Chamber and committees

Tackling poverty and protecting people from harm is one of three critical and interdependent missions for the government – alongside our focus on the economy and strengthening public services.

As set out within ‘ Best Start, Bright Futures’ , the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: 2022-26, the Scottish Government is taking a wide range of action across the three drivers of poverty reduction – income from work and earnings, costs of living and income from social security and benefits in kind – as well as taking action to improve the wellbeing and outcomes of people across Scotland.

In delivering action, we are focused on ensuring that interventions deliver for those at greatest risk of poverty, including people from a minority ethnic background. In doing so we will help to reduce poverty for these groups whilst delivering significant progress on our wider equality and human rights ambitions – particularly in relation to advancing equality and human rights for women, disabled people and minority ethnic people.

The Scottish Government meet regularly with representatives of local government in order to progress shared priorities which tackle poverty. This includes in relation to delivery of employment support through our No One Left Behind approach, which is tailored to the needs of people from a minority ethnic background, delivery of more affordable homes, tackling child poverty and delivery of the wide ranging action set out in our refreshed Fair Work Action Plan.

The Scottish Government also meet regularly with the UK Government on areas of shared interest, which are key to tackling poverty, including in relation to social security and employment.

Engagement between the Scottish Government and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in relation to the timing of Winter Heating Payment next winter is already underway. That includes discussion on the transfer of client data to Social Security Scotland.

As set out in S6W-15012 on 6 March 2023, DWP were unable to provide the data prior to 31 January 2023 that would have allowed earlier payments in the first year of delivery.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Last year the Scottish Government consulted on proposals for a National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. The consultation included proposals to encourage behaviour change, improve infrastructure and services and strengthen enforcement, including a review of the current enforcement model. A final strategy will be published this year.

In addition, we are supporting local authorities to prepare for the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme next year, which will help to reduce the amount of waste, including litter, that local authorities have to handle, reducing the £36 million of public money spent annually on associated litter clean-up costs.

We will also be taking forward action to strengthen enforcement through the planned Circular Economy Bill this year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17446 on 9 May 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at the https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The pupil census, which records a snapshot of data at a particular point in time, showed that on the date of collection in September 2022 there were 2,062 pupils reported as asylum seekers and 5,746 reported as refugees.

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 local authorities have a duty to provide adequate and efficient provision of school education for all children residing in their local area.

This duty does not distinguish between children and young people on the basis of their country of origin, race, belief or religion or refugee status.

A consultation on the final Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and its first Delivery Plan will take place over Summer 2023. Publication of the final versions of both the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the first Delivery Plan will follow in Autumn 2023.

This is a matter for individual local authorities. The information is not held centrally.

Legislation on accessibility and public transport remains reserved to the UK Parliament and is set out in the Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR) and enforced by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

The Scottish Government has no remit to intervene, but does support an integrated transport system where possible. Our support for the purchase of new buses will be, where appropriate, conditional on space being made available for bike transport in addition to wheelchair and buggy space.

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme supports landlords with the cost of installation for energy efficiency improvements, renewable systems and energy storage systems.

The scheme is delivered through a demand-led model where funding is applied for by the applicant directly, who in turn is responsible for sourcing an approved installer and paying funding to them once works are complete.

Once a funding agreement has been put in place, applicants have 12 months to claim the funding.

The number of funding agreements put in place and number of loans that have been claimed by applicants through the scheme since January 2022 are outlined in the following table:

The Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008 Reg 4 states Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) must exercise their relevant functions so as to take such realistic and proportionate measures as they consider appropriate with a view to increasing the number of bathing waters classified as “good” or “excellent”. However, there is no obligation to take measures which would result in disproportionate expense or where any change in classification is infeasible.

Following significant investment and improvements in the first two cycles of river basin management planning, 98% of Scotland’s designated bathing waters now meet ‘sufficient’ or better environmental water quality standards, and more bathing waters are now rated as ‘excellent’ than ever before.

During the third cycle we continue to apply measures to protect bathing waters aiming to achieve further good or excellent classifications, avoiding deterioration and implementing plans to ensure that the health of bathers at designated sites is protected”. SEPA will continue with a focused approach in diffuse pollution priority catchments to drive compliance with environmental legislation to help achieve water quality objectives and improve bathing water quality.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring, classifying, protecting and improving designated bathing waters with aim to reduce the risks to human health, where a large number of people bathe, by protecting and improving bathing water quality. SEPA monitors and classifies bathing waters on an annual basis following strict EU standards and publishes the results on its’ website. Bathing Waters : Summary of last season (sepa.org.uk) .

The Bathing Water (Scotland) Regulations 2008 Reg11(4) requires that for bathing waters classified as poor SEPA must take such action as it considers necessary, whether in relation to the regulation of any controlled activity or under any other functions to ensure that the bathing water can be classified as “sufficient”, “good” or “excellent”, unless permanent advice against bathing has been issued.

The following table shows that the number of bathing waters designated as good and excellent has steadily increased in the past three years.