Chamber and committees

The number of homeless veterans in Scotland remains low and homeless veterans are a relatively small proportion (2%) of homeless households. Official statistics shows us that veterans are no more likely to be homeless than the rest of the population and that the reasons for veterans becoming homeless are broadly comparable with the rest of the population.

However, we are committed to reducing homelessness for all, including some veterans who are at risk of encountering housing problems at particular transition points in their lives.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill, currently progressing through the parliamentary process, will build on the existing strong rights for people who are homeless. While there are no specific provisions for veterans, the homelessness prevention measures outlined in the Bill are designed to meet the needs of specific groups, including some veterans, who are at greater risk of homelessness than others.

The Scottish Government continues to strive towards developing a sustainable healthcare workforce in NHS Scotland. This is why we have established a Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce (NMT), which works collaboratively with a range of stakeholders including the RCN. The NMT will publish its recommended actions early in the New Year.

It is worth noting that workforce statistics experience seasonal variation so looking at the data over the last 6 months will include figures from the end of the financial year where we expect to see a decline in the workforce as staff are more likely to retire at this time. This will be followed by an increase in the September release, as we have seen, following an influx of students joining the workforce.

Guidance on enforcement powers for local authorities in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 is provided in the Building Standards Enforcement Handbook and the Building Standards Procedural Handbook. The National Planning Framework 4 states that development proposals for the demolition of listed buildings will not be supported unless it has been demonstrated that there are exceptional circumstances and that all reasonable efforts have been made to retain, reuse and/or adapt the listed building.

A local authority will rely on evidence from a survey carried out by a structural engineer to advise on all options that minimise the extent of any demolition work. A local authority may engage an accredited conservation engineer on a case by case basis following advice from the structural engineer.

The Scottish Government has published its estimates of the direct costs to the Scottish public sector from the employers NI change, looking across our health and social care services, education providers, the third sector and others. We have shared those costs with the Treasury and have asked it for urgent clarification on the level of compensation that Scotland will receive.

If the chancellor does not fund that in full, it could be, that despite costs of more than £700 million across all sectors, at best £380 million would be forthcoming; leaving a shortfall of around £400 million. We continue to press for clarification.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The total Resource (RDEL) Block Grant funding received by the Scottish Government (SG) each year since 2007/08, along with calculations of the year-on-year percentage change and the cumulative change over the specified timeframe is as follows:

Our Equally Safe strategy makes challenges the notion that violence against women and girls is inevitable or acceptable and emphasises the importance of challenging attitudes that underpin violence against women and girls.

We know that it is important that men and boys are seen as part of the solution and that they are involved in the work of prevention. This is why, we continue to fund projects such as White Ribbon Scotland to work with men and boys on the issue through our Delivering Equally Safe fund. I was pleased that my colleague, Mr Hepburn, was able to speak at their recent event which they hosted alongside Zero Tolerance on Wednesday 11 December. It was an important opportunity to highlight the importance of engaging with men to tackle VAWG, and to reinforce the Scottish Government’s commitment to engaging men within our work to prevent violence against women and girls.

We continue to take forward a range of actions in schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment. For example, Equally Safe at School, Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence prevention programme and Mentors in Violence Prevention, a peer education programme that gives young people the chance to explore and challenge the attitudes, beliefs and cultural norms underpinning gender based violence, bullying and other forms of violence. We have also published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

Additionally, within our recently published Equally Safe Delivery Plan, we have committed to developing a public engagement approach to raise awareness of the scale and impact of VAWG.

As one of the five main drivers of biodiversity loss and a barrier to nature restoration, the Scottish Government takes the control of invasive non-native species (INNS) seriously and we work with a range of partners to minimise their negative impacts.

The Scottish Plan for Invasive Non-Native Species Surveillance, Prevention and Control is a key component of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Delivery Plan which was published on 27 November 2024. We are currently working alongside NatureScot and a range of stakeholders on developing the Scottish Plan for INNS and we intend to publish it during the summer of 2025.

The Plan will build on the actions contained within the GB INNS Strategy on which we are already working closely with the UK and Welsh governments. It will set out in more detail what we intend to do to tackle INNS and will ensure that resources are better focused on preventing and tackling INNS where possible.

The Scottish Government continues to improve the information around government spending and its climate impact and has successfully completed a pilot of our new Net Zero Assessment (NZA) methodology which is now undergoing independent expert review.

In designing the approach, assessments used by other countries were reviewed, including new Zealand, drawing on key features while adapting them to the Scottish context.

The Scottish NZA process is similar to the New Zealand Climate Implications of Policy Assessment (CIPA), with assessment at the early stage of policy development and proportionate screening. The scope of the Scottish NZA is wider as it covers all policy areas, not just climate and energy policies.

I will write to the Convenor of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on the outcome of the pilot and next steps on the roll out of NZA in 2025.

There is no place for harassment or abuse in any form in our schools. We published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence in March 2024. This framework helps to support schools both to prevent gender-based violence from occurring, and to respond appropriately when it does occur. To support its implementation, in September 2024 Education Scotland ran an information session on the framework for school staff. As part of that, they sought feedback on areas where more bespoke training may be helpful. We will commission an independent review of the framework to establish positive practice and further areas for improvement, before the end of this parliamentary session.

Misogynistic behaviour was identified as an emerging trend within the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2023. The relationships and behaviour in schools action plan contains a number of commitments to address this, including Action 10: Children and young people are supported to develop healthy relationships and behaviours, grounded in tolerance and respect. Delivery of this action is supported by our ongoing investment in the school-based peer education programme, Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), which was awarded £156,000 funding for 2024-25 to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls. Earlier this year, Education Scotland, who operate the programme, developed a new MVP scenario on misogyny. In addition, through our Delivering Equally Safe fund, we are also continuing to fund Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence prevention programme Equally Safe at School which is aimed at local authority secondary schools across Scotland.