Chamber and committees

The ScottishGovernment recognises that in recent years there has been an undersupply ofhousing across Scotland, in many rural areas as well as pressuredurban settlements, and is committed to increasing housing supply significantly.Our consultation FirmFoundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland can be accessed online at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/10/30153156/0or in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43970). Itinvites comments on a proposed aim of increasing house building to 35,000 newhomes each year by the middle of the next decade across rural and urban areas.We are alsotaking action now to try to overcome the obstacles, such as land supply andplanning issues, which stand in the way of new development in rural areas,through the work of the Housing Supply Task Force. The task force hasidentified rural housing supply as an early priority and met to discuss ruralhousing supply on 27 November. Further information about the task force can befound online at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Housing/Housing/housing-supply-task-force.

The Scottish Governmenthas shown its on-going commitment to the work to tackle violence against women,including domestic abuse through the allocation of more than £40 million over thenext three years to this agenda. For example, both the Violence Against Women Fundand the Children’s Services Women’s Aid Fund will continue, as well as continuedfunding for Scottish Women’s Aid. We are also providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review2008-11.

It is the responsibilityof each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to iton the basis of local needs and priorities taking into account its statutory obligationsand the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the ScottishGovernment’s key strategic objectives and national outcomes.

As part of awide-ranging strategy to combat domestic abuse, the Scottish Government ispromoting effective handling of criminal cases, through the development ofoptions for a Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow and the production of a toolkit to encourageinnovation across courts in Scotland. This is underpinned by a protocol on thehandling of domestic criminal incidents, agreed between the police and theCrown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

However,sentencing of those found guilty is solely a matter for judges.

It is widelyacknowledged that many incidents of domestic abuse go unreported to the police.There are a number of reasons for this, for example, victims experience fearand shame as common effects of domestic abuse. In addition, under reporting mayalso be caused by a perpetrator physically preventing a victim reporting thedomestic abuse. A priority for the Scottish Government is to ensure the interests and needs of victims are central to the way thecriminal justice system responds to crime.

There has been a rise in the number of incidentsbeing reported to the police, and this may be attributed to the highlysuccessful publicity campaign, which runs annually from 26 December until theend of January, evaluation of which has shown that over 78% of the populationhave seen or heard of the campaign. The campaign will run again this year.

The Scottish Government’s strategic approach todomestic abuse focuses around the themes of protection, prevention andprovision. All three themes contribute not only to stopping abuse occurring butalso to tackling repeat incidents. We will continue with this approach in thecoming period.

More than £40million has been committed over the next three years to support organisationsworking with women and children and young people who have experienced domesticabuse or other aspects of violence against women.

The following tableshows the Scottish Government’s funding for the Equality Unit and Educationbudgets, to provide support services for women and children affected by domesticabuse and those affected by the broader issues of violence against women(million):

Spending Review 2004		Spending Review 2007
Equality Budget	2007-08   14.4 baseline   16.9 actual allocation	2008-09 18.8	2009-10 20.8	2010-11 21.4	Total 61.0	Increase over 3 years on actual 2007-08 allocation 10.3
Violence Against Women (included in Equality Budget)	7.2 baseline   8.7 actual allocation	9.9 (14%)	11.9 (37%)	12.58 (45%)	34.38	8.28
Education Spending on Violence Against Women (not in Equality Budget)	None	5	3	2	10	10

 

The Scottish Governmentis continually looking to see how it can improve what is done to addressdomestic abuse in Scotland. We recognise that there is under-reportingof incidents of domestic abuse. The increase in reported incidents of domesticabuse may be attributed to more people recognising that all forms of domesticabuse are wrong and reporting such incidents to the police.

The rise in the number of reported incidents may alsobe attributed to the highly successful publicity campaign, which runs annuallyfrom 26 December until the end of January, evaluation of which has shown thatover 78% of the population have seen or heard of the campaign. The campaignwill run again this year.

The Scottish Government’s strategic approach todomestic abuse focuses around the themes of protection, prevention andprovision. All three themes contribute not only to stopping abuse occurring butalso to tackling repeat incidents. We will continue with this approach in thecoming period.

More than £40million has been committed over the next three years to support organisationsworking with women and children and young people who have experienced domesticabuse or other aspects of violence against women.

Yes. The campaignwill run again this year from 26 December 2007 until the endof January 2008.

The SNP manifestomade no commitment to build 30,000 affordable homes over the next three years. In total, the spending plans for affordablehousing over the period 2008-11 are 19% higher than the spending plans for the period2005-08. With the additional funding provided as a result of the Spending Review,we expect to approve over the period 2008-11 more new affordable houses than willbe approved over the period 2005-08. Precisely how many more will depend on howthe social housing sector responds to the proposals in our discussion document,Firm Foundations: the future of housing in Scotland, for achieving better value from available public expenditure.

It is incorrectto say that funding for affordable housing is no longer ring-fenced. Table21.03 of the Scottish Budget document published on 14 November 2007 shows the affordable housing budget for the years2008-11. In addition, there is a further £119.1 million a year for affordablehousing which is ring-fenced in the local government budget.

In total, thespending plans for affordable housing over the period 2008-11 are 19% higherthan the spending plans for the period 2005-08. With the additional fundingprovided as a result of the Spending Review, we expect to approve over theperiod 2008-11 more new affordable houses than will be approved over the period2005-08. Precisely how many more will depend on how the social housing sectorresponds to the proposals in our discussion document, Firm Foundations: thefuture of housing in Scotland, for achieving better value from availablepublic expenditure.

The Scottish Governmentis committed to tackling domestic abuse and ensuring that those affected by itare given the support they need and those perpetrating it are dealt witheffectively. It will continue to look at how it can improve what it does toaddress domestic abuse.

The increase in the number of domestic abuseincidents involving anex-spouse or ex-partner mirror the overall increase in reporting. This increase may be attributed to morepeople recognising that all forms of domestic abuse are wrong and reportingsuch incidents to the police.

The rise in the number of reported incidents may alsobe attributed to the highly successful publicity campaign, which runs annuallyfrom 26 December until the end of January, evaluation of which has shown thatover 78% of the population have seen or heard of the campaign. The campaignwill run again this year.

When an initialevaluation of the Protectionfrom Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 wascarried out in 2003, it was found that the act hadbeen successful in increasing access to powers of arrest. In 2005 thethen Executive wrote to over 180 organisations to remind them of the variouslegal provisions in Scotland designed to protect against abuse. Inaddition to this, during the engagement with key stakeholders during thepassage of the Family Law (Scotland) Bill it was identified that solicitorswere familiar with the 2001 Act. The Law Society of Scotland said in itswritten evidence to the Justice 1 Committee that the 2001 Act “is the principalpiece of legislation containing powers of arrest and is most widely used”.