Chamber and committees

The terms and conditions of GB Railcards are set out by National Rail (part of the Rail Delivery Group). Neither Transport Scotland nor ScotRail regulate the rules for the use of national railcards.

As such, future decisions on when discounts would be available using the 16-25 national railcard are not controlled by the Scottish Government.

Where a National Railcard dictates a minimum fare for travel during peak times - such as the 16-25, 26-30, and Veterans Railcard and the minimum fare will still apply.

I would encourage the member to contact Jacqueline Starr CEO, Rail Delivery Group to raise this matter at [email protected]

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact the British Transport Police.

Kingdom Survivors Abuse Project (KASP) currently receives £40,152 per annum, over four years (2020-2024), through the Scottish Government’s Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support (SOCAS) Fund for their voluntary befriending service.

Objectives were set for KASP at the start of the Fund and have remained the same. They are expected to support 20 survivors a year with a view to improving wellbeing and resilience for survivors and ensuring survivors have access to quality, appropriate and timely services across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Women’s Aid East and Midlothian through the Third Sector Homelessness Fund and the Delivering Equally Safe Fund.

Women’s Aid East and Midlothian was funded through the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Homelessness Fund between 2021 and 2023. The objectives of Women’s Aid East and Midlothian's funding in 2022-23 was to:

• Deliver rapid access, permanent housing for women and children with complex needs and provide intensive and flexible support.
• Promote and increase the use of trauma-informed responses throughout Scotland for women and children experiencing domestic abuse.
• Prevent women and children experiencing domestic abuse from homelessness by implementing Housing first as a preventative approach.

Since October 2021, Women’s Aid East and Midlothian have been funded through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, which will run until March 2025. The objectives of the fund are:

• Women and children affected by violence are identified (early)
• Women and children’s safety needs are met
• Women and children’s wider wellbeing needs are met
• Fewer people adhere to gender stereotypes
• People have increased understanding of all forms of VAWG (causes, consequences, and appropriate responses)
• Power, decision-making and material resources are distributed more equally between men and women.
• Tolerance of VAWG is reduced and people are more likely to recognise and challenge it
• Perpetrators are identified early
• Perpetrators are supported to change their behaviour
• Perpetrators are sanctioned / held to account
• Violence against women and girls is reduced / eradicated
• Negative impacts on women and children who have been affected by violence are reduced / eradicated

Additionally, Women’s Aid East and Midlothian received indirect funding through the 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding. In 2021, the Scottish Government awarded £2,250,000 of funding over three years to Scottish Women’s Aid through the 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding. The funding was provided to frontline services for women and girls affected by gender-based violence to deal with additional pressures that occurred during the pandemic. Scottish Women’s Aid divided the funding amongst local Women’s Aid organisations, including Women’s Aid East and Midlothian.

The objectives of the 100 days (Covid emergency) funding were:

• fund additional staff to respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse for support services
• improvements to organisations’ IT and digital resource
• additional training to allow services to be augmented so that people could quickly and easily access help.

Scottish Government provide direct funding to Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs. The objectives for delivery during 2022-23 through this funding are as follows:

The Scottish Government did not provide any funding directly to Relationships Scotland Dumfries & Galloway in 2022.

Relationships Scotland operate a network of 21 member services across Scotland, including Relationships Scotland Dumfries & Galloway.

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided Relationships Scotland with core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund.

The objectives of the grant funding provided to SUSE throughout 2022 were to:

1. Provide the governance and project management function for the PSP.

2. Progress Apt through the PSP stages, which include:

• Designing and developing pilot projects for delivery throughout the grant period;
• Ensuring that those projects are evaluated;
• Refining and finalising pilot projects before outlining procurement options for the public sector.

3. Ensure that the PSP has a public corporate identity, including by:

• Creating and maintaining a website hosting such information that is deemed necessary by the steering group.

4. Appointment of PSP Development Manager to:

• Effectively support employers with "complex" needs;
• Engage an additional 40 employers to the PSP Workstreams;
• Capture baseline data on employers.

5. Ensure that the Apt continues to deliver interventions for employers:

• Continue delivery of pilot projects;
• Further development of a strong evidence base to support each pilot project;
• Production of a design blueprint which describes the range of tools, products and services offered by the PSP across their journey

Alcohol Focus Scotland’s objectives as set out in their grant letter for 2022-23 were:

• Advocate for the continuation and optimisation of minimum unit pricing in Scotland
• Build community capacity to engage in the licensing process
• Improve the accessibility and effectiveness of the licensing process
• Encourage strategic action to reduce the availability of alcohol
• Build support for controls on alcohol marketing as recommended by the Expert Network.
• Engage with communities of interest to explore and publicise experiences of alcohol marketing
• Expand the evidence base and our policy advocacy work to protect children and young people from the impact of alcohol
• Increase awareness of the impact of alcohol on children and young people
• Build capacity of practitioners to identify and work with children and young people
• Improve knowledge of alcohol and understanding of risks
• Build capacity of practitioners to identify and work with children and young people
• Support the routinisation of Alcohol Death Reviews, and the sharing of knowledge from them, across Scotland
• Support interventions to reduce alcohol-related deaths

Fair Deal was awarded £35,270 from the Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Fund in 2021-22. The £50m Wellbeing Fund was part of a £350m package of emergency community support announced in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wellbeing Fund was managed by a partnership including Scottish Government, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Corra Foundation, Inspiring Scotland, and the Hunter Foundation, with support from Scotland's 32 third sector interfaces. Information relating to Fair Deal’s application is held by the Corra Foundation.

The Scottish Women's Convention was awarded funding of £196,666 per annum for the period from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2024 from the Scottish Government Equality and Human Rights Fund. This is a competitive fund, administered by Inspiring Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government which aims to embed and mainstream equality and human rights within policy and practice in Scotland. While we do not specifically set objectives for the funding to the Scottish Women's Convention, we do set the following outcomes for the Equality and Human Rights Fund:

• People have greater access to their human rights and how to access them.
• People with protected characteristics have increased access to remedy where their rights have not been upheld.
• People with protected characteristics have increased participation in public life.
• People with protected characteristics have increased influence in decisions that affect them.
• The Scottish Government has better access to data and depth of information about the experience of people with protected characteristics.
• Actors in civil society increasingly use Scotland's domestic and international E&HR framework to influence and effect change.
• The experience of people with protected characteristics is increasingly used to inform the policy and practice of public bodies.
• Public services increasingly embed equality and human rights in their strategic planning and their day-to-day functions.

As part of the assessment process, organisations applying for funding were invited to demonstrate how their proposed activities would deliver the fund outcomes. Those organisations awarded funding, including the Scottish Women's Convention, report on their activities and how these contribute to the fund outcomes every 6 months.