Chamber and committees

I am not currently scheduled to meet with representatives from Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT). However, officials are in ongoing dialogue with CRT on all aspects of its programme and keep me fully updated. I will be happy to meet with CRT officials in the future, should this be helpful.

There have been no invitations to myself to visit Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s projects since his appointment. I would be happy to undertake such a visit, subject to diary availability. As part of his 2023 summer tour, I visited Fife including coalfields communities such as Cowdenbeath, supported through CRT’s Community Action Plans.

Officials will arrange a meeting with the Scottish Stoma Forum after the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) have considered the results of the information gathering exercise on the provision of stoma care and stoma specialist nurse coverage across Scotland's 14 territorial health boards.

Responsibility for delivery of Primary Medical Services rests with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships, and delivery plans should take account of local population health need. To assist local partners, in November 2023 the Scottish Government published The General Practice Access Principles [ General Practice Access Short Life Working Group: access principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ]. This report sets out a clear framework for the core principles of how general medical services should be delivered. To support general practice, we have significantly expanded the primary care multi-disciplinary team workforce to support GPs and practice teams ensuring more people get the right care in the right place at the right time.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing more in General Practices servicing disadvantaged areas through targeted action like the Inclusion Health Action in General Practice project in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, with £1.3 million funding dedicated so far, and stabilising our Community Link Worker capacity in Glasgow, with £3.6 million funding already confirmed for three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 raised the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12 years old in Scotland. The Act sets out that information relating to a time before a person was 12 years old cannot be automatically disclosed on enhanced or PVG level disclosures without first being reviewed by the Independent Reviewer. As part of making their decision about the disclosure of pre-12 information, the Independent Reviewer must give the applicant the opportunity to make representations. The Independent Reviewer must take into account any representations made.

Under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007, before making a decision to bar an individual from ‘regulated work’ with children or adults, Disclosure Scotland must give the individual an opportunity to make representations as to why they should not be listed. Disclosure Scotland must consider any such representations.

The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 will allow applicants to challenge the disclosure of certain information, including ‘spent’ children’s hearing outcomes and convictions accrued in childhood, before it is shared with an employer. The applicant will be able to ask Disclosure Scotland to arrange for the Independent Reviewer to carry out a review of the disclosure of the spent childhood convictions or children’s hearing outcomes. As part of their review, the Independent Reviewer must give the applicant the opportunity to make representations and must take any such representation into account when making their decision.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland regularly exceeds the Service Level Agreement to complete 90% of applications within 14 days. During 2022-2023 we completed 98% of applications within target and in 2023-2024 have so far delivered 95% within target. Disclosure Scotland monitors service delivery performance daily, while also utilising application volume forecasts and resource planning, to ensure that our Service Level Agreement is maintained.

As an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, Disclosure Scotland presents its Annual Report and Accounts to Parliament each year. This includes information on performance.

Keeping children safe from child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse, is a key priority for the Scottish Government.

We are committed to ensuring that our young people are safe online and our response is multi-faceted. It involves equipping children with the tools and skills they need to stay safe online, and supporting parents and carers to ensure that they have the information to guide children and recognise when a child is at risk. We equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to build children’s resilience, to recognise abuse and exploitation and respond with high quality support. This is accompanied by work to detect, disrupt and prosecute perpetrators and reduce re-offending.

In our schools, teachers deliver the technology experiences and outcomes area of the curriculum to provide learning on internet safety and cyber resilience. These help teachers support children to learn about the safe and responsible use of technologies, including the internet and social media, as part of their broad general education under our Curriculum for Excellence.

We are also committed to ensuring all children and young people receive high quality relationships and sexual health education to help them build safe and positive relationships as they grow older.

Public messaging is key in preventing online abuse. In March 2023, we re-ran our successful public awareness campaign which supported parents and carers to keep children safe online, emphasising the importance of talking regularly to children about online safety, setting safety measures and agreeing boundaries. The campaign had a strong impact on behaviour. Nine in ten of those who had seen the campaign reported taking action as a result of it, the highest rate of any Parent Club campaign.

This campaign linked to an Online Safety Hub on the SG Parent Club website, which provides information and advice on how to keep children safe from online harms.

Cross-Government workstreams collectively take action to prevent and protect children in Scotland from child sexual abuse and exploitation and provide appropriate support to victims and survivors of such abuse. This includes funding for a range of activity and programmes with a particular focus on prevention and early intervention. In particular, we provide funding to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland, to deliver online child sexual abuse prevention work.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, updated in 2023 supports frontline workers in their prevention roles by defining and clarifying the roles and responsibilities for everyone working with children and young people, setting out the foundation for protective action to keep young people safe from harms including sexual abuse and exploitation.

In terms of those that seek to cause harm online, we are working with Police Scotland to find effective ways to deter potential perpetrators from committing online abuse in the first place.

Though regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to securing the online safety of our children and young people which is why the First Minister urged the UK Government to include additional measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children and vulnerable adults online and go further to encourage tech firms to design out illegal and harmful material.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Higher level disclosures, those that can include the most sensitive information, can only be provided to organisations registered with Disclosure Scotland. Such organisations can register with Disclosure Scotland because they are legally entitled to request higher level disclosures. There are offences contained in disclosure legislation to prevent against disclosures being requested or used where there is no legal entitlement to do so.

Disclosure Scotland's Code of Practice is published by Scottish Ministers and details the legal obligations that organisations registered with Disclosure Scotland must comply with. This includes provision of information when registering with Disclosure Scotland to ensure that the person receiving disclosure information is suitable to do so and requirements on handling disclosure information.

Disclosure Scotland can carry out assurance and audit checks in relation to organisations registered to receive disclosure information and regularly do outreach to support organisations in meeting their responsibilities around handling disclosure information.

The Scottish Government’s Regeneration programmes work together to support resilient and sustainable communities, with communities directly involved in decisions on the future of their places. The Scottish Government values Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s (CRT’s) contribution to that approach. Since 1999, the Scottish Government has provided over £28 million in funding to CRT to invest in improving outcomes for coalfield communities.

In 2023/24 funding is being delivered within the context of the most challenging budget settlement since devolution. The Scottish Government is having to make difficult decisions while ensuring it does what is best for communities with the limited resources it has. This is impacting programmes across Government including the Empowering Communities Programme through which CRT is funded and which has been subject to a reduction in budget from 2022-23.

In addition to the dedicated funding for coalfield communities delivered through CRT, the Scottish Government also invests in wider regeneration programmes such as the Investing in Communities Fund and Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. These target our most disadvantaged and fragile communities and continue to support projects in our former coalfield communities.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table details average number of days to process disclosure applications, by application type, from 2016 to 2023: