Chamber and committees

Representatives of the Scottish Government and its agencies have discussed a hydrogen project proposal with Aberdeen City Council on the following dates:

25 November 2011

6 December 2011

17 January 2012

15 February 2012

12 March 2012

20 April 2012

16 May 2012.

Officials have had separate discussions with ITM Power on 13 June and 21 June 2012 on the subject of the company’s plans to increase its presence in Scotland’s energy sector.

The pro-rata share is based on the expected level of investment required from energy suppliers to deliver on their targets under their obligations, as estimated by the UK Government, Department of Energy and Climate Change, and assuming that Scotland achieves a share of that investment proportionate to its population. The Energy Company Obligation is a target for energy companies to deliver measures throughout Great Britain and no regional delivery targets are set by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is working with energy companies, local councils and other partners to develop a national retrofit programme to tackle fuel poverty and maximise energy company investment in Scotland and ensure that they deliver a proportionate share of the obligation here.

The contract for the Northern Isles ferry services will be published on the Transport Scotland website in due course.

The Scottish Government’s Draft Budget for 2013-14 will be published in September. Details of funding for individual local authorities will be set out in the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2013 which will be debated by the Scottish Parliament in February 2013.

Financial information about the Police and Fire Reform Bill is set out in the bill's supporting documents available at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/45701.aspx.

The following table shows payments made under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, broken down by Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division Area Office.

Note: *2011 payments correct as at 29 June 2012.

The Scottish Government is involved in ongoing discussions with the European Commission on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) indeed I met with Commissioner Ciolos recently at the Royal Welsh Show. In addition, Scottish Government officials have had discussions with various EC officials on the subject.

Coupled support is vital for Scotland’s livestock sector and the Scottish Government welcome the provision in the draft CAP regulations that allow it to continue. However, we want to have the option to go beyond the 5% limit being proposed by the Commission.

Our position is guided by the independent Inquiry into Future Support for Agriculture in Scotland, chaired by Brian Pack, which recommended that Scotland be able to use 15% of its direct payments ceiling for coupled payments.

(a) Heroin

According to the Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Use in Scotland 2009-10 (published in 2011) report the number of individuals with problem drug use (opiates and/or benzodiazepine use) was 59,600 individuals.

According to the Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Use in Scotland 2000 (published in 2001) report the number of individuals with problem drug use (opiates and/or benzodiazepine use) was 55,800 individuals.

Additionally, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2010-11 (published in 2012) report estimated 0.3% (9,000 adults) of adults aged 16 to 59 had used heroin in the last year.

The Scottish Crime Survey 2000 (published in 2002) report estimated 0.2% of adults aged 16 to 59 had used heroin in the last year. An estimate of the number of adults for 2000 is not available.

(b) Crack

Estimates for the number of individuals with problem drug use does not include the use of crack.

However, according to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2010-11 report 0.2% of 16 to 59-year-olds self-reported they had used crack cocaine in the last year. This equates to 6,000 individuals.

According to the Scottish Crime Survey 2000 report, 0% of 16 to 59-year-olds self-reported they had used crack cocaine in the last year. This is likely to be due to the small sample size used for data collection. An estimate of the number of adults for 2000 is not available.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey provides data on self-reported drug use in Scotland. The most recent data available is from 2010-11. The closest survey sweep to 1999 is its predecessor, the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) 2000. The SCS used a small sample and different methodology, therefore estimates are subject to large confidence intervals and comparisons between years should be interpreted with caution. It is not possible to show data for a particular month. Household surveys are less effective in estimating problematic opiate and crack cocaine use, therefore separate studies estimating the national prevalence of problem drug misuse in Scotland have been carried out.

Crimes¹ and Offences² Recorded by the Police in Scotland, 1999-2000 and 2011-12

Notes:

1. Crimes consist of non-sexual crimes of violence, sexual offences, crimes of dishonesty, fire-raising, vandalism etc. and other crimes.

2. Offences consist of miscellaneous offences and motor vehicle offences.

The Scottish Government doesn’t produce statistics on the number of homeless people at a point in time. We do however produce statistics on the number of cases assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness over a 12 month period.

During 2011-12, 35,515 cases were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. These 35,515 cases contained a total of 40,255 adults and 17,765 children.

During 1998-99, there were estimated to be around 33,500 cases assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. The corresponding information on the number of adults and children is not available. This information was only collected from 2002 onwards.

For comparison purposes, the relevant figures for each year since 2002 are as undernoted:

Note: 2002-03 = 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003.

Further information on homelessness statistics is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/homelessstats.

The latest available data for the number of lone parent families comes from the Labour Force Survey dataset for January-March 2012.

The number of lone parent families in Scotland during the period January to March 2012 was 173,000. During the period January to March 1999 in Scotland, the number of children living in a lone parent family was 164,000.

Source: Labour Force Survey dataset (not seasonally adjusted)

Note:

1. Lone parent families are those where the household reference person is a parent with dependant children under the age of 16 and is either:

- married but their spouse or partner is not part of the same household, or

- is not married and not living together with any other household member as a couple.

2. Estimates only include those aged 16 to 64.

3. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.