Chamber and committees

When the monthly recorded crime in Scotland statistics were last published in April, they highlighted to users that these official statistics would be replaced with a quarterly release of National Statistics, which will present the latest rolling 12-month period. As part of the transition to a quarterly release schedule, and to ensure the publication of data in as timely a manner as possible, the release of the annual National Statistics publication for 2021-22 is being brought forward from September to 28 June.

These and other changes to the production of the recorded crime statistics are a matter for independent statisticians and the Scottish Crime Recording Board, not Ministers. They were approved by the Board following a public consultation of users. The Board’s remit includes ensuring the production of crime statistics is undertaken in a manner consistent with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. An associated report on responses to the consultation and the resulting changes was published on 24 March ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/consultation-future-recorded-crime-police-activity-statistics-summary-responses-discussion-next-steps/ ).

It is for Crown Estate Scotland, As managers of Crown assets in Scotland, to set seabed leasing fees.

The INTOG leasing round, due to be launched summer 2022, is a ‘first of its kind’ and there is no direct precedent to consider when finalising the design of the leasing arrangements. The objectives for INTOG (stimulating innovation and decarbonising oil & gas) are different from those of other offshore leasing rounds and as a result some key features of INTOG, including pricing, are also different.

Due to the specific nature of the projects, the novel commercial models, and the potential risks relating to such a new type of project, Crown Estate Scotland want to give the opportunity for the market to set the appropriate price given that this is a new and untested landscape.

The ScotWind price cap was designed to ensure that projects competing for limited Plan Options were viable in the long-term, would maximise supply chain opportunities and incentivise floating wind projects, that are ideal for Scotland's deeper waters but comparatively more expensive.

Crown Estate Scotland have designed and are responsible for the leasing arrangements for the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) process, this includes development of the weighting and evaluation criteria for applications. Crown Estate Scotland outlined the proposals for evaluation criteria in the Leasing Information Document (LID) released on 22 February 2022. The purpose of the LID is to provide developers with a clear understanding of the application process and contractual structure of the leasing round.

We are committed to bringing forward a new Land Reform Bill in this parliamentary session. We will undertake a wide-ranging consultation this year on proposals for the Bill, which will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically iniquitous patterns of land ownership - including by tackling problematic scale and concentration of ownership. The Bill will aim to ensure that the public interest is considered on transfers of particularly large scale land holdings.

The questionnaire on the website closed on 20 April. The responses to the engagement activity are currently being analysed and considered carefully. This will help to determine the next steps and will also provide more understanding of what support is needed to help the people affected by historical adoption practices.

The ScotWind lease option awards process has yet to be completed and the final figure raised through option agreements is still to be confirmed. Revenues received by Crown Estate Scotland from awards made to date amount to £699m.Crown Estate Scotland may raise further lease option revenues through the ScotWind clearing process, which is currently underway.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a national strategy for palliative and end of life care in partnership with key stakeholders including Marie Curie. It is envisioned that this will be a whole system, public health approach to help ensure that everyone who needs care or assistance can access it.

In the meantime, we are taking a number of actions within the social security powers devolved to the Scottish Government to ensure that people throughout Scotland can access financial support at this difficult time. These include:

Fast tracking disability assistance applications and removing fixed periods of life expectancy from our terminal illness definition, so that individuals are supported more quickly and for longer.

• Prioritising the rollout of Scottish Child Payment to children aged 6 to 15 to support low income families. This currently provides £20 a week per child, but will be increased to £25 when we rollout to older children.
• Guaranteeing an annual £50 payment to around 400,000 low income households each winter through our new non age dependent Low Income Winter Heating Assistance.
• Committing to increasing the amount of time Scottish Carer’s Assistance is paid after the death of a cared person, from 8 to 12 weeks following it’s transfer from DWP.

Documenting land ownership in Scotland is a key aim of the Land Register of Scotland which is held and maintained by The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (ROS) and is accessible online free of charge. Registers of Scotland (RoS) RoS are continually working to record land ownership and improve land mass coverage of records on the Land Register. Full completion of the Land Register is dependent on landowners submitting applications, however, RoS have made significant progress over the last year in their approach to making data held within the General Register of Sasines rather than the Land Register more accessible. As a result they can now link Sasine property search sheets to a map for the first time, making it visually more helpful and accessible. This is also a way of showing indicative ownership extents of Sasines titles which will help fill in current gaps in the Land Register.

In this Academic Year (21-22) the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has provided £2.423 million to the college sector to provide additional counsellors in colleges in support of our Programme for Government commitment to provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education and £4.4 million for the college sector to help colleges to further support student and staff mental health and wellbeing. These funds were allocated to the SFC by the Scottish Government.

The costs for the event on the day of MV Glen Sannox launch at Ferguson Marine in November 2017, including sound address system, hospitality and other associated items totalled £47.5k.