Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government was alerted by the UK Government on 6 February about a fraudulent letter claiming to be from Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to sponsors of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, asking for data for the Ukraine Embassy.

The alert from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) did not refer to the accessing of personal data. In a public statement released by DLUHC on twitter shortly afterwards DLUHC stated that, “we are aware of fraudulent letters to homes for Ukraine hosts circulating on social media ”. The statement made no reference to the accessing of personal data of hosts taking part in the Scheme and DLUHC has not reported any subsequent issues regarding any breaches of data security.

Scottish Government issued the following message on social media platforms on 7 February: “We are aware of fraudulent letters being sent to Homes for Ukraine hosts. These are not from @dluhc or Scottish Government.”

The Scottish Government has implemented high security standards for personal data for volunteer hosts and has had no reported issues with data security.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15106 on 2 March 2023. 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

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial Scottish Government response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

Currently financial help is available, through legal aid for those who qualify to assist people who might not be able to afford the cost of a solicitor to draw up a power of attorney. A fee exemption is also available for registering the power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian for people who qualify.

The Scottish Government recognises that acting as an attorney can be very demanding and attorneys must have information on their rights and responsibilities and the safeguards in place to protect individuals. This will benefit both them and the adults they are supporting.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

The Scottish Government is supporting 29 Health and Social Care partnerships in their national media campaign of actively raising awareness of the importance of taking out a power of attorney with their local communities.

We will consider the recommendations In the Scottish Mental Health Law Review carefully and decide how we can further promote and highlight the need for every adult in Scotland to consider appointing an attorney whilst they have capacity to do so.

SFRS continues to respond to every incident with appropriate levels of resources. Staffing levels and recruitment is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

SFRS takes decisions on the best location and type of firefighting appliance based on an assessment of the risk present in individual communities across Scotland. The location of those resources, including specialist assets such as high reach appliances is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The SSSC collect workforce data, which is published in their annual workforce report in August of each year. The most recent report covers 2021 workforce data. From this we know that across all social care services, the highest levels of stability are seen in the public sector. The Scottish Government will continue to analyse the data to inform what support is required.

Evidence about the number of people with learning disabilities in Scotland is collected through the Learning Disability Statistics Scotland publication. The most recent publication, published in 2019, found there were 23,584 adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities across Scotland.

Officials are in discussions with Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities about how Learning Disability Statistics Scotland will be improved to provide the most precise picture of people with learning disabilities across Scotland.

Scottish Government understands the important of reliable evidence about people with learning disabilities and has committed to improving the evidence base through its autism and learning/intellectual disability transformation plan 'Towards Transformation'.

The safe use of breathing apparatus is central in the role of every firefighter. Training, the provision and assessment of equipment requirements, and the competence of firefighters is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.