Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’sposition was made clear in the debate on 26 September 2007.http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-07/sor0926-02.htm#Col2087.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-4268 on 25 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Scottishministers are aware that the Big Lottery Fund’s Young People’s Fund has closed forapplications and that the Big Lottery Fund expects all the funds to be committedby November 2007. National Lottery funding is time-limited.

The Big Lottery Fundwill be holding a learning event on Friday 5 October to review the impact of theYoung People’s Fund. The Big LotteryFund have commissioned consultants to carry out a comprehensive five year evaluationof the Young People’s Fund across the UK. The evaluation willassess the impact of each of the four country programmes in meeting their aims andoutcomes, and will examine the impact of involving young people in all areas of the programmes and projects, from evaluation to development, on young people themselves,communities and projects. In addition, the evaluation will also examine the effectivenessof the 32 local panels across Scotland.

The Scottish Government,as part of the national youth work strategy, are committed to empowering young peopleto influence decisions that affect their lives and those of their schools and communities.

Migrant workers areentitled to the same protection from overcrowding and illegal letting as any othertenants. Local authorities are responsible for identifying unlicensed houses inmultiple occupation (HMOs) and ensuring that conditions of licences are compliedwith, including the number of occupants allowed. A number of authorities are workingspecifically to make sure migrant workers are aware of their rights and the lawon private rented housing, and local authority officers are developing contactswith the Borders and Immigration Agency to co-ordinate their efforts.

Overcrowding may alsooccur in houses which do not require an HMO licence, for example where the occupiersare members of the same family. The statutory definition of overcrowding is containedin Part VII of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (the 1987 act). When letting a house,landlords are required to provide a written statement, setting out the permittednumber of occupiers. In addition, the 1987 act places a duty on local authoritiesto carry out inspections as necessary to identify overcrowded houses. People whoseaccommodation is overcrowded may be eligible for assistance under homelessness legislation.

The Scottish Governmentis taking various measures to improve standards in private rented housing and weare keen to explore how the sector can play a greater role in meeting housing needin the future. However, we have no plans to set up an independent inquiry. Localauthorities are required to prepare local housing strategies taking account of thecontribution made by all sectors including private rented housing, which shouldalso cover houses in multiple occupation where appropriate.

The Scottish Governmentmonitors local authorities’ progress via homelessness statistics supplied by localauthorities (referred to in the answer to S3W-4217 on 21 September 2007) and progressreports currently submitted annually by local authorities detailing services developedfor rough sleepers, capacity of these services to meet local needs, outcomes forrough sleepers in their area and an estimate of levels of non-engagement with services.A report on progress with this and other homelessness outcomes will be producedlater in the year.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The latest figuresavailable on Rough Sleeping can be found in the Scottish Government publicationOperation of the Homeless Persons Legislation in Scotland: Quarters Ending 30June and 30 September 2006 (temporary accommodation to 31 December 2006) availableonline at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/03/12095510/0.

Table A1 gives the average number of applications per monthwhere at least one member of the household slept rough the night before applyingfor assistance (based on application made during 2005-6). Data for 2006-07 willbe published in the 2006-07 homelessness statistics bulletin scheduled for publicationon 30 October 2007.

The government believesthat devolution could be extended to a range of areas which could bring Scotland the benefits and flexibility discussed in the whitepaper.

The nationalconversation will allow the people to express their views on areas for furtherdevolution, and the government will consider these as the conversationprogresses.

The following tablecontains the level of School Clothing Grants, broken down by local authority for2005-06. This is the most recent information available at this time centrally.

Gross Expenditureon School Clothing by Local Authority, 2005-06 (£000)

Aberdeen City	224
Aberdeenshire	113
Angus	160
Argyll and Bute	143
Clackmannanshire	81
Dumfries and Galloway	126
Dundee City	318
East Ayrshire	331
East Dunbartonshire	138
East Lothian	91
East Renfrewshire	125
Edinburgh, City of	283
Eilean Siar	36
Falkirk	277
Fife	849
Glasgow City	1,726
Highland	283
Inverclyde	89
Midlothian	100
Moray	54
North Ayrshire	385
North Lanarkshire	541
Orkney Islands	7
Perth and Kinross	74
Renfrewshire	415
Scottish Borders	77
Shetland Islands	19
South Ayrshire	220
South Lanarkshire	660
Stirling	122
West Dunbartonshire	270
West Lothian	310
Scotland	8,647

Source:LFR1 2005-06.

We do not hold theinformation requested centrally.