Chamber and committees

Registered Social Landlords are not subject to the exclusion on granting tenancies to persons subject to immigration control. Section 118 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which applies in Scotland applies only to local authorities. Registered Social Landlords do not need to consider nationality or immigration status and can allocate homes to any person. Our Social housing allocations in Scotland: practice guide published in 2019 offers practical assistance to social landlord staff with responsibility for reviewing, monitoring and updating allocation policies and procedures to ensure they comply with current legislation.

This grant was a single payment of £4,100. No further breakdown of costs was required.

Scottish Government are currently procuring a replacement for the grant funded Refugee Support Service for which we committed up to £3.6m in 2024/25. We do not intend to publish a breakdown of costs. We are currently at a sensitive point in the procurement process and providing a breakdown of costs for the delivery of the existing service could compromise this.

The Scottish Government Digital Identity Beta project contract was awarded to the successful supplier following a competitive tender via the Digital and Technology Services Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) where all suppliers listed on Lot 1 of the DPS were given the opportunity to respond to the tender. Prior to issuing the tender, a supplier day was held – invitations for this were issued via a PIN on the Public Contracts Scotland portal, therefore all suppliers registered on PCS could request to attend.

The UK’s international obligations, and domestic legislation which implements them, require that equal treatment is afforded to bidders from countries with which a relevant international agreement applies. This means that it would not be lawful to discriminate in favour of suppliers based in Scotland.

There are no legal mechanisms in place to mandate the use of ScotAccount for access to public services.

ScotAccount is designed with privacy in mind. As part of maintaining and securing their account, ScotAccount stores a user’s email address and telephone number. Once users have verified their identity successfully, they can also choose to save their verified personal information into their ScotAccount, if they wish to do so, to enable re-use. Currently, users can choose to store their name, date of birth and address. Users can also choose whether or not to give permission to share the personal information they have saved, with specific public services, if they seek to access an online service or benefit from that organisation. Public services cannot access personal information held in ScotAccount, without the permission of the account holder.

All accounts are subject to data processing as set out in the ScotAccount Privacy Notice, which states that information will not be held for longer than is reasonably necessary and legally justified.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education and for ensuring that those pupils identified with an additional support need, are fully supported to learn. Work is underway through the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan to improve the consistency of all communications regarding additional support for learning. This includes the data that is recorded and published.

The Scottish Government routinely works with partners to support the manufacturing sector in Scotland. In addition, our investment strategies are designed with the goal of maximising the impact of our interventions, allowing us to maintain our position as the top performing region or nation of the UK for inward investment projects outside of London for the ninth year running as per the 2024 EY Attractiveness Survey.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million.

Regarding (a), quasi-judicial panels:

• There are a wide variety of organisations that could be considered quasi-judicial bodies with their own constitutions, legislative underpinnings and governance arrangements. The position in respect of political balance would need to be checked with each organisation.
• Regarding regulated Ministerial Appointments to public body boards that could be considered a quasi-judicial body, all applications are considered individually on their merits. The Ethical Standards Commissioner regulates this area and their Code of Practice for Public Appointments (the ‘Code’) and associated Code Guidance (both 2022) set out the position relating to political activity. In summary, candidates are required to provide information relating to their political activity. It is not necessarily a bar to appointment but the appointing panel will take the information into account as part of the Fit and Proper Person test when assessing ability to perform in role. When an individual is appointed, any political activity is declared in the news release announcing the appointment.

Regarding (b), local authority decision-making bodies:

• Councils (and potentially also their decision-making bodies) are independent bodies with their own powers, responsibilities, governing constitutions, legislative underpinnings and governance arrangements. The position in respect of political balance would need to be checked with each organisation.
• Scottish Ministers have committed to respecting local government’s democratic mandate as part of the Verity House Agreement. The view of the Scottish Government is that locally elected representatives are best placed to prioritise the needs of the local community.