders, and the poor ferry service when there are events on the island. What more can be done to ensure that the local community is listened to and that policies are put together on a cross-governmental basis to ensure that those issues are addressed?

As the minister knows, full-time disabled students get living costs support, but many disabled students study part time. For example, the Open University says that 28 per cent of its disabled students study part time, and part-time students do not get the same levels of support. Does the minister agree that, for reasons of equality and fairness, there is a strong case for part-time disabled students getting parity and increased access to living costs?

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to improving the living costs support available to part-time disabled students. (S6O-03964)

In this budget scrutiny process, though, the budget is the major factor.

On the issue of footprint, there seems to be quite a difference between England and Scotland in relation to some of those areas. When I submitted freedom of information requests on, for example, the levels of compliance with electronic monitoring that had been ordered by the courts, the figures in Scotland showed 72.6 per cent compliance, which compares with 97.2 per cent in England. Those figures are for March 2022.

In relation to restriction of liberty orders, there seems to be a significant geographical spread, and it is the same with electronic monitoring. The lowest level of compliance was in Grampian, where the level of compliance with restriction of liberty orders and electronic monitoring was 71.8 per cent, which compares with 100 per cent in the High Court.

There are similar figures in relation to whether offenders are asked to undertake community service orders that have been ordered by the court. I know that you will be alert to that and I presume that there are budgetary implications. Can you say a bit more about that? There does not seem to be consistency in relation to some of the disposals that are ordered by the court being required of the offender. Is it to do with budgets and lack of resource? Is that now being dealt with by targeting resource to ensure that the orders that the courts give are complied with? Clearly, it is not the offender’s fault if they are not told that they have to have a tag—they have no control over that; that is a matter for Government. Can you say a bit more about that? Some of the statistics are quite alarming.

But you are the person who we would raise the issues with.

I appreciate everything that you say, but you are also aware of some of the increased risks that we face, such as wildfires. There was also the flooding in Valencia—we do not know why that has happened, but we know that such events will increase with climate change.

On the staffing budget, are the delays in bringing in new employees and the 10 per cent vacancy factor in the fire service representative of the justice sector or are they outliers? Is that happening across the justice sector?

As you have said, cabinet secretary, this has been an area of great concern to you and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, and very powerful representations have been made, particularly in relation to decontamination. It may well be that we are far more aware of the risks than we were a few years ago. It is clear that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is potentially exposed to legal claims, but I do not think that that is the avenue that the Fire Brigades Union wants to go down at all; it wants to ensure that there are safe systems of work. I think that you are aware of the support that you have from MSPs in that area.

However, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says that in order to achieve a balanced budget, it has had to delay bringing new employees into the service and has introduced a 10 per cent vacancy factor in support staff functions. There seems to be an issue in relation to not only capital budgets but revenue budgets. Given the parliamentary representations that have been made, can you tell us a bit more about the Government’s approach to overall funding of the fire service? It seems to be a significant area of concern.

I agree whole-heartedly.

We draw our session to a close. Thank you for attending; it has been an interesting session.

That completes our business in public.