Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02207 on 2 September 2021. 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 .

Afghan families are already being welcomed into Scottish communities under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for Locally Employed Staff.

In her letter to the Prime Minister of 24 August, the First Minister called for a commitment to a substantial increase in numbers and for more detail about the new Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), including timescales for arrivals and funding to support local authority participation, as well as for wider services which are essential to support people to settle and be able to begin to rebuild their lives.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary on 1 September and asked the UK Government to provide more detail on eligibility for refugee resettlement under the ACRS. She highlighted that people who may be vulnerable in Afghanistan or the region due to protected characteristics should also be considered for resettlement and called on the UK Government to consider easing the eligibility criteria for family reunion.

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I met with the UK Government’s Afghan Resettlement Minister, Victoria Atkins, and Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Communities, as part of a devolved administrations call to discuss Afghan relocation and resettlement. In addition to those who are vulnerable, we asked for consideration to be given to those who already have family settled in the UK and for those with connections to be matched to the same regions, in order to help support integration.

Following the commitment made by the Prime Minister on 18 August that the UK will not return Afghan nationals who have sought asylum in the UK, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on 24 August to urge the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process, or where people have previously been refused asylum.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary on 1 September. She asked the UK Government to consider easing the eligibility criteria for family reunion to enable more people from Afghanistan (and elsewhere around the world) to join family members in the UK. She also called for asylum applications from Afghan nationals in the UK to be considered quickly and compassionately and pressed the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process or where people have previously been refused asylum on the basis that Kabul is safe.

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I met with the UK Government’s Afghan Resettlement Minister, Victoria Atkins, and Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Communities, as part of a devolved administrations call to discuss relocation and resettlement from Afghanistan. During that call we raised our concerns about family reunion and the position of Afghan nationals in the UK asylum system, including those whose applications have been refused, as well as those awaiting an initial decision and those in the appeal process.

Scottish Government has a long-standing record of providing the most generous non-domestic rates regime in the UK and were the first Government in the UK to offer any extension to relief for the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors for 2021-22.

Decisions on non-domestic rates including the poundage and reliefs are traditionally set out in the Scottish budget alongside other government priorities. The Programme for Government recognises the importance of a fair, just and sustainable recovery with local business and communities at the heart, and future spend will be determined as part of the Scottish budget process.

The main regulated, compulsory carbon pricing market in the UK is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Agriculture and land-use emissions are not covered by the current scope of the UK ETS. The carbon in Scotland’s deep peat soils is however being traded through the peatland code. This is a voluntary certification mechanism which provides assurances to carbon market buyers that the climate benefits from restoring peat are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

Although there is no soil carbon code in place at present, there is UK-wide interest in developing a soil carbon code. This has been most recently addressed by a UK Soil Association conference on 14th July 2021 but this has not yet been translated into a co-ordinated programme of work.

The information requested is not held centrally. The data the Scottish Government receives from Police Scotland is a general count of the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, split by local authority, and the number cleared up by the police. The Scottish Government does not receive further details on the characteristics of these crimes. This means we are unable to identify how many reported thefts involved pets being stolen.

There is no separate offence for pet theft and, therefore, the SG Criminal Proceedings database is unable to identify pet theft from other theft charges held in our criminal proceedings database.

The Scottish Government maintains regular contact with the hospitality and nigh time trade sectors. This has included engagement on proposals for a domestic vaccine certification programme both before and after the policy announcement, and that dialogue continues at both Ministerial and official level. The Scottish Government completely understands how difficult it has been for the night time industries over the course of the pandemic, they have felt the impact of restrictions more than most. That is why we are pursuing certification as an alternative to the potential closure of high risk venues.

The existing law in this area operates within reserved legislation such as the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and the Health and Safety etc. Act 1974.

A Members’ Bill was introduced by Claire Baker MSP (entitled the Culpable Homicide (Scotland) Bill) in June 2020 and the Presiding Officer indicated the provisions of the Bill as introduced were not within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Our view is that any consideration of reform of culpable homicide as it applies to organisations should only be considered once the Scottish Law Commission’s wider review of Homicide Law is completed in 2023.

The most recent legislative proposals introduced to the Scottish Parliament relating to corporate homicide was certified by the Presiding Officer as not being within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Our view is that any consideration of reform of culpable homicide as it applies to organisations should only be considered once the Scottish Law Commission’s wider review of Homicide Law is completed in 2023.

We have not made any such assessment. However, achieving the ambition, set out in our Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032: Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero , published in December 2020, to reduce electricity sector emissions to zero before the end of this decade would mean that the energy used for bitcoin mining has no effect on emissions within Scotland.